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Authority record
Mennonite Central Committee Archives

MCC Canada Newfoundland and Labrador Program

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1963-2019

MCC Canada’s Newfoundland and Labrador Program began in 1963 when the MCC office based in Akron, Pennsylvania, began transferring responsibility for MCC work in Newfoundland (along with all other Voluntary Service programs in Canada) to the newly established MCC Canada. MCC had been sending Voluntary Service workers to Newfoundland as teachers and nurses since 1954. The Newfoundland Program continued to be administered from Akron until it was taken on by the MCC Canada Executive Office and run through its Voluntary Service program in the early 1970s.

In 1972, the Newfoundland Program was appointed its first resident director on a one-year Voluntary Service basis. The program director provided supervision and assistance to MCC Voluntary Service workers in Newfoundland and Labrador who were teachers and nurses. In 1975, the program began sending Voluntary Service workers to work with the Innu communities on the Labrador coast.

In 1982, when the Maritimes Program separated from the Newfoundland and Labrador Program, the Canadian Programs department took more control of MCC programs in Eastern Canada through the work of a regional director in the province. The program maintained its strong ties with the Voluntary Service department with Voluntary Service placements forming the foundation of programming in Newfoundland and Labrador. The Newfoundland and Labrador Program ended in 2019.

MCC Canada Ottawa Office

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1975 -

MCC Canada’s Ottawa Office was established in 1975. MCC Canada began discussing establishing a “listening post”, modelled after the MCC office in Washington, D.C., in Ottawa in the mid-1960s. Many Mennonites were against active political involvement in Canada, while supporters of the Ottawa Office argued that the Office’s primary function would be to monitor and interpret Canadian government policy to constituents and would address the government only when there was reasonable agreement among Mennonite communities. MCC Canada’s Executive Committee was eventually persuaded, and the Ottawa Office was opened in the nation’s capital in 1975.

By the 1980s and 1990s, the Ottawa Office had addressed a wide range of issues including capital punishment, nuclear weapons, immigration and refugee regulations, and government foreign policy on behalf of the wider Mennonite community. The Office’s communications and interactions with government officials and education of the Canadian Mennonite community were guided and informed by Anabaptist history, theology, scripture, and MCC’s worldwide experience. Questions concerning the relationship between church and state in light of Anabaptist theology were also researched by the Office. The Office has published articles in the Ottawa Notebook (an internal office publication), various Mennonite periodicals, and submitted articles to the Mennonite Reporter, The Mennonite Brethren Herald, The Canadian Mennonite, and The Mennonite.

The Ottawa Office continues to facilitate policy advocacy on behalf of MCC partners, educates constituents about government policy, and encourages constituents to also engage in advocacy.

MCC Canada Peace and Social Concerns Program

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1974 - 2012

The work of the Peace and Social Concerns Program began in 1964 with the temporary MCC Binational Peace and Social Concerns Committee (briefly known as the Peace Committee), which was made up of Canadian and American members and based in Akron, PA. Its mandate included peace education, peace witness, labour relations, identifying social concerns, government contact, and informing youth of alternatives to military service. In 1967, the committee hired its first part-time staff person and began to pursue a more active agenda of nonresistance and peacemaking.

In 1974, a Canadian Peace and Social Concerns Committee became independent of the MCC Binational Peace Section, and in 1975 the Committee expanded to include one member from each of the five provincial MCCs. In 1976, a full-time director of MCC Canada’s Peace and Social Concerns was appointed. Over time, new social concerns were identified and adopted as focus areas for the committee’s mandate; these included Native concerns, lobbying through the Ottawa Office, and women’s concerns. Peace education remained the central mandate of the committee.

In the early 1980s, establishment an official MCC Canada department for national programming was underway. Until this time, the Peace and Social Concerns Committee had been an independent department that reported directly to the Executive Office. In 1981 the committee was renamed the Peace and Social Concerns Program and became responsible to the new National Program Department. This enabled it to initiate broader peace education and respond to new challenges surrounding peacemaking both at home and abroad.

From 1981 to 2012, the program remained a part of MCC Canada’s National Program Department as an official program under various names: Peace and Social Concerns (1981-1996), Peace Ministries (1997-2002), and Peace (2003-2012).

By the 2010s, MCC had begun to integrate peacebuilding activities into other program initiatives and the functions of the Peace program shifted towards advocacy work. In 2012, the Peace Program was succeeded by the Ottawa Office Public Engagement Program.

