The Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a relief service, and peace agency representing fifteen
Mennonite
Mennonites are a group of Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian communities tracing their roots to the epoch of the Radical Reformation. The name ''Mennonites'' is derived from the cleric Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland, part of ...
,
Brethren in Christ and
Amish
The Amish (, also or ; ; ), formally the Old Order Amish, are a group of traditionalist Anabaptism, Anabaptist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, church fellowships with Swiss people, Swiss and Alsace, Alsatian origins. As they ...
bodies in North America. The U.S. headquarters are located in
Akron, Pennsylvania; the Canadian headquarters is located in
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...
.
History
Founded in
Chicago, Illinois
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
, MCC held its first meeting on September 27, 1920. Its original goal was to provide food for Mennonites starving in Ukraine. MCC soon realized that it could not help only their Mennonite brothers and sisters and began to help anyone in need. MCC (Canada) was founded in 1963.
The initial work of MCC focused on:
:1920–1925: famine relief work in Ukraine.
:1925–1930: inactive
:1930–1937: colonization of
Russian Mennonite
The Russian Mennonites ( it. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire are a group of Mennonites who are the descendants of Dutch and North German Anabaptists who settled in the Vistula delta in West Prussia for about ...
and
Bruderhof refugees in Paraguay and Brazil.
:1939–present: relief work; initially in Poland, then (1940) England and France.
:1941–1947: administration of
Civilian Public Service (CPS) as part of
National Service Board for Religious Objectors.
:1950s: administration of 1-W service, the replacement of CPS, for draftees classified as
conscientious objector
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for the military–indu ...
s.
Famine in Ukraine
The Mennonites of
Molotschna
Molotschna Colony or Molochna Colony was a Russian Mennonite settlement in what is now Zaporizhzhia Oblast in Ukraine. Today, the central village, known as Molochansk, has a population less than 10,000. The settlement is named after the Molochna R ...
sent a committee to North America in the summer of 1920 to alert American Mennonites of the dire conditions in war-torn Ukraine. Their plight succeeded in uniting various branches of Mennonites to form Mennonite Central Committee in an effort to aid these
Russian Mennonite
The Russian Mennonites ( it. "Russia Mennonites", i.e., Mennonites of or from the Russian Empire are a group of Mennonites who are the descendants of Dutch and North German Anabaptists who settled in the Vistula delta in West Prussia for about ...
s. P. C. Hiebert of the
Mennonite Brethren Church
The Mennonite Brethren Church is an evangelical Mennonite Anabaptist movement with congregations.
History
The conference was established among Plautdietsch-speaking Russian Mennonites in 1860. During the 1850s, some Mennonites were influenced by ...
initially chaired the organization, with secretary Levi Mumaw of the (Old) Mennonite Church and attorney Maxwell Kratz of the
General Conference Mennonite Church. Other Mennonite conferences joined later.
The new organization planned to provide aid to Ukraine via existing Mennonite relief work in
Istanbul
Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...
. The Istanbul group, mainly
Goshen College
Goshen College is a Private college, private Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Goshen, Indiana. It was founded in 1894 as the Elkhart Institute of Science, Industry and the Arts, a ...
graduates, produced three volunteers, who at great risk entered Ukraine during the ongoing
Russian Civil War
The Russian Civil War () was a multi-party civil war in the former Russian Empire sparked by the 1917 overthrowing of the Russian Provisional Government in the October Revolution, as many factions vied to determine Russia's political future. I ...
. They arrived in the Mennonite village of Halbstadt just as
General Wrangel of the
White Army was retreating. Two of the volunteers withdrew with the Wrangel army, while
Clayton Kratz, who remained in Halbstadt (Molotschna) as the
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
overran the village, was never heard from again.
A year passed before official permission was received from the Soviet government to do relief work among the villages of Ukraine. Kitchens provided 25,000 people a day with rations over a period of three years beginning in 1922, with a peak of 40,000 servings during August of that year. Fifty
Fordson tractor and plow combinations were sent to Mennonite villages to replace horses that had been stolen and confiscated during the war. This relief effort cost $1.2 million.
Voluntary service
Lois Gunden volunteered for the Mennonite Central Committee in 1941 and established an orphanage for refuge children of the
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
and Jewish children from
Rivesaltes internment camp. The children that she rescued were malnourished, in poor health, and had lice. She was awarded the title
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations ( ) is a title used by Yad Vashem to describe people who, for various reasons, made an effort to assist victims, mostly Jews, who were being persecuted and exterminated by Nazi Germany, Fascist Romania, Fascist Italy, ...
by
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem (; ) is Israel's official memorial institution to the victims of Holocaust, the Holocaust known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (). It is dedicated to preserving the memory of the Jews who were murdered; echoing the stories of the ...
for her efforts to care for and protect children.
As Civilian Public Service started to wind down in 1946, MCC began exploring a peacetime service program that would continue the types of projects performed by CPS. The new program, Voluntary Service, had several aims.
It would provide young people with a way to voluntarily perform Christian service for up to a year as a means of testifying more widely to the gospel and its way of love and
nonresistance. Projects were to help alleviate human need in a
culturally sensitive
Cultural sensitivity, also referred to as cross-cultural sensitivity or cultural awareness, is the knowledge, awareness, and acceptance of other cultures and others' cultural identities. It is related to cultural competence (the skills needed fo ...
manner. The program would operate as an internship in Christian service, developing the workers' service motivation, witness and religious conviction. It would provide Mennonite young people with an opportunity to express appreciation for the material blessings, religious and other national liberties and to contribute to the well-being of the nation. Finally, it was hoped that some individuals would decide to devote their careers to full-time ministry or missionary service.
