Keeping our valued volunteers informed
GM’s Corner
Thank you for welcoming Brian Blake as our new part-time team member. Brian will be filling in on the areas that open throughout the week where we need assistance. With Christmas coming, there will be much to be brought up from downstairs. He will be scheduled to do this as part of his work so that our Christmas merchandisers can locate items to fill the shop.
Filling the shop has been a focus in the shop over the past number of months. Keeping our production up fills the shop and provides an opportunity to generate revenue for MCC. With our donations picking up, we can see that we will continue to focus on keeping everyone busy all the time.
In this month of October, we share time with family and friends at Thanksgiving. I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to each of you for the work that you do with us at MCC Thrift & Gift. There are no words to truly extend our gratitude
to you, but I hope that you know that your role here is never taken for granted. We are truly blessed by your presence.
Debbie Siertsema General Manager MCC Thrift & Gift
We would like to congratulate Art Timmerman on his successful bike ride with Love, Sweat & Gears. Art chose MCCO to be the charity of his choice and raised over $5,200! Please enjoy these few photos and be sure to say “well done” when you see him return in October from his summer holidays!
Training Active Bystanders Workshop
If you are a bystander witnessing a harmful situation, you have a choice to make. Learn how to interrupt harmdoing, generate positive actions by others and be more than a spectator through this important workshop. It is not an expectation of MCC Ontario for volunteers to step into unsafe or risky situations while volunteering. Please always seek out staff should these types of situations arise. The TAB training is to give tools for and reflections about everyday life situations you may come across to feel more equipped to know what to do.
Workshop options:
ONLINE - Wednesday, November 6th – 10:00am - 12:30pm
To register either click HERE or contact Holly McClement – hollymcclement@mcco.ca for support.
IN- PERSON - Thursday, November 7th – 1:30pm - 4:00pm (Only for those in the KW area—there is an inperson TAB training happening at 50 Kent on the 2nd floor)
To register either click HERE or contact Holly McClement – hollymcclement@mcco.ca for support. When you register, please use MCCVOLUNTEER in the payment section. This training is $25 for those who are not MCC staff or MCC volunteers. If you accidentally pay $25 for the training, please let me know and MCC will reimburse you.
A Journey of Covenant and Reconciliation
The following is a special story that is transforming one of the most foundational relationships in Canada—that between Indigenous Peoples and the Christian Church. Your work in MCC’s thrift shops is not only about the good work you do within the shops—you are also supporting important, “big-picture” work through MCC’s local programs, like Indigenous Neighbours.
Adrian Jacobs, a Christian and a member of the Turtle Clan, Cayuga Nation of the Haudenosaunee Six Nations Confederacy, has been a friend of MCC’s since 2007. He had started a job with MCC educating the Mennonite churches on the history of the Haldimand Tract—six miles on either side of the Grand River that was granted to Six Nations back in 1784 by the British Crown as a thank you to Six Nations for supporting the British during the American Revolution. Over the decades and centuries, however, Canada broke their promise and sold that land that was no longer theirs to the point where now only 5% of the original Haldimand Tract is Six Nations’.
Adrian was having lunch with Rick Hill, an Elder and traditional Knowledge Keeper at Six Nations, when Rick asked a curious question: “Do the churches pay property taxes?”
To this, Adrian responded, “No, they don’t.” “That’s great,” said Rick. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had a spiritual covenant with the churches where they could acknowledge Six Nations jurisdiction over their church lands, they could pay a token lease payment—which was the original idea of leasing the land when we first got it in 1784—and they could continue their spiritual work and if they ever decommissioned, the land could revert back to Six Nations.”
The churches Adrian spoke with resonated with
Rick’s terminology of “spiritual covenant,” which resonated with both traditional Haudenosaunee and Christian spirituality—a living testament to respect, responsibility and harmonious coexistence.
Pam Albrecht, a member of Stirling Avenue
Mennonite Church where Adrian first presented the idea of spiritual covenant back in 2007, reflected on the growing desire for reconciliation within the church over the years: “A commitment to, and a desire to move forward with reconciliation was something that felt universal for those who participated in the process.”
They also grappled with the legacy of colonization, recognizing that their faith had been used to justify colonialism and the ongoing harm of colonial systems.
“My encouragement all the time to the churches [is], ‘you claim to be the conscience of the government,’” says Adrian. “Here’s your chance to lead the way! Here’s your chance to move forward with doing the right thing, and maybe the government will catch a drift that that’s possible, and maybe they should be doing that as well.”
In 2024, after years of dialogue, Stirling Avenue
Mennonite Church committed to ongoing token lease payments to Six Nations, a monumental step toward acknowledging historical injustices. Three Mennonite Churches in Manitoba, where Adrian had also worked for years in spreading the message of spiritual covenant, also recently committed to token lease payments to local Indigenous organizations.
In June 2024, Adrian, alongside MCC staff Scott Morton Ninomiya and Laurie Warkentin, organized a Strawberry Thanksgiving and Communion event— combining both Haudenosaunee thanksgiving ceremony and Christian communion. Over 150 people from various denominations and the Six Nations community gathered, reaffirming their commitment to justice and collaboration. “It’s what Rick talked about,” reflected Adrian. “Six Nations and the churches meeting together in a place of unity, a place of pursuit of justice, tangible action being taken and celebration.”
Listen to the full story on Undercurrents by clicking here
We hope that you will be able to join us for our potluck on Tuesday October 8, 2024. It has been a long time since we shared a meal together, and we are so excited. Please ensure that you have signed up on the sign-up lists in the kitchen. These lists will help us prepare for the final numbers so we can make arrangements with the church for tables, chairs, etc. Included alongside your dish that you bring, we are asking everyone to contribute their favourite recipe (dessert, main course, salad or anything you wish). One copy is enough as we will compile them in a booklet.
We are also pleased to announce that during our dinner together, our General Manager, Debbie Siertsema, will be sharing with us photos and stories of her most recent learning tour to the continent of Africa with MCC! Please consider joining us for this special night together. Again, if you have any questions, please respond to this email or speak with Greg at gregorykrauss@mcco.ca or by phone at 519-669-8475.