MCC Canada Quebec Program

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1987 -

MCC Canada’s Quebec Program was officially established in 1987. Even before its official creation as a program, MCC Canada had already established ties with the province. While Voluntary Service workers had been sent to Quebec since the 1950s, MCC Canada became more involved in Quebec in response to the FLQ crisis of 1970. Provincial MCC delegates called on MCC Canada to support the work of churches in Quebec, helping them to become agents of reconciliation between Quebeckers and other Canadians, especially in light of the rising Quebec separatist movement. MCC Voluntary Service workers were sent to the Dixville Home ministry in Dixville, Quebec at this time. In 1973, following consultation, MCC Canada agreed to subsidize a new major project in Quebec, known as the Montreal Project, steadily increasing MCC Canada’s role and presence in the province. The Montreal Project, which became known as the House of Friendship, was a joint project with the Ontario Board of Missions that offered programs for refugees and other immigrants to Montreal; programs were staffed by Voluntary Service workers and included daycare for preschoolers, clubs for boys and girls, coffeehouses and camping programs for youth, women’s meetings, seniors’ programs, and remedial education and language classes. MCC support for the House of Friendship increased in 1977.

In 1979, MCC Canada began exploring possibilities for additional programming in Eastern Canada which included deepening its commitment to Quebec programs. By the early 1980s, MCC Canada had nearly doubled its funding for programs in Eastern Canada. In 1984, greater administrative and programming responsibility was given to Quebec Mennonites at the House of Friendship and MCC Canada began looking for ways to broaden its presence in Quebec through other programs.

In 1987, MCC Canada established an official Quebec Program. The programs at the House of Friendship were expanded to include a camp for children and youth, summer service opportunities, and an expanded Voluntary Service program, encouraging cross-cultural efforts among Mennonites from across the country, and ministry to inmates and ex-inmates.

MCC Canada’s National Program Department is responsible for MCC programs in Eastern Canada through the work of a regional representative in the province.

MCC Canada Restorative Justice Program

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1975 -

MCC Canada’s Restorative Justice program began with the establishment of the Offender Ministries program in 1975. Leading up to this throughout the 1960s and 1970s, provincial MCCs initiated prison visitation ministries and other offender ministries programs, which were staffed by Voluntary Service workers. The M2 (Man to Man) and W2 (Woman to Woman) programs were among the earliest Canadian MCC programs that aimed to help offenders. Other experimental programs and projects based on the work of M2 and W2, such as the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (VORP), were developed to reconcile victims of crime and offenders. These programs were precursors to MCC Canada’s Offender Ministries national program, which began in 1975. In 1981, the program became part of the National Program Department and in 1983 was renamed Victim Offender Ministries (VOM).

Throughout the 1990s, Victim Offender Ministries developed new and innovative ways of responding to the criminal justice system. Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) began in 1994 to help reintegrate released sex offenders into society. Another initiative called the Victims’ Voice Program began in 1996 and was intended to provide victims of violence with emotional support through a national network of victims committed to advocacy and social change.

Victim Offender Ministries contributed to changes within the criminal justice system in Canada in the first twenty years of the program. By 1996, federal and provincial correctional systems had begun to fund programs related to victim offender reconciliation, mediation, prison visitation, and victims’ advocacy. In response to its success and broadening vision, the program restructured in 1997; a Restorative Justice network made up of provincial MCC Restorative Justice programs including Victim Offender Reconciliation Programs, prison visitation ministries, and Circles of Support and Accountability (CoSA) was established. The MCC Canada Restorative Justice Program works collaboratively with the provincial MCC Restorative Justice programs through the Restorative Justice Network. Since ca. 2007, MCC Canada’s Restorative Justice Program has also worked within the Abuse Response and Prevention Network alongside the MCC abuse response and prevention programs run by MCC British Columbia and MCC Manitoba.

MCC Canada Victims’ Voice Program

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1998-2011

MCC Canada’s Victims’ Voice program began as an initiative of MCC Canada's Victim Offender Ministries program in 1998. Throughout the 1990s, Victim Offender Ministries had developed new and innovative ways of providing support to victims of crime; in 1996, it initiated a voluntary service assignment to create a network of victims committed to restorative justice principles, working together on issues of self-help and healing, advocacy, and social and legal change. In 1998, this new initiative became known as the Victims’ Voice Program. Its mandate was to give victim-centred, emotional support programming to victims of violence while building a national network of victims committed to advocacy and social change. The program was guided by restorative justice principles, and allowed people to work together on issues of self-help, healing and advocacy.