The first Voluntary Service unit started during the summer of 1946 in association with the CPS unit at
Gulfport, Mississippi
Gulfport ( ) is a city in Harrison County, Mississippi, United States, and its co-county seat. It had a population of 72,926 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Mississippi, second-most populous ...
.
Activities
MCC was an early proponent of
fair trade through its
Ten Thousand Villages program.
Funds for MCC's worldwide relief and service projects are raised through independent
Mennonite relief sales. Around 45 sales are held throughout the United States and Canada, raising US$5 million annually. Many of these sales feature
quilts handmade by Mennonite and Amish volunteers,
auctions
An auction is usually a process of Trade, buying and selling Good (economics), goods or Service (economics), services by offering them up for Bidding, bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from th ...
, artwork, crafted woodwork, homemade foods, antiques, crafts, plants, children's activities, and musical programs. Most of the goods and labor are donated, and 78.2% of the funds raised go directly into the field.
MCC focuses its
development
Development or developing may refer to:
Arts
*Development (music), the process by which thematic material is reshaped
* Photographic development
*Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting
* Development hell, when a proje ...
efforts in areas such as food security and livelihoods, health, education, peace and justice, and fair trade. It responds to
disaster
A disaster is an event that causes serious harm to people, buildings, economies, or the environment, and the affected community cannot handle it alone. '' Natural disasters'' like avalanches, floods, earthquakes, and wildfires are caused by na ...
situations, as well as focusing its efforts on the longer-term issues of economic and social policy.
MCC maintains offices in both Washington, D.C., and Ottawa to advocate to the American and Canadian federal governments, respectively. MCC also has an international advocacy office at the United Nations in New York City. As of 2015,
Ewuare Osayande served as the group's Anti-Oppression Coordinator.
Peacemaking
MCC also takes an active role in advocating for peace both in North America and around the world, seeking "to be a witness against forces that contribute to poverty, injustice and violence." In North America, MCC established the Mennonite Conciliation Service (MCS) in 1979 to encourage Mennonites and others to actively pursue peaceful resolution of conflicts. MCS was a pioneer in the burgeoning field of
conflict resolution
Conflict resolution is conceptualized as the methods and processes involved in facilitating the peaceful ending of Conflict (process), conflict and Revenge, retribution. Committed group members attempt to resolve group conflicts by actively co ...
in the 1980s and director
Ronald S. Kraybill led early mediation workshops in Northern Ireland which eventually led to the establishment of the Northern Ireland Mediation Network.
John Paul Lederach took over MCS in 1989 when Kraybill moved on to South Africa, and in the years following, MCC moved active peace building into the forefront of its work abroad.
Responding in part to the establishment of active Mennonite-led peace centers that had emerged in the 80s and 90s, such as the Conflict Transformation Program at
Eastern Mennonite University, the Lombard Mennonite Peace Center in Lombard, Illinois, a group of peace builders at
Fresno Pacific University, the Peace and Justice Network of the Mennonite Church and other activities, MCS was discontinued in 2004. But the Peace Office of MCC continues to advocate peace interests broadly in the US and in MCC programming abroad. Internationally, MCC partners with local organizations to reduce violence in the aftermath of conflict or
war.
MCC advocates for exemption from military service. Alternative service for
conscientious objectors
A conscientious objector is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of conscience or freedom of religion, religion. The term has also been extended to objecting to working for ...
is promoted as their witness to New Testament Scriptures. MCC keeps a "conscientious objector registry" in Canada, taking statements from Canadians in the hope that they will be recognized by the Canadian government should the government restart
drafting citizens into the military.
Affiliated organizations
*
Beachy Amish Mennonite Churches
*
Brethren in Christ Church
*
Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches
The Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches (CCMBC) is a Mennonite Brethren denomination in Canada. It is a member of the Mennonite World Conference and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Offices of the Canadian Conference of Menn ...
*
Mennonite Church Canada
Mennonite Church Canada, informally known as the General Conference, is a Mennonite denomination in Canada, with head offices in Winnipeg, Manitoba. It is a member of the Mennonite World Conference and the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
Histor ...
*
Mennonite Church USA
*
Mennonite Disaster Service
*
U.S. Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches
*
Rosedale Network of Churches
See also
* ''
More-with-Less Cookbook''
Notes
References
*Gingerich, Melvin (1949), ''Service for Peace, A History of Mennonite Civilian Public Service'', Mennonite Central Committee.
*Haury, David A. (1979), ''The Quiet Demonstration: The Mennonite Mission in Gulfport, Mississippi'', Faith and Life Press.
*
External links
*
Mennonite Central Committeein ''Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online''
{{Authority control
Christian nonviolence
Foreign charities operating in Ukraine
International charities
Mennonitism in Canada
Mennonitism in Manitoba
Mennonitism in the United States
Peace organizations based in Canada
Peace organizations based in the United States
Religious service organizations
Anabaptist organizations
Russian Mennonite diaspora in Canada
Russian Mennonite diaspora in the United States
Russian Mennonite diaspora in Manitoba
Organizations based in Winnipeg