Being fired as Ontario MB Conference Executive Director helps Ed Willms understand "a bit" of the reality facing LGBTQ+ people in the church today

2026 is the 5th anniversary of when over 450 Canadian MBs signed an open letter asking the Canadian Conference of MB Churches to discuss the issue of LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation. The Conference said no. Since that time, eight MB congregations have left or been expelled from the Conference for becoming welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people—as reported by this blog. Five years later, I decided to check in with those congregations and former leaders to hear their reflections and see how things are going. That includes Ed Willms, who was fired as Executive Director of the Ontario MB Conference for holding a discussion about LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation.

Ed Willms had high hopes when he organized a 2022 event for about 45 pastors and other leaders from the Ontario Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches (ONMB) to talk about LGBTQ+ welcome and inclusion. 

Willms, then Executive Director of ONMB, wanted to provide a “safe place to listen, learn and hear from each other on a topic we all know needed more discussion, and reflect together on what type of family of churches we envision growing into in the days ahead.”  

Regrettably for Willms, his effort resulted in his being terminated without cause by the ONMB board.

Today, Ed is Lead Pastor at Emmanuel Mennonite Church in Abbotsford, B.C. I caught up with him recently to hear his reflections on that experience in Ontario.

“It was a traumatic experience, but I felt God’s presence during that time,” he said, adding he felt God’s providence as he and his wife moved to B.C., how he first found work as a truck driver before being hired at Emmanuel.

Driving a truck was a gift since it “gave me time to reflect on what had happened, the trauma and loss,” he said.

And it was a loss, he added—like losing a loved one. “I felt called to that work,” Ed said. “I had given so much of my heart, mind and passion to it. To have it suddenly taken away was a shock.”

That included the loss of relationships that had once been close and vibrant. “They just disappeared,” he said. “It was like being shunted out of a family.”

Today, he has come to terms with that loss. “I’m mostly OK about it, but it still saddens me,” he said.

One benefit is how it has increased his empathy for others who have had similar experiences.

“I’m more attuned to that now,” Ed said, adding this has especially helped him understand the losses experienced by LGBTQ+ people—of family, friends and churches.

“My story pales in comparison,” he said, noting he is straight, white and male. “But it helps me understand their reality a bit.”

At Emmanuel, which Ed says is “living into a fully affirming posture as a church,” the task now is to discover what “inclusion means. It’s a journey for our church. I’m learning more about that. What are the biases we carry? How do we address them? How do we ensure marginalized people feel safe and secure with us?”

That includes meetings for congregants where people can address those questions, Ed says, adding this includes not only LGBTQ+ people, but also people with disabilities and people from racialized communities.

“It’s shifting our perspectives,” he says, noting that for him personally, like for the church, “it’s an evolving story. But at its heart is the command from Jesus to love and accept each other and leave any judgement up to God.”

MB Conference wants to minister well to LGBTQ+ people, but not sensing interest in fostering larger conversations about it: Ken Esau of the National Faith and Life Team

2026 is the 5th anniversary of when over 450 Canadian MBs signed an open letter asking the Canadian Conference of MB Churches to discuss the issue of LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation. The Conference said no. In 2022, I started this blog, pausing it in 2024 after my church at the time, River East, was expelled. Five years later, I decided to check in with the eight congregations that left or were expelled to see how things are going. 

I also wanted to check in with Ken Esau, director of the MB Conference National Faith and Life Team. Whatever you think of the MB Conference when it comes to this topic, I give Ken full credit for always responding to my queries for information and presenting the Conference’s view. Unlike some other provincial MB conference leaders, he never ducked a question or failed to reply to an e-mail asking for a response. (Even if the answer was he couldn’t provide an answer.) 

You might not agree with is responses, but he is a model of how to do good media relations—and he helped make this blog more balanced and informative. 

As part of my five-year catch up, I asked Ken: “What is the status of this topic at the Conference? Is the topic still coming up? Are other churches asking about it? What is the Conference position?” As before, he replied. Here's what he said. 

In terms of the status of this topic in our Conference, our churches do want to minister well to all people including individuals who identify as LGBTQ+. However, other than a very small group, I don't sense interest in fostering larger conversations about moving away from historic orthodoxy, revising the Confession of Faith, or making these questions into disputable matters within our family of churches. 

