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.”