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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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.

 

 

Speaking personally about LGBTQ+ welcome and affirmation

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, seven 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. 

But before doing that, I thought I might share a bit about my own views on this topic—something I sought to keep out of the blog when I was reporting as a journalist about LGBTQ+ and the MB Conference. I’m sure my personal views were no secret (I was, after all, a member of River East at the time.) Like any good journalist, I tried to keep my those views out of the blog. Now that I am no longer MB, it doesn’t matter; I can be fully “out of the closet" and share about my journey to becoming affirming and welcoming of LGBTQ+ people.

Like many of my generation—I’m a boomer—who grew up in conservative Christianity, I believed homosexuality was a choice and a sin. For most of my life, it wasn’t even on my radar. So how did I end up changing my mind?

It happened the way it does for many people: I got to know LGBTQ+ Christians. Those experiences together helped me see them, and the Bible, in a different way. 

The first experience was in 2009, when my old college roommate sent me a letter to say he was gay—and had just married his partner. 

I had no idea, although people who heard the news said they suspected it all along. My “gaydar” is terrible. 

We lived together for three years and became best friends. But all that time he never told me his big secret. In fact, he told nobody knew it. Not his family, his church, his friends. 

Until he came out in 2005, he kept his secret from everyone—but Jesus. In his journal, parts of which were shared with me after his death from cancer in 2018, he wrote about never feeling at home with others since he couldn’t completely be himself with them.  “I am only myself to you, Lord Jesus,” he wrote. 

While serving as music director at a Baptist church, he wrote he wished he could tell his pastor he is gay. “Lord, I really don't want to burden him,” he wrote, knowing such knowledge would a problem for the pastor and the church. But “shouldn't a pastor know some of his flock are gay, and some of his flock have left because they are gay?” 

Despite his struggles, and his worry about what might happen if his secret was discovered—he would surely lose his job—he never lost his faith. 

“Let us follow this wonderful Jesus, whoever we are regardless of age, colour, beliefs, gender or sexual orientation,” he wrote in his journal. 

The incident that prompted him to come out was when he heard members of his church claim gay marriage needed to be opposed because homosexuals were a danger to children—something he knew wasn’t true. He began to secretly reach out to find other gay Christians and starting attending events for them. That’s where he met his partner. 

When he came out, some welcomed the news; others didn’t. But over time almost everyone came around to love and accept him the way he was—and he grew in his love and accept of himself. 

When I learned about his wedding, I immediately phoned him and gave him heck for not inviting me. “I was afraid you wouldn’t come,” he said. 

That was a blow. Of course I would have come, I said. He went on to explain that his family refused to come—only one sibling attended, and not his parents. My refusing to attend would have only been one more hurt, he explained. 

After that, we connected regularly by e-mail and in person. And at his funeral, I was invited to MC the sharing.

His former partner told me that what sustained my old roommate was “an experience in prayer, a mystical experience, in which he was overwhelmed by the love of God, a blessed assurance that stayed with him throughout all the turmoil.” 

That experience taught me that there are many people who quietly struggle not with who they are—they know—but with letting people like me know. It made me realize I needed to let others know I was a safe person to confide in, to be honest with. 

In his journal, my friend wrote: “Lord Jesus Christ, if you can use what I have suffered by being homosexual for the comfort of others and for your divine presence, please, please do!” 

He certainly used that experience to help me. 

The second experience that changed me was when a young Hutterite came into the life of our family. 

He was a friend of my daughter’s, a student at Canadian Mennonite University. After coming out, he was disowned by his family and colony, told he was going to burn in Hell. 

With nowhere to go, and fearing for his safety, we invited him to live with us for a time. We offered to “adopt” him as one of our own children, in absence of any other parents in his life. 

As we talked, we learned he knew he was gay from the age of 12. 

“Even as a small child I felt different,” he said. “It wasn’t until I reached my teenage years that I started to really understand those differences.” 

At first, he said, he cried and prayed things were different. But when he was about 20, he came to see that this was the way God made him—there was nothing wrong with how he was feeling. 

He stayed in the closet for a long time out of fear of how his family would react, and what people in his close-knit community would say. 

Over time, however, the closet “became an unsafe and toxic place,” he said. “It caused me to suffer from anxiety, depression and self-hate. I knew I needed to get out of the closet in order to prevent further harm.” 