Here is how the NFLT responded to the Open Letter as published in the MB Herald May 12, 2021: 

Recently we have been actively giving more time and effort to this exact question about how our churches can show Jesus’ love more effectively to LGBTQ+ people. We are creating new written resources that provide guidance for how the convictions of our Confession of Faith on sexuality and marriage can be taught and practiced in our churches more compassionately.

We are making other resources (e.g., our 2013 and 2015 Sexuality Study Conferences) more accessible on our website and continuing to gather together key resources to support our churches*. We are revising the existing Confession of Faith’s “Commentary” and “Pastoral Application” sections in order to better clarify the biblical and theological foundations of our convictions and the ways that these convictions can be lived out by all of us today. 

We are partnering with Posture Shift to provide a more loving and missional response to LGBTQ+ people, and we are committed to fostering deliberate conversation groups with MB pastors and leaders who want to explore what application of our convictions means for their contexts. 

In order to improve our ability to listen to our larger MB family, we are introducing a new email account (listeningwell@mbchurches.ca) to receive input from you and others in our MB family about how we can love LGBTQ+ people better. 

In terms of updates related to these commitments: 

2021 Commitment #1: We are creating new written resources that provide guidance for how the convictions of our Confession of Faith on sexuality and marriage can be taught and practiced in our churches more compassionately. The NFLT has distributed to the Provincial Conferences two documents entitled "Loving Well Our LGB Family, Friends, and Neighbours" and "Loving Well Our Trans Family, Friends, and Neighbours"—for provinces to distribute to their member churches. 

Here is a small excerpt of the Preamble to both documents which highlights the importance of a loving welcome combined with honest and winsome invitation: 

You are welcome here—we love you and are glad you are here! Whatever your past experiences of brokenness and alienation, we welcome you here. We hope that you feel our love and concern for you as a person loved by God. 

We believe that it is in the context of deep love within a community that we are best able to hear and respond to this challenging message from Jesus. Jesus is our number one allegiance, and we welcome all people who are interested in Jesus and are considering the possibility of joining God’s beautiful story centred on Jesus. 

We believe that building healthy relationships with each other and serving both inside and outside our community is key to our calling. We want all people inside and outside our community to be free from hostility and physical threats, so if you believe that you are at risk of this here or elsewhere, please let us know. We want hostility and violence to stop. 

We want to be open and honest to you about who we are and what we believe worshipping and following Jesus is about! Like the preamble to some TV shows that provides a content warning, you need to know that we are an alternative community living out an alternative story to the one followed by the vast number of people in our culture. 

We are not simply a social group of like-minded people following the latest cultural trends but an alternative community bowing in front of Jesus. Jesus is writing a beautiful Kingdom story for the whole world, and this, we believe, is the only story that ultimately leads to human and creational flourishing for all people. Worshipping and following this Jesus involves many steps that Jesus describes as “death to self” (cf. Mark 8:34-35) but these hard steps are the pathway to real LIFE! 

We want to place all of our present identities before Jesus and receive new identities more true of us than anything else. Jesus gives us new identities as children of God, citizens of God’s Kingdom, and members of the body of Christ. If following Jesus and living into these new identities is the path to life, it would be unloving to not communicate to you what this looks like—even if it seems profoundly hard. We hope you will see and experience the fullness of life that is available nowhere else but in and through Jesus! 

Because we believe that human and creational flourishing is only possible through Jesus and joining his Kingdom story, we will be inviting you and everyone else who visits us to consider joining this story. We believe that God’s good news story in Jesus is the most important news any person could ever receive so it takes centre stage for us. We are not embarrassed about inviting people to this story because this is central to our calling and mission (cf. Matt 28:16-20). We respect everyone’s right to say no to the invitation, but we will keep spreading wide the good news even if people choose not to respond to it. 

If you respond to the invitation and become a worshiper and follower of Jesus, we hope you will consider baptism and membership within our church community. We believe that the journey of following Jesus and living into our new identities in Christ requires all of us to grow together and become a more faithful church family—seeking first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness (Matt 6:33). If you are (or are open to become) a disciple of Jesus and you can embrace the vision, convictions, and mission of this church family, we would love to have you join our family! 

2021 Commitment #2: We are making other resources (e.g., our 2013 and 2015 Sexuality Study Conferences) more accessible on our website and continuing to gather together key resources to support our churches.  