The Victims’ Voice program attracted significant attention from government officials, community organizations, and churches. Responding to invitations from legislators, justice and corrections officials, community organizations, and churches, the program coordinator traveled across Canada presenting a victim’s perspective on criminal and restorative justice. Victims’ Voice also worked with other MCC Canada Restorative Justice programs and MCC-related agencies including prison visitation ministries, victim offender reconciliation programs, and conflict resolution agencies across Canada. A significant activity undertaken by Victims’ Voice during its mandate was its publication of the newsletter, Pathways. The newsletter's target audience included family survivors of homicide and aimed to create and maintain a support network for them. The program also published a blog titled Lemonaide, which by 2010 reported heavy user interaction.

Ca. 2000, Victims’ Voice became an autonomous program within MCC Canada’s National Program Department, acting independently of the Restorative Justice Program. The program coordinated its own activities and initiatives during this time, which included the Victim’s Companion Program and the Safe Justice Encounters Program. The Victims' Voice program also served an advisory role for various victim advocacy and justice organizations.

The Victims’ Voice program ended in 2011 when the Program Coordinator position was vacated. Although the program ended, MCC Canada continued its activities of supporting victims within the Restorative Justice program with the intention that future support would be managed through grants and new initiatives within that program.

MCC Canada Women’s Concerns Program

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1987-2007

MCC Canada’s Women’s Concerns program came out of the work of the MCC Binational Committee on Women’s Concerns, which was established to guide the work of the MCC Binational Peace Section Task Force on Women in Church and Society in 1973. The Binational Committee on Women’s Concerns consisted of members from the U.S. and, beginning in 1975, also members from Canada. The Canadian members reported to MCC Canada’s Peace and Social Concerns Committee, which had recently become independent of the MCC Binational Peace Section. The Binational Committee was concerned about the representation of women and their needs within MCC programs.

Following reviews of the Binational Committee in 1980 and 1982, a permanent Binational Committee on Women’s Concerns was established; it reported to and received funding from both the MCC Binational Peace Section and the MCC Canada Peace and Social Concerns Committee. A half-time staff person was appointed to the program in 1984 and the goals of the program expanded to focus on family violence, working towards more equal male/female representation in leadership positions within MCC, and greater dialogue with provincial directors in order to work together on women’s concerns.

MCC Canada’s newly established National Program Department (established in 1981 as the Canadian Programs Department) aimed to prioritize the work of the Committee on Women’s Concerns throughout the mid-1980s while significant momentum was developing for MCC Canada to establish its own program independent of the MCC Binational program. By 1988, an MCC Canada Women’s Concerns program had been established as an autonomous program under MCC Canada’s National Program Department; it worked alongside, but separately from, the Binational Committee on Women’s Concerns (which continued to exist until 1991).

In 2003, the mandate of the MCC Canada Women’s Concerns program was revised as the program began working with the Women’s Network, a network of provincial MCC Women’s Concerns Committees. The national program also officially changed its name to “Women’s Network” and began to serve as the Network’s national body. Ca. 2007, the national program was disbanded while many of its functions and activities continued within the MCC Canada Abuse Response and Prevention Network, a network of MCC abuse response and prevention programs run by MCC British Columbia and MCC Manitoba working together with MCC Canada’s Restorative Justice Program.

MCC Low German Programs

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1977 -

MCC’s initial relief and development work with Low German Mennonites in Mexico began in the 1950s following a drought. Relief work was handed over to other Mennonite missions and service agencies in the Cuauhtemoc area until 1973 when MCC Canada formed the Mexico Concerns Advisory Committee (1973-1975), later renamed the Kanadier Mennonite Colonization Committee (1975-1977). The Committee was active in Low German Mennonite Communities in Mexico.

In 1977, the Kanadier Concerns Program was initiated under the direction of Arthur Driedger, Overseas Director and former MCC Manitoba director, under the umbrella of MCC Binational. The program’s mandate was to address the challenges of social, economic and cultural change in Low German Mennonite colonies, support community projects and education initiatives, and to assist migrant families from the colonies as they adapted to cultural and social realities in Canada. In 1981, MCC Canada assumed control and responsibility over Kanadier programming in northern Mexico in addition to the work of the program that occurred in Canada. MCC Canada’s Kanadier Concerns Program became more independent of the Binational Kanadier Program although it continued to work under the Binational Overseas Services Department.. MCC Canada’s program’s relationship with the Akron office gradually took on a more consultative nature in the 1990s.

