Keeping our valued volunteers informed
GM’s Corner
In October we celebrate Thanksgiving.
MCC’s guiding scripture for this fiscal year is: Colossians 3:15
“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.”
On Sunday September 15, 2024, I attended LEMC Leamington Evangelical Mennonite Church, then NLUMC and then the Carolinian Wild Church (part of the Mennonite Church Eastern Canada). We met outside of Faith Mennonite Church this time, near the woods. We engaged in a grounding exercise and a scripture verse to meditate on, and then we explored and shared our discoveries with the following provocation regarding reciprocity—what the Lord releases and what is received. God is so good to us. One need only look around us and see the bounty He has provided. I’m also thankful to all those volunteers who help stitch school kit bags and quilts
I’m so thankful for all the Lord has released to me, through my family. I’m thankful for this job and for all of you who make this whole thing work! I am thankful for the staff and all the donors, for without them, we would have nothing to sell to further God’s plans and purposes for those in need, here and abroad.
PennyHanslien General Manager MCC Thrift on Mill
(Courtesy Harrow Fair)
Looking out our front door
MCC Thrift on Mill News
Come for a morning of inspiration as Walking with People in Poverty program staff explain how the program has been impacting lives for the better in the Kitchener-Waterloo area. A question-and-answer period will follow.
When? Tuesday October 8, 2024
session #1 at: 11am-12pm | session #2 at 1pm - 2pm
Where? MCC Thrift on Mill volunteer room
Who will present and give a Q & A afterwards?
Andrew Benson and his team from Walking with People in Poverty
1. Customer satisfaction surveys will be going out October 7–21
2. Next AODA Training Day: Wednesday, Nov 20, 2024 @ 12:301:15pm This is required for all volunteers Ontario-wide. Please see Penny if you have not already taken the training.
3. The Christmas giving campaign will be bees this year instead of ornaments. Customers can give $11.00.
Volunteers Needed:
• We need two receivers on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Please see Ken if you know of anyone.
• We need two to four truck drivers and delivery people rotating Wednesdays and rotating Saturday mornings and afternoons.
• We also need two helpers to put out clothes on Saturday mornings and afternoons, and we need one or two helpers in housewares on Saturday mornings or afternoons.
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