We did not follow through with this commitment, after recognizing that some of the material associated with the 2013 and 2015 Sexuality Study Conferences was both dated and not reflecting the tone that we are committed to. In addition, we have not actively maintained an updated list of recommended resources since this turned out to be come complex than originally assumed. 

2021 Commitment #3: We are revising the existing Confession of Faith’s “Commentary” and “Pastoral Application” sections in order to better clarify the biblical and theological foundations of our convictions and the ways that these convictions can be lived out by all of us today. 

The "Explanatory Notes" have been completed for Article 3: Creation and Humanity and Article 10: Marriage, Singleness, and Family (both are available on the CCMBC website), but the "Living the Confession (FAQs)" are still in process and hopefully will be posted on the website in 2027. 

2021 Commitments #4 and #5: We are partnering with Posture Shift to provide a more loving and missional response to LGBTQ+ people, and we are committed to fostering deliberate conversation groups with MB pastors and leaders who want to explore what application of our convictions means for their contexts. 

While there was significant energy initially about partnering with Posture Shift (a Christian organization that believes that God calls us to offer His presence, love, care and protection to LGBT+ people” and that “holds to a traditional biblical ethic regarding marriage and sexuality”), some of that energy has dwindled over the past five years. In addition, while we have been open to fostering these deliberate conversation groups with MB pastors and leaders, we do not have any active groups at present. 

2021 Commitment #6: In order to improve our ability to listen to our larger MB family, we are introducing a new email account (listeningwell@mbchurches.ca) to receive input from those in our MB family about how we can love LGBTQ+ people better. This email account is active and the NFLT receives input from our MB family related to these and other questions. 

I hope that this provides an adequate "update" related to how the NFLT at least is engaged in questions about how to love LGBTQ+ people better. We are certainly a work in progress on this question but continue to seek to grow in this area together.

A "choice between choosing to leave or being voted out." Lendrum Mennonite Church in Edmonton leaves Alberta MB Conference

2026 is the 5th anniversary of when over 450 Canadian MBs signed an open letter asking the Canadian Conference of MB Churches to discuss the issue of LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation. The Conference said no. In 2022, I started this blog, pausing it in 2024 after my church at the time, River East, was expelled. Five years later, I decided to check in with the eight congregations that left or were expelled to see how things are going. The most recent to leave is Lendrum Mennonite Church in Edmonton. 

Artisan Church was the first to leave the MB Conference, in 2021. Lendrum Mennonite Church in Edmonton is the most recent, leaving the Alberta MB Conference this year. 

The congregation formally voted to withdraw in May, 2026. The official leaving date was August 31. 

For former Lendrum board member Adrienne Wiebe, “it was a choice between choosing to leave or being voted out. The Alberta MB Conference told us they would have a vote at their AGM in May to remove our church. We debated this and decided to leave on its own terms rather than having the painful and disruptive process of being voted out.” 

Adrienne thinks the decision by the Alberta MB Conference to remove Lendrum “may have been triggered by the listening and exploring process that we did last year to interview every single member and adherent for their perspectives on being a welcoming and affirming church, and about conference affiliation.” 

As a result of that process, Lendrum posted a statement of welcome on its website that says: “All who desire to follow Christ in community are invited to participate fully in the life of the church including membership, leadership, and marriage, without obstacles related to their race, class, ability, family status, sex, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” 

But it was more than that, Adrienne says. 

“For many years, many folks at Lendrum have felt that the MB conference no longer was a fit for us. While the welcoming and affirming church question was one of the key ones, there have been ongoing issues related to the reluctance of the conference to credential any of our pastors, and some other governance and theological regulation questions.” 

Aimee Reimer is Lendrum's current board chair. She agrees with Wiebe’s view of the situation, adding that the board received a letter earlier this year from the Alberta MB Conference asking for clarification about continuing as a member church. 

Aimee says the Alberta MB Conference indicated that if Lendrum wanted to continue as a member of that Conference, it would have to re-engage with the pastoral credentialing process—a process that requires pastors to affirm the MB Confession of Faith as an authoritative guide for faith and practice. That includes upholding the Confession’s statement that marriage is only between a man and a woman. 