An early initiative of the Kanadier Concerns program was the publication of Die Mennonitische Post, a German-language newspaper printed bi-weekly in Steinbach, Manitoba, and distributed in Mexico, Bolivia, Belize, Argentina, Paraguay, Canada, and the USA. The first issue was published on April 21, 1977 with Abe Warkentin as editor, under a separate board responsible to MCC Canada. A supplemental monthly publication for children and youth titled Das Blatt Fur Kinder und Jugend was added in 1989.

The Kanadier Concerns Programs were renamed Low German Programs following a 2001 program review. Following 2012 restructuring within MCC Canada and the dismantling of MCC Binational, Low German Programs in northern Mexico became the responsibility of MCC in Mexico, and MCC Canada's National Program Department became responsible for Low German programs in Canada.

Low German Programs continue to provide services to Low German-speaking Mennonites internationally and through the provincial MCC’s in Ontario and Alberta (the MCC Manitoba and MCC Saskatchewan Low German programs ended in June 2019 and March 2020 respectively). MCC Canada’s Low German Program continues to publish Die Mennonitische Post and Das Blatt from Steinbach and distribute it around the world in Low German Mennonite communities.

MCC Voluntary Service Programs

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1946- ca. 2011.

MCC's Voluntary Service programs were established in the years following the Second World War. During the Second World War, MCC provided service assignments for men who were conscientious objectors through the Civilian Public Service program (CPS) in the U.S. and the Alternative Service program in Canada. In 1944, a group of women in the U.S. asked MCC to provide a similar form of service opportunity and in response two Summer Service units for women at psychiatric institutions were established. In 1946, MCC developed an ongoing voluntary service program with a set of standards and goals. In the first four years of the program, twelve voluntary service units were organized to do relief and service work with migrant workers, in mental hospitals and juvenile detention centres, to help alleviate teacher shortages, and as part of rural and community development.

In 1948, David Schroeder was appointed by MCC to extend the Summer Service program into Canada; by this point the program included both women and men. By 1959, 98 young people were involved in the Summer Service program in both the U.S. and Canada.

In 1952, Harvey Taves from the MCC Kitchener Office proposed to build on the success of the Summer Service program and developed a year-round Voluntary Service program in Canada. The first year-round Voluntary Service workers began work at the Ontario Hospital in 1953. Taves also developed Voluntary Service opportunities for teachers and nurses at an MCC-run foster home, clinics, and hospitals in Newfoundland. Voluntary Service opportunities quickly multiplied; between 1940 and 1970, over 900 Canadians served at least one year in the Voluntary Service program.

Newly established, MCC Canada assumed responsibility for administration of MCC Summer Service and Voluntary Service programming in Canada in 1965 and 1967, consecutively. The Voluntary Service program had been established as a united North American program; Canadian projects were administered from the MCC Office in Winnipeg while U.S. and International projects were administered from the MCC Office in Akron. The program operated as one until 1975, when MCC added a U.S. Ministries section to oversee programming in the U.S. The program divided by country and MCC Canada and MCC U.S. began to operate Voluntary Service separately, although they continued to cooperate with one another. In 1976, the MCC Canada Voluntary Service program was restructured to became jointly owned by MCC Canada and the five provincial MCC’s.

MCC’s Voluntary Service programs reached their height in the mid-1980s. By 1987, over 160 individuals served across Canada and more than 500 MCC workers served in 50 countries around the world. Voluntary Service workers committed to two-year terms when serving in Canada or the U.S. and three-year terms when serving internationally. MCC Canada also instituted a Local Voluntary Service option which made it possible for people who were unable to leave their homes to serve with MCC through local community endeavors. In Canada, Voluntary Service workers served in many of the national MCC programs including Handicap Concerns, Native Concerns, Women’s Concerns, and Eastern Canada programs.

In 1991, another shift was made in Canada, whereby the five provincial MCCs assumed full and sole responsibility for the Voluntary Service programs in their provinces while MCC Canada remained responsible only for Voluntary Service programs in parts of the country without provincial coordinators, like Eastern Canada. While resulting in the loss of a single national Voluntary Service program in Canada, MCC Canada’s Voluntary Service program continued to provide some overall direction and coordination to the provincial Voluntary Service programs at the national level.

Throughout and following the 1990s, Voluntary Service numbers began to fall and new shorter-term MCC service programs including SALT (Serving and Learning Together), Summerbridge, the Summer Service Program, and SOOP (Service Opportunities for Older People) became more popular both in North America and internationally.

