Annual Church Gathering 2023
Transformed. Inspired. Called.

New and Transitioning Congregations

Église Jésus-Christ Appelle Tous - Provisional Congregation

The congregation officially launched on August 16, 2020 in what was only the beginning of a very challenging season. As a new church plant they faced numerous challenges including the rapid rise in rental costs, the Covid-19 pandemic and the accompanying restrictions on public gatherings. As a result the congregation began meeting via video conference, holding their first in person worship gathering in the summer of 2021. A congregation composed primarily of immigrants and refugees from Swahili speaking countries in East Africa, Église Jesus-Christ Appelle Tous declares their vision in the name of the congregation as they seek to be a church for all people (Jesus Christ calls all).

Église Bethésda Mennonite de Saint-Hyacinthe - Provisional Congregation

The congregation began in February 2020 as a result of the church planting efforts of Mennonite Disciples Mission led by Garant Sungura. Begun by one family, Pastor Ayeba Amuri, his spouse, and their twelve children, the congregation has grown to five families with an attendance of 65 (30 of whom are children). Pastor Ayeba has been a member of the Mennonite church in Africa since 1996, and together with the leadership of the congregation feel strongly that being part of MCEC is like coming home to their family. The congregation includes immigrants from Congo, Central African Republic, Ivory Coast, Cameron, and Chad. The language of worship is primarily French and Swahili.

Hochma, Montreal, QC - Full Membership

The Hochma congregation has been a Provisional Member of MCEC since 2017. Planted as a non-traditional (missionary) church for the marginalized, the congregation formed an overnight “in from the cold” shelter just prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the pandemic their shelter grew rapidly, becoming Care Montreal, the largest shelter in the east end of Montreal. They have a strong group of committed leadership, serve in an under-resourced neighbourhood, and are a powerful example of serving the marginalized of their community.

Hochma is now a full member MCEC as a congregation and will be formally welcomed at Annual Church Gathering 2023.

Shalom Worship & Healing Centre - Full Membership

Planted in 2010 with a small group of eleven adults and meeting at First Mennonite Church, Shalom became a Provisional Membership in 2016. Today Shalom is a congregation of more than 400 – and they are young! They work hard to intentionally articulate an intercultural vision even as they are now still rooted in the rapid growth brought by new immigrants from Eritrea and Ethiopia.

Shalom Worship & Healing Centre is now a full member MCEC congregation. They will be formally welcomed at Annual Church Gathering 2023.

Videos From Partners


This video demonstrates our complicated relationship with single-use plastic. Recorded and filmed on location at Rockway Mennonite Collegiate, Kitchener. http://www.rockway.ca



Discover how lives are being transformed and inspired at UMEI Christian Highschool in Leamington, ON

A call for MCEC Annual Church Gathering from Cesar Garcia of Mennonite World Conference to be a part of a new reality in our global family of faith.

The Master of Theological Studies (MTS) is a two-year degree offered conjointly by the University of Waterloo and Conrad Grebel University College. It is open to persons from a range of academic backgrounds and is designed for those who may be exploring vocations of ministry and service, those preparing for pastoral ministry, chaplaincy, or further graduate studies, and those seeking personal enrichment.

Mennonite Church Canada
Executive Minister Update 2022
Doug Klassen

Meet with Doug Klassen and Tom Poovong and discover how your vocation in life is found where your greatest joy meets the needs of the world.

Mennonite Church Canada
International Witness Director
Jeanette Hanson

Why do you follow Jesus? Jeanette asked this question in some of the areas where MC Canada serves. Discover answers from Laos, Thailand, Phllipines and Myanmar. Witness God's work of reconcilliation in the world.

Mennonite Church Canada
Commonword Bookstore and Resource Centre Director
Arlyn Friesen Epp

Discover with Arlyn and his staff the synergy between retailing and resourcing. Borrow, purchase or download resources. CommonWord will help you find the right resource to inspire, equip, provoke and engage.


Mennonite Church Canada
Climate Action Coordinator
Sandy Plett

Meet Sandy whose work in the church is to gain understanding of the climate crisis and to support and encourage a faithful response to it. She calls us to walk together with hope and joy into this work.



Mennonite Church Canada
Indigenous Relations Coordinator
Jonathan Neufeld

Meet Jonathan as he supports regional Indigenous relations working groups across Canada and is a thought partner and resource as congregations work together to walk a path of reconcilliation with Indigenous neighbours.

Discernment Documents

Skip the print and download the documents to your device. Please download documents prior to meeting.

Download Discernment Documents

  • Discernment Documents *documents required for meeting
    Greetings from Arli Klassen, moderator
    Greetings from Ann L. Shultz, Executive Team Leader
    Vision, Identity and Priority Statement
    Congregational Milestones
    - The Church at Nairn, Toronto United Mennonite Church, Tree of Life/Arbre de View
    Congregational Transitions
    - Eglise Bethesda Mennonite de Saint-Hyacinthe, Eglise Jesus-Christ Appelle Tous, Hochma, Shalom Worship & Healing Centre, Bethel Ethiopian Evangelical Church
    Motions
    Minutes
    Executive Council Actions
    Slate
    New Volunteers on Slate

    Financials *documents required for meeting
    Balance Sheet and Operations
    Restricted Funds
    Legacy Initiatives Fund
    MCEC Bequest Funds - Update and New Directions
    Spending Plan/Budget

    Year in Review
    Mission Office
    Leadership Office
    Pastoral Ministry Transitions
    Pastoral Introductions
    MCEC Staff
    Volunteers
    Mennonite Church Canada
    Mennonite Church Manitoba
    Mennonite Church Saskatchewan
    Mennonite Church Alberta
    Mennonite Church British Columbia

  • Audited Financial Statements
    The internal statements have been revised based upon the audited financial statements. The revised internal statements are not materially different from the ones that have already been circulated. Copies of the audited financial statements and the revised internal statements will be available hard copy at the registration desk at Annual Church Gathering.