As well, its pastors would have to sign the Code of Personal and Ministry Ethics for ABMB Credential Holders. That document not only requires MB pastors to support for marriage as being only between a man and a woman, but also requires them to avoid “any communication or actions (e.g., solemnizing or officiating in a marriage/civil ceremony) which is in conflict with this understanding of God’s vision for the expression of human sexual intimacy.” 

Aimee notes the Albert MB Conference “did not explicitly mention that Lendrum's posted affirming statement was the reason for this letter.” But after some congregational meetings, “Lendrum voted to withdraw rather than be expelled,” she says. 

Lendrum has applied for membership with Mennonite Church Alberta. The vote about their application will take place at the MC Alberta AGM in March, 2027. That will make Lendrum the fourth of nine former MB churches that left or were expelled from the MB Conference between 2021-26 to join Mennonite Church Canada. (The others are River East, FreeChurch and FaithWorks. Jubilee was already a joint MB/MC church when the Manitoba MB Conference expelled them.) 

Kevin Trautwein was pastor at Lendrum from 2014-24. He went through some of those experiences with the Alberta MB Conference. He praises the church for making this decision. 

“There was nothing for them to lose,” he says of Lendrum’s decision, noting there “isn’t much space” in the Alberta MB Conference for having discussions about LGBTQ+. “They can now be honest about who they are as a congregation,” he says.

The Lendrum website still says the church is a member of the MB Conference. That will be changed soon, Aimee says.

 

 

Painful and challenging to leave the MB Conference, but no regrets. Former Artisan Church pastor Nelson Boschman looks back on that experience

2026 is the 5th anniversary of when over 450 Canadian MBs signed an open letter asking the Canadian Conference of MB Churches to discuss the issue of LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation. The Conference said no. Since that time, eight MB congregations have left or been expelled from the Conference for becoming welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people—as reported by this blog. I paused the blog in 2024, after my church at the time, River East, was expelled. Five years later, I decided to check in with those congregations to hear their reflections and see how things are going. 

Artisan Church in Vancouver was the first to leave. Nelson Boschman was pastor at that church, which he co-founded in 2009, when it left the British Columbia MB Conference in 2021. Here are his thoughts on that experience, five years later. 

We asked to leave out of a desire to become fully inclusive of our LGBTQ+ siblings. My role at the time was Pastor of Spiritual Formation, a position I stepped down from in November 2024. 

Currently, I am privileged to work as a spiritual director, a musician, a writer, and retreat facilitator. These streams all play well with the others, and I’m deeply grateful to get to do this work. 

Looking back, I recall how painful and challenging it was to leave the MB Conference—the denomination I grew up and served in, and was formed by for so many years. But it was a necessary ending, and I have no regrets. 

I feel proud of the Artisan community and its leadership for taking that important step together, and for the way they have sought to live into what it means to not only be fully inclusive, but to create a space of belonging and meaningful participation for folks who identify as LGBTQ+. 

The experience shaped me to continue following Christ into greater openness, wider inclusion, and true freedom and liberation for those who have been excluded, marginalized, and/or harmed by the Church as a whole—not just MBs—for any reason.   

Nelson plans to tell more of his story around that experience in his next book, The Art of Awe: Wonder-Filled Practices for the Weary Soul (coming June 2027, published by Herald Press).    

Peter Mogan was moderator at Artisan when it left the MB Conference in 2021. Click here to read his thoughts five years later.

"In a good place now." Five years later, Artisan Church moderator Peter Mogan reflects on leaving the MB Conference

2026 is the 5th anniversary of when over 450 Canadian MBs from signed an open letter asking the Canadian Conference of MB Churches to discuss the issue of LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation. The Conference said no. Since that time, eight MB congregations have left or been expelled from the Conference for becoming welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people—as reported by this blog. I paused the blog in 2024, after my church at the time, River East, was expelled. Five years later, I decided to check in with those congregations to hear their reflections and see how things are going. 

Artisan Church in Vancouver was the first to leave the MB Conference, in 2021, which they did voluntarily. Peter Mogan was moderator of the church at the time. I talked to him recently to get his thoughts on that experience, and how the Church is doing now. 

When Artisan came out as taking what it called its “third way” posture regarding same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ inclusion through its Milestone Statement, the congregation did not divide and fall apart—as some had warned would happen. 