In the early 2000s, the term ‘voluntary’ became problematic as changing government regulations required volunteers receiving stipends or allowances to be considered employees, and adjustments were demanded of MCC Service Programs. In 2003, the Canadian Voluntary Service Program dropped the word ‘voluntary’ and was thereafter known as the Service Program to align with terminology already used in the U.S. and International Programs.

The previously titled Voluntary Service Program ended ca. 2011 while MCC’s short-term service programs continue to be popular.

Mennonite Central Committee (1920-2012)

  • MCC US
  • Corporate body
  • 1920 - 2012

In 1920, civil war, famine and disease swept through Ukraine (then known as South Russia) in the chaos that followed the Russian Revolution. Mennonites in Ukraine, who numbered about 75,000, made a plea for aid to their brothers and sisters in faith in Western Europe, the United States and Canada. They sent four men (Benjamin H. Unruh, A. A. Friesen, K. H. Warkentin, and John Esau) to Mennonite communities in the United States to ask for help.
On July 27-28, 1920, representatives from several Mennonite Relief Commissions met at Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Ind., to decide on a course of action. The result was a provisional organization, to be called Mennonite Central Committee, whose purpose was to unite all Mennonite relief organizations and church conferences in the United States and Canada that were interested in responding to the needs in Ukraine. This Central Committee held its first official meeting September 27, 1920, in Chicago, Ill.
Among its first actions, MCC decided to send three men to Ukraine to investigate and begin relief work. They were Orie O. Miller, of Akron, Pa., who would lead the group; Arthur Slagel, of Flanagan, Ill.; and Clayton Kratz, of Perkasie, Pa. After 25 days, they reached Constantinople, a gateway to Ukraine. Slagel stayed in Constantinople, and Kratz and Miller went on to visit devastated Mennonite villages in Ukraine and meet with Mennonite leaders and relief workers. Miller soon returned to Constantinople for supplies, but Kratz stayed to work. Shortly afterward, the civil war was won by the Communists, as the Red Army defeated the White Army and took control of Ukraine. Kratz disappeared and is believed to have been killed at the end of a war that claimed more than 9 million lives. Today, MCC remembers Clayton Kratz as the first MCC worker to give his life in service to others.
From the fall of 1920 to the summer of 1922, MCC operated shelters for Mennonites and other refugees in Constantinople. After repeated attempts to gain access to Ukraine to deliver humanitarian aid, MCC was able to set up feeding kitchens in Mennonite areas in the spring of 1922. While these kitchens served many Mennonites, they served non-Mennonites as well. Those who received food and other aid were chosen on the basis of need. From 1922 to 1923, MCC provided survival rations to 75,000 people, 60,000 of whom were Mennonites. MCC also provided 50 tractors and 200 horses for Ukrainian Mennonite farmers.
In the mid-1920s, MCC concluded its work in Ukraine as the famine subsided. By the end of its relief efforts, MCC had received and used nearly $1.3 million in funds, clothing and food from Mennonites in the United States and Canada. There were still needs, however, and during the 1930s, MCC helped about 2,000 Ukrainian Mennonite refugees resettle in Paraguay. As part of this effort, MCC was legally incorporated in 1937 in Akron, Pa., where its U.S. national office is still located today.
Since World War II, MCC has worked with refugees from conflicts all over the world and has branched out into many other areas of service that reflect Anabaptist faith. Among these was the Teachers Abroad Program (TAP) in which more than 650 teachers served in a dozen Sub-Saharan African countries from 1962 through the mid-1980s.
In 1963, MCC was incorporated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as MCC Canada. Today, management of the international work is shared by MCC Canada and MCC U.S. MCC also has eight provincial offices in Canada, of which five are separately incorporated and three are nationally operated, plus four separately incorporated regional offices in the U.S. In addition, there are advocacy offices in New York, Ottawa and Washington, DC. Each year, thousands of supporters of MCC raise more than $35 million to support its international and domestic work, volunteering and shopping at 102 MCC thrift shops, organizing and attending 42 MCC relief sales and making financial and material contributions. Among other efforts, supporters assemble hygiene, infant care, relief, and school kits; donate basic supplies and can hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat for people struggling with war, poverty or natural disasters. These items, which MCC ships from the United States and Canada, total more than $4 million in value each year.

