June 1st, 2020
Mennonite Church Canada donates $50,000 to Mennonite World Conference for COVID-19 relief fund; asks constituents to match or exceed donation

Funds will help meet basic needs of sister churches distressed by pandemic

By Katie Doke Sawatzky

Mennonite Church Canada is donating $50,000 to the Global Church Sharing Fund operated by Mennonite World Conference / Congreso Mundial Menonita / Conférence Mennonite Mondiale (MWC) to help MWC-member churches struggling because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.

Sister churches in Asia, Africa and Latin America, which make up 81 per cent of MWC members, are requesting aid from MWC because they do not have enough food, water for handwashing, and soap. Local hospitals are not always equipped with medical supplies and governments do not have resources to offer social assistance.

“The need is immediate. I am receiving texts and e-mails every day from member churches who report that their communities do not have enough food,” says Arli Klassen, who sits on the Joint Council of Mennonite Church Canada and is also the regional representatives coordinator for MWC. “Congregations are making food packets or cooking large pots of food to share with those who are hungry.”

In response to MWC’s call for aid, the Joint Council of Mennonite Church Canada approved a $50,000 donation to the Global Church Sharing Fund. The donation is possible because the regional churches, which make up Mennonite Church Canada, experienced fewer expenses than budgeted in the 2020 fiscal year.

"COVID-19 exacerbates dire conditions in countries already devastated by armed conflict, internal displacement and lack of health care infrastructure,” says César García, general secretary for MWC.

“Many of our congregations live and work in these danger zones. They provide pastoral care and counselling to the fearful, the sick and the dying; they give medical care and livelihood support. Mennonite Church Canada’s financial support for our global family of faith brings light in a world covered by this pandemic’s darkness. Local congregations continue their ministries, thanks to your generosity!”

Along with the $50,000 donation, Mennonite Church Canada is asking its member churches and congregations to match or exceed this donation by donating to the MWC Global Church Sharing Fund through their respective regional church offices.

“We find the lockdown limitations hard on us in Canada, but most of us continue to have food on our tables every day. Even in the midst of our anxieties and fears we can walk with congregations who have access to fewer resources than we do. That is what it means to be the church together,” says Klassen.

Online donations, marked “MWC Global Church Sharing Fund,” can be submitted through regional church websites, at the web addresses below:

Cheques marked “MWC Global Church Sharing Fund” can be mailed to regional church offices at the addresses below:

Mennonite Church Alberta

Box 1839
Pincher Creek, Alberta
T0K 1W0

Mennonite Church British Columbia

#305-32025 George Ferguson Way
Abbotsford, BC
V2T 2K7

Mennonite Church Eastern Canada

201-50 Kent Ave
Kitchener, ON
N2G 3R1

Mennonite Church Manitoba

600 Shaftesbury Blvd
Winnipeg MB
R3P OM4

Mennonite Church Saskatchewan

600 45th St. West
Saskatoon, SK
S7L 5W9

To read MWC’s press release about the Global Church Sharing Fund for COVID-19 relief, visit https://mwc-cmm.org/stories/mwc-global-church-sharing-fund-responds-pandemic-needs.

 

 

Media contact:

Katie Doke Sawatzky

kdsawatzky@mennonitechurch.ca

306-520-8049 (cell)