“We lost maybe five percent,” he said, noting most just quietly left. 

It happened during Covid, he said, adding that keeping track of who was there and who wasn’t was hard due to restrictions on gathering.

Since making that decision, the church “has prospered,” Mogan said. “We’ve substantially grown.” 

Today, attendance today is around 200-250 people with about 400 in total calling Artisan home, he says. 

That includes maybe a dozen same-sex couples, along with other members of the LGBTQ+ community. 

Along with them, the church attracted a group they hadn’t expected, Mogan says: Parents of LGBTQ+ and trans children looking for a home where they could be accepted and not judged. 

Although Artisan is known in MB circles for its pioneering work in the Conference on LGBTQ+ affirmation, Mogan says the church is about more than that—and always has been. 

“We don’t want to be defined by our posture on same sex relationships,” he says. “Our primary focus is ‘to join God in the renewal of all things’ which we do through community, healing and imagination. Our Milestone Statement has led us to lean into third way thinking and practice.” 

Today, Artisan is independent and a member of the Jesus Collective, a network of churches and ministry leaders that provides resources and other support for leaders and communities across North America who seek to be Jesus-centered. 

“I think we have found the right posture,” Mogan said, adding the Church has retained its Anabaptist roots and theology. 

Looking ahead, Mogan hopes that Artisan will host conversations on challenging topics that are often divisive in the Church. “We want to create safe places for that,” he says. 

Conversations like that were met with disapproval by the BCMB Conference before they left, he says. “They did not want us to do that.” 

The Church is "in a good place now . . . we are healthy in every way church health can be measured,” Mogan says. “We are sad about having to leave the MB Conference. That was never our goal.”

Nelson Boschman was pastor at Artisan, which he co-founded in 2009, when it left the MB Conference in 2021. Click here to read his thoughts, five years later.

Time to Tell Five Years Later: It all begins with John Unger

 

2026 is the 5th anniversary of when over 450 Canadian MBs from over 40 churches signed an open letter asking the Canadian Conference of MB Churches to discuss the issue of LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation. The Conference said no. Since that time, eight MB congregations have left or been expelled from the Conference for becoming welcoming and affirming of LGBTQ+ people—as reported by this blog. I paused the blog in 2024, after my church at the time, River East, was expelled. Five years later, I decided to check in with those congregations to hear their reflections and see how things are going. 

It really all begins with John Unger in 2013. 

Other MBs may have spoken privately about LGBTQ+ before that year, but it was John—a retired MB pastor—who was the first to go public at a national MB study conference when he shared the story of his family with an LGBTQ+ child. 

At the conference, which affirmed and upheld the MB Conference’s stance on marriage as being only between a man and a woman, John said the tone of any discussion about homosexuality changes when “the response is to a person, not an issue.” 

He went on to share about the phone call he received from his daughter when she asked him to bless her and her same-gender partner at their wedding. 

“She said, I don't want you to say a bunch of words that mean nothing, Dad,” he recalled. “I need your blessing.” 

He did it, describing the blessing as being like a shade tree, a place of gathering and belonging. At the same time, he saw his family also as a shade tree for his daughter and others who feel exposed to the harsh sun of judgement for being LGBTQ+. 

“Jesus said God blesses everyone with sun and with rain, and wants us to do the same,” he said at the conference, adding he has learned to respect the different ways God works in people’s lives. 

Despite the call from John and others at the conference to open up conversation about LGBTQ+, the MB Conference held firm in its belief about marriage as outlined in the Confession of Faith—despite some at the event noting the Confession has been changed before, such as with divorce. 

After sharing his story, John and his partner, Merrill, were approached by members of the MB church across the country who wanted to tell their heartbreaking stories of families divided because someone came out as LGBTQ+, of LGBTQ+ people being rejected by their churches, and fear, depression, suicide. 

They also heard from the parents and grandparents of LGBTQ+ children and grandchildren, and from pastors who were struggling to find ways to respond. 

Stories that were, John said, “largely unheard, silenced by secrecy and fear.” 

Eight years later, John was a member of a small group of current and former MB pastors and other leaders, called The Edge, who met for conversation and support about the topic of LGBTQ+. 

In 2021, when the BC MB Conference decided to expel Artisan Church (Artisan left before that could happen), the group issued an open letter to the MB Conference requesting a national discussion about the topic. John put his name at the bottom of the letter. 