Beginning in 2008, MCC began a process of consultation and discussion concerning the purpose and structure of MCC Binational, MCC Canada, and MCC U.S. called New Wine/New Wineskins. This process was begun with the goal of MCC international programming becoming more effectively and efficiently administered. At the conclusion of the New Wine/New Wineskin process in 2012, MCC Binational was dissolved and ceased to be an MCC entity, which left both MCC Canada and MCC U.S. in the position to act jointly in administering a single MCC International Program that had previously been ultimately administered by MCC Binational.
MCC U.S. continues its commitment to providing national programs within the United States as well as international programs jointly with MCC Canada. National programs such as the Anti-Oppression program, the Immigration Education program, the Peace Education program, and the Restorative Justice program continue to be at the core of MCC U.S.’s activities along with operating an office in Washington D.C. to address national legislative matters important to constituents. MCC U.S. also continues to jointly administer the MCC Shared International Program with MCC Canada and encourages inter-Mennonite cooperation between Mennonite agencies on local and national levels throughout the United States and the world.

All monetary figures are in U.S. dollars and have not been adjusted for inflation.
Current numbers are based on 2016 figures, if available: of 2015 figures, if not.
Tim Shenk, A Brief History of MCC, January 2007. Frank Peachey, revision and update, September 2016
Minutes of the first meeting of the Mennonite Central Committee, pg. 53, Orie O Miller and P.C. Hiebert, Feeding the Hungry, Russia Famine 1919-1925
Minutes of MCC Executive Committee, January 25, 1930
Gameo. Corporación Paraguaya.

Mennonite Central Committee (Akron, Pennsylvania)

  • MCC US
  • Corporate body
  • 1920 -

In 1920, civil war, famine and disease swept through Ukraine (then known as South Russia) in the chaos that followed the Russian Revolution. Mennonites in Ukraine, who numbered about 75,000, made a plea for aid to their brothers and sisters in faith in Western Europe, the United States and Canada. They sent four men (Benjamin H. Unruh, A. A. Friesen, K. H. Warkentin, and John Esau) to Mennonite communities in the United States to ask for help.
On July 27-28, 1920, representatives from several Mennonite Relief Commissions met at Prairie Street Mennonite Church in Elkhart, Ind., to decide on a course of action. The result was a provisional organization, to be called Mennonite Central Committee, whose purpose was to unite all Mennonite relief organizations and church conferences in the United States and Canada that were interested in responding to the needs in Ukraine. This Central Committee held its first official meeting September 27, 1920, in Chicago, Ill.
Among its first actions, MCC decided to send three men to Ukraine to investigate and begin relief work. They were Orie O. Miller, of Akron, Pa., who would lead the group; Arthur Slagel, of Flanagan, Ill.; and Clayton Kratz, of Perkasie, Pa. After 25 days, they reached Constantinople, a gateway to Ukraine. Slagel stayed in Constantinople, and Kratz and Miller went on to visit devastated Mennonite villages in Ukraine and meet with Mennonite leaders and relief workers. Miller soon returned to Constantinople for supplies, but Kratz stayed to work. Shortly afterward, the civil war was won by the Communists, as the Red Army defeated the White Army and took control of Ukraine. Kratz disappeared and is believed to have been killed at the end of a war that claimed more than 9 million lives. Today, MCC remembers Clayton Kratz as the first MCC worker to give his life in service to others.
From the fall of 1920 to the summer of 1922, MCC operated shelters for Mennonites and other refugees in Constantinople. After repeated attempts to gain access to Ukraine to deliver humanitarian aid, MCC was able to set up feeding kitchens in Mennonite areas in the spring of 1922. While these kitchens served many Mennonites, they served non-Mennonites as well. Those who received food and other aid were chosen on the basis of need. From 1922 to 1923, MCC provided survival rations to 75,000 people, 60,000 of whom were Mennonites. MCC also provided 50 tractors and 200 horses for Ukrainian Mennonite farmers.
In the mid-1920s, MCC concluded its work in Ukraine as the famine subsided. By the end of its relief efforts, MCC had received and used nearly $1.3 million in funds, clothing and food from Mennonites in the United States and Canada. There were still needs, however, and during the 1930s, MCC helped about 2,000 Ukrainian Mennonite refugees resettle in Paraguay. As part of this effort, MCC was legally incorporated in 1937 in Akron, Pa., where its U.S. national office is still located today.
Since World War II, MCC has worked with refugees from conflicts all over the world and has branched out into many other areas of service that reflect Anabaptist faith. Among these was the Teachers Abroad Program (TAP) in which more than 650 teachers served in a dozen Sub-Saharan African countries from 1962 through the mid-1980s.
In 1963, MCC was incorporated in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as MCC Canada. Today, management of the international work is shared by MCC Canada and MCC U.S. MCC also has eight provincial offices in Canada, of which five are separately incorporated and three are nationally operated, plus four separately incorporated regional offices in the U.S. In addition, there are advocacy offices in New York, Ottawa and Washington, DC. Each year, thousands of supporters of MCC raise more than $35 million to support its international and domestic work, volunteering and shopping at 102 MCC thrift shops, organizing and attending 42 MCC relief sales and making financial and material contributions. Among other efforts, supporters assemble hygiene, infant care, relief, and school kits; donate basic supplies and can hundreds of thousands of pounds of meat for people struggling with war, poverty or natural disasters. These items, which MCC ships from the United States and Canada, total more than $4 million in value each year.

