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