Through the letter, John secured a meeting with the National Faith and Life Team (NFLT), later sharing his remarks to them in an article in Anabaptist World. 

In his remarks to the NFLT, John said that ever since he shared his family’s story, people had been coming up to him and his wife, Merrill, to share their own stories. 

“Many came to us in secret for fear of what will happen if people in their church discover their child is gay, because they know they will lose all their church friends if they do,” he said. 

“These are your churches,” he told Conference leaders. “Why are people afraid to come to us and tell us what they are struggling with?” 

Stories like that was why the open letter was written, he said, to create a safe place for a family discussion. 

“There is a hunger for such a conversation. It will take time, maybe years. But we need to start,” he told them. 

The MB Conference, though the NFLT, said no.  

The MB Conference did, however, say it wanted to listen well. That led John and others to start A Time to Listen, an online forum where LGBTQ+ MBs and their families and allies could tell their stories. It ran until 2023. 

Since that time, John has kept involved in the topic, mostly from a more background role—although he did help organize the first Open Space event in Winnipeg in 2023. 

I caught up with John recently to ask for his reflections on that time. He acknowledged that the tide hasn’t turned with respect to LGBTQ+ and the MB Conference. In fact, it has perhaps stiffened opposition to the call for greater conversation about welcome and affirmation of LGBTQ+ people. 

But he has no regrets about his efforts to start a conversation. “I’m not sorry I did it,” he says. 

As a result of his going public about his family, and the creation of A Time to Listen, “a lot of stories have been told,” he says, adding while the MB Conference is closed to the topic, many individual MBs continue to seek him out to talk about it. 

“Pastors and others often approach me about it,” John says, adding that many of the requests to meet are done in private since pastors and other leaders feel they are “under surveillance” and can’t speak openly to him about it. 

Reflecting on these past years, John said: “I have seen what God is doing among the LGBTQ+ community, and the gifts they bring to the church.  I can no longer be a gatekeeper for the Kingdom.  I want to hold the door open, welcoming those whom the Spirit is drawing to Jesus. "Welcome!  We have a place for you!"

Timeline for LGBTQ+ in the Canadian Mennonite Brethren Conference

When Marnie Klassen, creator of The Schism Between Us, offered to share her timeline about LGBTQ+ in the Canadian MB Conference with me, I jumped at the chance to use it on the blog. Together, we stitched it together to come up with what we think is a pretty accurate tally of the major points along the way from 2021-24, with a stop in 2013 and a few stops along the way after that. If we missed something, please let us know! 

October, 2013. John Unger tells part of his family story (including having an LGBTQ+ child) at the CCMBC national study conference titled “Honoring God with the Body: A Study on Human Sexuality.” Read more here from the Christian Leader and from A Time to Listen. 

January, 2021. Artisan Church in Vancouver publishes their Milestone Statement on LGBTQ+ inclusion. 

March, 2021. Artisan Church withdraws from the British Columbia MB conference (BCMB) before the provincial conference can release it. It’s pastor, Nelson Boschman, surrenders his license as a BCMB pastor. 

March, 2021. In response to the Artisan decision, an open letter is released calling on the Canadian MB Conference to hold a national conversation about LGBTQ+. It was ultimately signed by over 400 people. The Conference said no, but it said it was open to hearing from members about the topic. 

March, 2021. River East Church in Winnipeg adopts an LGBTQ+ welcome and inclusion statement, prompting discussions with the Manitoba MB Conference. 

May, 2021. The MB Biblical Seminary releases the results of a survey of Canadian MB churches that found that 88 percent of churches say they want help navigating the complexities of ministering to LGBTQ community. 

June 2021. Since the Conference said it was open to listening to members about LGBTQ+, A Time to Listen was created to hear the stories of LGBTQ+ people and their family and friends. 

March, 2022. – A Time to Tell blog is started by River East Church member and Winnipeg Free Press faith reporter John Longhurst, who also writes for Anabaptist World. Since the MB Herald, the official publication of the Canadian MB Conference, was not reporting about LGBTQ+, the blog was created as a way to help people stay abreast of developments. 