All monetary figures are in U.S. dollars and have not been adjusted for inflation.
Current numbers are based on 2016 figures, if available: of 2015 figures, if not.
Tim Shenk, A Brief History of MCC, January 2007. Frank Peachey, revision and update, September 2016

Mennonite Central Committee Canada

  • MCC CA
  • Corporate body
  • 1963-

MCC Canada is a peace, relief, and service agency of Canadian Mennonites and Brethren in Christ. It was founded in December of 1963 through the merger of seven regional Mennonite and Brethren in Christ service organizations: the Non-Resistant Relief Organization (NRRO), the Canadian Mennonite Relief Committee (CMRC), the Canadian Mennonite Relief and Immigration Council (CMRIC), the Conference of Historic Peace Churches (CHPC), the Historic Peace Church Council of Canada (HPCCC), Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS), and the MCC Binational Kitchener Office. This merger into one national inter-Mennonite body in Canada was intended to allow for more effective use of time, volunteers, and resources in conducting relief work.

Upon establishment, MCC Canada worked closely with MCC Binational (also known as MCC International); MCC Canada conducted most of its overseas relief and development work through MCC Binational, while all Canadian programs were administered by MCC Canada. MCC Canada was given a broad mandate to work in the areas of peace education, relief and development, voluntary service, immigration, government lobbying, and other areas of concern. Provincial MCC offices were also established to work alongside but independent of MCC Canada in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario.

Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, MCC Canada’s activities expanded, especially in terms of the number of national programs administered across the country. MCC Canada’s Canadian Programs Department established programs to raise awareness on peace and other social issues, to advocate on behalf of Indigenous communities, to bring reconciliation into the justice system, to assist people with disabilities, to bring attention to women’s concerns, and to provide resources for those experiencing economic hardship. In 1976, MCC Canada established a Food Bank as a means of channeling surplus grains grown by Mennonite farmers to countries around the world. In 1983, this Food Bank became the Canadian Foodgrains Bank. Since 1969, MCC Canada has received matching grants from the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) of the Canadian government to administer its many programs.

In the late 1970s, conversations began between MCC Binational and MCC Canada regarding responsibility for MCC international programs. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, some MCC international programs were transferred from MCC Binational to MCC Canada; these included the Kanadier Concerns program, USSR Mennonite program, Refugee Sponsorship program, some control over the delivery of material aid overseas, and the Ten Thousand Villages program in Canada.

Beginning in 2008, MCC began a process of consultation and discussion concerning the purpose and structure of MCC Binational, MCC Canada, and MCC U.S.; this process was called New Wine/New Wineskins. The goal was to more effectively and efficiently administer MCC’s international programming. At the conclusion of the New Wine/New Wineskin process in 2012, MCC Binational was dissolved and ceased to be an MCC entity, leaving MCC Canada and MCC U.S. to jointly administer a single MCC International Program.

MCC Canada continues to provide national programs within Canada and deliver international programs jointly with MCC U.S. The MCC Canada Canadian Programs Department offers programs that address social and economic issues in Canada and form the core of MCC Canada’s mandate. MCC Canada’s commitment to international programming continues through the Shared International Program’s material aid, peace work, and assistance in economic development.

Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section (International and U.S.)

  • MCC US
  • Corporate body
  • 1942-1992

1939 P.C. Hiebert, chairman of Mennonite Central Committee, chaired the new Mennonite Central Peace Committee (or Commission) – a free-standing central peace committee for constituent bodies created following a conference related to the threat of war.
1942 The Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section is established – the direct successor to Mennonite Central Peace Committee. Funding is provided by those constituent bodies who elected members to it. MCC Peace Section and Mennonites generally base the peace position on the biblical understanding of the church, Jesus’ teaching and example and understanding of Jesus’ lordship. The agency’s functions are counselling on problems related to conscription and draft, coordinating constituency witness and representation to government, preparing peace education literature, and mobilizing opinion through a center for study, research and writing regarding the biblical peace position. Harold S. Bender is chairman of the Peace Section and serves until his death in 1962. Jesse Hoover is the first executive secretary.