Joyfully Transformed, Inspired and Called
Arli Klassen, Moderator

Last April our Annual Church Gathering was a joyful re-gathering of our whole MCEC community, worshipping together with energy, hybrid after two years on Zoom only. We celebrated our new member congregations. We approved new statements on our identity, vision, purpose, values and priorities, leading us forward. We came together then, as now, for fellowship and worship, encouraging and inspiring one another.

Our values of Beloved-ness, Spirituality, Transformation, Community, Hospitality and Peace and Justice keep us grounded in our Anabaptist faith.

It has not been an easy year. The pandemic hastened many trends in our churches and society. Congregations gathered in person, but many in smaller numbers than before, and some much older. Some pastors are very tired. There were changes in MCEC staff with the resignations of our executive minister, Leah Reesor-Keller, as well as Sean East, finance manager, and Yeabsra Agonfer, events and communications coordinator. Congregational contributions for our shared MCEC ministries are declining. Just like Canadian society, MCEC is increasingly diverse in culture, and in separation between rural and urban ways of being.

It has also been a joyful year, seeing God at work among us, even in the midst of navigating change. These pages help us celebrate the joys in our MCEC community:

  • new members in our MCEC community,
  • resourcing of pastors and congregations,
  • congregational anniversaries,
  • pastoral transitions,
  • stronger connections in neighbourhoods,
  • and stronger voices on social justice issues such as the climate crisis and indigenous/settler relations.

We are delighted to have a willing and eager Intentional Interim Executive Team Leader in Ann L. Schultz for this year. We are grateful to have financial resources through the Legacy Initiatives Fund/Schmidt Bequest to assist with sustainability in these changing times.

This is exciting and profound!

Our values of Beloved-ness, Spirituality, Transformation, Community, Hospitality and Peace and Justice keep us grounded in our Anabaptist faith. MCEC staff are using our five new priorities to shape all of their activities: navigating change, developing leaders, intergenerational discipleship, embracing diversity, and seeking peace and justice.

As the MCEC beloved community, we together are transformed by the love of God, inspired by the hope we find in Jesus, and called to action by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is exciting and profound stuff to celebrate together!

- Arli Klassen, Moderator

"Why" Annual Church Gathering?
Ann L. Schultz, Executive Team Leader

Greetings and Welcome to ACG 2023!

It is a pleasure and an honor to serve as MCEC’s Intentional Interim Executive Team Leader for 2023. I thank you all for your words of support and words of challenge during this time of transition at MCEC.

In my early months at MCEC I have been asking the question “why” a lot, as we advance our work together. Using Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle, I have impressed on the MCEC team that when we are clear on why we are doing something, it will inform how we will accomplish our goals and what we need to do to accomplish them.

We gather together to celebrate how God is alive and at work in our churches and our communities both near and far.

As we gather this week-end, I believe it is important for us to reflect on why we have an Annual Church Gathering. As a non-profit entity, we must have an annual meeting to read and correct the minutes of our meeting from last year, approve the audited financial statements, approve amendments and additions to bylaws, and call for nominations for the board and/or receive the reports from the Gift Discernment Committee. It is a tangible way for you, our membership, to hold the MCEC Staff and Board accountable to advancing MCEC’s purpose, vision and values.

While the business is an important and essential element of our time together, MCEC’s Annual Meeting has several other very important “whys?” I offer you some additional reasons of why I believe it is important and valuable to come together for MCEC’s Church Gathering each year.

We gather together to:

  • be reminded of MCEC’s purpose: to energize congregations in worship, discipleship and mission, encourage leaders of hope, vision and transformation and embody God’s reconciling ministry for all creation;
  • reinforce our Mennonite identity;
  • learn about the progress of the Strategic Priorities 2022-2027;
  • celebrate how God is alive and at work in our churches and our communities both near and far;
  • commemorate and welcome new members into our church;
  • honor our diversity and our ever changing landscape;
  • embrace new ways of doing and being;
  • worship, sing and pray together, because “worship and work must be one;”
  • listen to how God may guide us now, and into the future

May you be transformed, inspired and called as we worship and work together. May our time together provide the opportunity for us to see and experience how God is working among us and through us today and into the future, and may it inspire us to “to run the with endurance the race God has set before us….keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.”

- Ann L. Schultz, Executive Team Leader

Thank You to our Gold Level Sponsors

Canadian MennoniteCanadian Mennonite UniversityIn This TogetherINNOVATEKindred Credit Union

Thank You to our Silver Level Sponsors

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical SeminaryCommonWord Bookstore and Resource CentreCompass Refugee CentreConnect CityConrad Grebel University CollegeCredence & CoHidden Acres Mennonite Camp and Retreat CentreMennonite Church Canada International WitnessMennonite Central Committee OntarioMennonite Disaster Service CanadaMennonite MenMennonite New Life CentreMennonite Spiritual Directors of Eastern CanadaMennonite World ConferenceRockway Mennonite CollegiateSilver Lake Mennonite CampTheatre of the BeatWillowgrove

MCEC Creation Care Resource Working Group

MCEC Palestine Israel Network Working Group

MCEC Truth & Reconciliation Working Group