March, 2022. Three pastors at Cedar Park MB Church in B.C. resign after the BCMB requires all its clergy to reaffirm the Confession of Faith, with a special focus on articles dealing with sexuality and marriage. The church was ultimately shut down by the BCMB and re-opened with a new name and leaders. Read more here about that situation and process, which led to the creation of a new independent LGBTQ+ affirming congregation called Estuary. For former Cedar Park pastor Lee Kosa’s reflections on that experience, click here. 

June, 2022. On Holy Ground: Stories By and About Women in Ministry Leadership in the Mennonite Brethren Church, is published by the Mennonite Brethren Historical Commission. Written to record the lived experiences of MB women in leadership, the executive boards of the American and Canadian MB conferences demand the first printing be destroyed when they discover it contains three pages by River East pastor Mary Anne Isaak about her experiences with LGBTQ+ people in churches she served. It is reprinted without those three pages. After that decision, there is a peaceful protest outside the CCMBC office in Winnipeg. Mary Anne is interviewed about it on CBC radio. And the missing three pages are published on the Time to Tell blog. 

July, 2022. The Canadian and U.S. MB conference executive boards release an official statement regarding their decision about Isaak’s three pages in On Holy Ground. 

September, 2022. Ed Willms is ousted as executive director the Ontario MB conference for holding discussions about LGBTQ+ welcome and inclusion. 

October, 2022. Jubilee Mennonite Church, which belongs jointly to Mennonite Church Manitoba (MCM) and Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba (MBCM), is suspended by MBCM. 

November, 2022. The Ontario MB Conference suspends Southridge and FreeChurch over their decision to welcome and include LGBTQ+ people.

November, 2022. 79 current and former members of the Waterloo, Ont. Mennonite Brethren Church call on that church’s leadership to create safe space to talk about LGBTQ+. 

January, 2023. The first Open Space is held in Winnipeg, organized by retired Mennonite Brethren pastors and conference leaders David Wiebe, John Unger, James Toews, and Danny Unrau. It is held at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. 

February, 2023. Southridge Community Church and FreeChurch Toronto are formally removed from ONMB.   

February, 2023. River East Church proposes a new process for Mennonite Brethren churches in Manitoba living on the "borderland" of the Confession of Faith when it comes to LGBTQ+. 

March, 2023. Jubilee Mennonite Church is formally removed from MBCM. Jubilee retains their relationship with MC Manitoba. 

March, 2023. River East Church is suspended by Mennonite Brethren Church of Manitoba. That same month, the Church shares its journey towards inclusivity. 

November, 2023. River East Church holds an online and in-person public meeting to tell its story of inclusion. 

January, 2024. River East Church is formally removed from MBCM. It later joins MC Manitoba. 

June, 2024. A Time to Connect is created. It's goal is to connect and support LGBTQ+ people and their allies who are part of MB congregations. 

January, 2025. FaithWorks voluntarily withdraws membership from MBCM. It joins MC Manitoba. 

October, 2025. The second Open Space event held in Ontario. 

November, 2025. The third Open Space event held in B.C.

Spring, 2026. Lendrum Church in Edmonton leaves the Alberta MB Conference.

October, 2026. The fourth Open Space event held in Manitoba.

November, 2026. Fifth Open Space held in Abbotsford, B.C.

Addendum: The purpose of this blog is to cover the more recent discussion about LGBTQ+ and the Canadian MB Conference (2021-24). But it would be wrong not to mention the Calgary Inter-Mennonite Church and the pioneering role it played. 

That congregation began in 1976 as a member of the Canadian Conference of MB Churches. In 1990, it joined the Northwest Mennonite Conference and what became Mennonite Church Alberta in 1996. 

In 1999, the congregation's membership in the MB conference was revoked because it joined the Supportive Congregations Network in 1997. That Network consisted of Mennonite and Church of the Brethren congregations which welcomed and included LGBTQ+ people. 

In 2000, the church took a voluntary five-year leave of absence from what became MC Alberta in order to avoid creating division in that conference. A final separation took place in April 2006. Today the church functions as an independent congregation that is publicly welcoming and affirming of all who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, two-spirited and queer.

Also of note is Westview Christian Fellowship in St. Catharines, Ont. It began as an MB congregation in 1988, but moved to become a member of Mennonite Church Canada in 2017. The move was due to changes in the direction of the congregation, including around LGBTQ+. It is a fully affirming congregation today.