1948 The first Mennonite Inter-College Peace Conference was held in Chicago on Thursday, December 30, 1948. The purpose of this meeting was to see what college peace organizations can do to work together, to become more acquainted with the work of the Peace Section of the MCC and to fellowship together. - Minutes, Mennonite Inter-College Peace Conference, December 30, 1948
1957 Counseling was begun for conscientious objectors in the armed forces.
1966 After the Korean War, Peace Section tried to deal increasingly with causes rather than respond to forms of conflict. Conscientious objection as a theological position and as a legal right was promoted in Europe and South America.

1969 a Peace Section office in Washington D.C. was established.
1969 Formulation of statements of position and cultivation of witness among other Christians at home and abroad became part of the mandate. NSBRO (National Service Board for Religious Objectors) in Washington became National Interreligious Service Board for Conscientious Objectors (NISBCO) to reflect the presence of board members of the Jewish faith.
1973 A Task Force on Women in Church and Society provides a forum for sharing concerns, ideas and resource material specific to the role of women.
1975 Peace Section is restructured. International and binational peace agenda were separated from American peace agenda. MCC (Canada) Peace and Social Concerns Committee (PSCC), director Dan Zehr and Peace Sections (U.S.), director John Stoner are to deal with responsibilities of national situations. Peace Section (International), director Urbane Peachey, is responsible for binational efforts and involvement abroad.
1977 Mennonite Conciliation Service was started in U.S. Peace Section to support ministries in conflict and aid positive social change.
1979 A new memorandum of understanding focuses the international peace agenda not only for the Peace Section but for MCC and the church at large.

1987 The MCC board takes action in January to transform the 14 member semi-autonomous Peace Section International board into a seven member advisory committee to the Peace Office. This now made the MCC board via the executive committee wholly responsible for the activities of the Peace Committee International. The structure change reconfirmed the MCC philosophy that justice and peace are integral in there work. The International Mennonite Peace Committee secretariat moved from Akron to Bern, Switzerland. - 1987 Workbook.
1992 Acknowledging that peace and justice concerns had become central to MCC U.S. activity, the U.S. Peace Section and MCC U.S. executive committee thought it no longer seemed necessary to delegate these areas of concern to a subset of the board. "Therefore, at the annual meeting in 1992, the board approved a recommendation from the Peace Section and MCC U.S. Executive Committee that the Peace Section board dissolve and transfer responsibility for their activities to the MCC U.S. board. – 1992 Workbook

*The Progressions of Mennonite Central Committee Peace Section 1939-1984 by Frank H. Epp and Marlene G. Epp.

Mennonite Central Committee U.S. (1979-2012)

  • MCC US
  • Corporate body
  • 1979-2012

MCC U.S. was founded at a meeting in Reedley, California, in 1979, partially as a merger between two MCC regional centers already existing in the United States: MCC Central States and West Coast MCC. At that time, MCC U.S. was intended to have functions that paralleled those of MCC Canada which was founded in 1963. The purpose of forming MCC U.S. was for it to assume national responsibility for MCC programs in the United States and to address other uniquely American domestic concerns. At this point, MCC U.S. was not independent of MCC Binational. At its founding in 1979, there was also strong interest in generating constituency and resource support for MCC international programming. Previously, American concerns and programming were handled by MCC Binational staff. International programming continued to remain the responsibility of MCC Binational until 2012.
MCC U.S. administered national programming that has involved voluntary service, urban ministries, immigration and refugee concerns, criminal justice, and Ten Thousand Villages. Many of these programs mirrored MCC programs in Canada but with a uniquely American identity and focus.
In 2000 MCC U.S. separately incorporated from MCC Binational.
Beginning in 2008, MCC began a process of consultation and discussion concerning the purpose and structure of MCC Binational, MCC Canada, and MCC U.S. called New Wine/New Wineskins. This process was begun with the goal of MCC international programming becoming more effectively and efficiently administered. At the conclusion of the New Wine/New Wineskin process in 2012, MCC Binational was dissolved and ceased to be an MCC entity, which left both MCC Canada and MCC U.S. in the position to act jointly in administering a single MCC International Program that had previously been ultimately administered by MCC Binational.

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