In a letter to his parents about being gay, he thanked them for their love and care when he was a child. 

He concluded by saying: “I don’t know how you will react to this letter, but just know that I love you very much… it is my hope that my honesty about who I am will help bring us closer as a family.” 

His parents wrote back that they were angry and appalled and told him he was no longer welcome in their home—unless he repented and changed. 

He only stayed with us a short time. But the experience never left me; how could parents—Christian parents—act that way towards their own child? That’s surely not the way of Jesus. 

The final experience was an act of repentance and contrition on my part. 

When I was in middle school, there was a boy there named Lawrence. He was different from other boys in the school. He wasn't into sports. He was quiet, soft and gentle. 

So of course we called him “faggot.” 

We really had no idea what the word meant, or what was involved in being one. But we knew it was bad—our parents and churches told us so. And we were sure that Lawrence was one. 

But was he? We didn’t know. But we knew he was different. So we used that word to torment and isolate him, making him feel unwanted and alone. Years later, I could still see him in my mind, walking sadly away from a group of jeering boys. 

After my experiences with my college roommate and Hutterite “son,” I wondered about Lawrence. How was he doing? And what did he think about his life back then? 

Through a mutual friend from those days, I was able to track him down. I said I was sorry for the way we treated him, for the ideas that led to his isolation, for the thoughtlessness we all displayed. That I displayed. 

I told him I am doing everything I can to make sure nobody else goes through what he did—ever again.

Thankfully, Lawrence forgave me. He’s doing fine—and yes, he is LGBTQ+ and happily so. 

There were other experiences: Two lesbian women who began attending my church, a gay colleague at work, my own reading on the subject. And I was moved in 2015 when evangelical leader Tony Campolo came out in support of same-sex marriage and including LGBTQ+ people in the church. 

All those things added up to making me ready to support the same thing in 2019, when River East began its journey of inclusivity. 

There were no big "aha!" moments, no deep theological exploration (although the revelations that the translators of the RSV version of the Bible got it wrong when they erroneously used the word "homosexuality" in 1 Corinthians played a role). It was a transformation the way many people change their minds on this subject: Knowing LGBTQ+ people and realizing the table is big enough for all, that nobody should be excluded.

People like my old roommate, the Hutterian young man, and Lawrence. And anyone else. 

Time to Tell five years after the Open Letter: Where are things at now?

Five years ago, in 2021, over 450 members of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches from over 40 congregations signed an open letter asking the Conference to hold an open discussion about LGBTQ+ inclusion. The conference refused.

That refusal led that same year to the creation of Time to Listen, an online gathering of Canadian MBs and other who wanted to talk about this topic.

Throughout that year, I wrote 10 articles on the topic for Anabaptist World. This included one about the decision of Artisan Church in Vancouver to withdraw from the conference over its decision to include LGBTQ+ people—the first of eight MB churches to either withdraw or be expelled since 2021.

(For the record, those are Artisan and Cedar Park in B.C.; Southridge and Free Church in Ontario; River East, Jubilee and FaithWorks in Manitoba; and Lendrum in Alberta.)

Since Anabaptist World is primarily an American publication, it couldn’t publish everything I wanted to write on this topic in Canada.

That led me to create this blog, a Time to Tell, in 2022, as a journalistic way to keep the conversation going—something that was necessary since the official publication of the conference, the MB Herald, would not cover it.

From 2022 to early 2024, I wrote 126 articles on the topic on this blog. The goal was to keep Canadian MBs informed—and also to shine a bit of light on something some conference leaders preferred remained dark.

(In that regard, I must have been doing something right; I was prevented from attending two provincial assemblies by conference leaders where LGBTQ+ was discussed. It didn’t work. People who attended furnished me with notes from both meetings.)

It was also to provide a first draft of history, some original source material that could be used by a future researcher who may want to write a book about this period in Canadian MB history.

I paused the blog in 2024 for a couple of reasons. First, I was exhausted by covering this topic. Second, the church I attended at the time (River East) was expelled from the MB Conference—why report about something I wasn’t part of anymore?

But now, five years after that open letter, I decided it was time to follow-up with some of the people I interviewed. I wanted to hear their reflections on that time, and see how they are doing now. Over the next while, I will post those reflections.

And if you have any thoughts on this topic related to the Canadian MB conference, feel free to send them to me at jdl562000@yahoo.com

Photo above from Getty Images.