A Time To Listen, online series about LGBTQ+ people in the Canadian Mennonite Brethren conference, shutting down

 

After eight episodes and over 16 guests, A Time To Listen: LGBTQ+ Stories of the Mennonite Brethren Church, is shutting down. 

The online series provided an opportunity for LGBTQ+ people and their allies to share about their experiences as part of the Canadian Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches (CCMBC). 

The last episode was March 1. 

A Time to Listen was started in May 2021 after the CCMBC turned down an open letter request from over 500 Canadian Mennonite Brethren church members requesting more conversation about LGBTQ+ in that denomination. 

John Unger, a former Mennonite Brethren pastor from Winnipeg helped create the open letter. 

“I thought that if we can’t have that conversation, then at least we can take time to listen to LGBTQ+ people,” he said of the reason for working with others to start A Time To Listen. 

Listening, he added, “is the first act of loving people well.” 

Almost all who shared were part of CCMBC, or had been part of it at one time, he said. This included members of the LGBTQ+ community or their parents and siblings. 

All the episodes were meaningful, Unger said, recalling how sad he felt to hear people talk about being excluded by their Mennonite Brethren churches over their sexuality, or fearing what might happen if they came out publicly. 

It was also hard to hear parents share the pain and rejection they felt from their churches when their kids came out. 

Early on, Unger said he noticed Mennonite Brethren church leaders tuning in. But that dropped off over time. They may have listened later to the recordings, he said. 

All that CCMBC would say about the series is that they “had nothing at all to do with it,” Unger said. “They distanced themselves from it.” 

As for why they are shutting down, Unger said it “feels like the season for listening is done for now.” 

The number of people attending the webinars has also plateaued at about 60, he said, adding that the episodes were also beginning to sound similar to each other. 

“We felt they might be losing their impact,” he said.

The work and time commitment for planning each episode was also a factor, he said. 

As for the future, A Time to Listen could come back in a different format or for a different goal, but for now “it seems to me it has run its course,” Unger said. 

Click here to listen to past episodes from A Time To Listen. 

Parents to share about joy of having LGBTQ+ children at June 8 A Time to Listen

 

For Dora Dueck, being the parent of an LGBTQ+ child is an opportunity to gain many gifts.

“All children are a gift,” said Dueck, formerly an editor at the Mennonite Brethren Herald. But being the parent of an LGBTQ+ child means there are “many other additional gifts she has given me.” 

Among the gifts she and her late husband, Helmut, received after their daughter came out in 2009 were becoming part of a new community of LGBTQ+ people and their parents and siblings; of learning new things and growing in their faith; and of growing closer to God. 

“The church environment can sometimes be very dark for LGBTQ+ people and their families,”  said Dueck, an author who lives in B.C. 

“There can be so much fear and anxiety and marginalization. But the great thing about becoming part of a marginalized group is discovering Jesus is there.” 

Dueck, who formerly attended Cedar Park Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation in Ladner, B.C., will share her story of receiving gifts from her gay daughter on June 8 at the next A Time to Listen. 

Click here to get the link to the Zoom presentation, which will feature other parents with LGBTQ+ children who will also share about the joy their children bring to their lives. 

“It can be good for other parents of LGBTQ+ children to hear from someone who is further along,” she said. “It’s a good news story.” 

For her and her husband, their daughter’s coming out was not a crisis of faith, but it was a “crisis of church.” 

The church environment can “sometimes be very dark,” she said. But outside of that environment is “wonderful community of gay people and their allies.” 

Another gift, she said, was that of watching her daughter flourish with their acceptance. 

“We accepted her immediately after she told us,” Dueck said. “It’s been a gift to watching her thrive as they be who they truly are.” 

Telling stories like that is one of the important goals of A Time to Listen said organizer Aimee Reimer, who is part of Lendrum Mennonite Church, a Mennonite Brethren congregation in Edmonton. 

“It’s important to tell the stories of family members, too,” she said. “Many have also experienced pain of a different kind, but also joy, too.” 

Since starting a year ago, about 1,600 people have tuned into the four A Time to Listen episodes—either live or listening to the recordings afterwards. 

The goal, said Reimer, is to “create space to have conversation, where people could listen and broaden their horizons about this topic.” 

Along with creating that space, A Time To Listen also wants to help create community for LGBTQ+ people and their allies in the Mennonite Brethren denomination, said organizer Isaiah Ritzmann of Waterloo, Ont. 

Many people in Mennonite Brethren congregations who are interested in this topic, or who want to learn more, “have no place to connect, no supportive community,” said Ritzmann, who formerly was a member of a Mennonite Brethren congregation. 

Through A Time to Listen, Mennonite Brethren from across Canada can “build community and do things together,” he said, adding that it can create another form of community “when the church is not what it needs to be.” 

The two acknowledge A Time to Listen also wants to influence Mennonite Brethren conference leaders by inviting them to hear the stories. But, so far, very few have attended. 

“We hear they are listening to recordings afterwards,” said Reimer, suggesting it might be too dangerous for them to be seen at the live events.