Closing statements in facilitated conversations between MCC board members and John Clarke and Anicka Fast
The last half hour of the final session of facilitated conversations (March 2, 2026) was devoted to closing statements. These are shared verbatim below in the order in which they were made, removing the names of the board members. After three sessions (Dec. 3, 10, and 17, 2025) in which John and Anicka began to share their story, MCC boards indicated their unwillingness to extend the facilitators’ contract. This meant that the conversations had to wrap up after only two additional sessions, which focused on Q&A with the board members. These final two sessions (Feb. 10 and March 2, 2026) felt much more painful than the first three because John and Anicka no longer felt safe to continue sharing their story after the withdrawal of the commitment to hear them out; the need (on which all parties agreed) to hear some response from the board members to what they had heard so far was in sharp tension with the fact that board members were responding to a very partial and truncated narrative of the events in question.
Statement by MCC Canada board member
John and Anicka, when I was asked well over a year ago to be the MCC Canada board rep to these conversations, I said yes because I want to be part of the solution. I believed there was a problem, and I want to be part of the solution. I came ready to listen deeply to your story, however hard and painful that would be.
I came with an open posture, ready to hear how MCC had failed and where we had responded inadequately. I came wanting to own, on behalf of MCC Canada, what is ours to own, and to use what I learned from listening to you to make MCC better.
I know we're not done, and I'm sorry about that. You have more to say, and I'm so sorry we are concluding in this way.
I do think that what we have heard thus far has been painful and instructive in helping us as board members to more precisely begin, at least, to see where MCC needs to change. And it remains my desire and commitment to see that happen.
I want to thank you for your willingness to embrace this pain of having to organize your thoughts and share in this way in facilitated conversations. It took courage. And it's far from the ideal way to share your story. In many ways, [MCC US board rep] and I have said to each other, we're not the right people to be listening to you. But we are the ones that are here, and we have listened with our full hearts. And I think we have heard, maybe not everything you wanted to say, and maybe we missed some points, but we have tried very hard, and we will recommend significant changes.
Your story, telling it to us, is making a difference. I really believe that.
In terms of systems, I've never encountered a more convoluted organization than MCC, and so I want to be clear in acknowledging that the board knows this. The board knows we have blind spots, and we know that we don't know how it affects people on the ground. And as a board representative listening to your story, this has been helpful in identifying some of the blind spots so that we can deal with them.
I know you didn't tell us your whole story, and this isn't the closure any of us imagined.
But we have heard you. We've heard the parts of your story you were able to share. And we believe you, and we will report accordingly.
I am sorry that your voice was not appropriately heard when you were mistreated, when information was withheld, when situations were not explained, and where relationships were stopped. We heard you, and we want to do better...
I am sorry for the way you were fired. We haven't heard that part of the story, but we read the letter, and it's appalling, and we want MCC to do better.
You deserve better than this. You deserve better than telling your story in these structured conversations. We can't change the past, but we can shape the future, and that is what [MCC US board rep] and I are going to try to do.
Statement by MCC US board member
John and Anicka, thank you for meeting with us, and I know that it took an emotional toll on you.
As the individual representing the MCC US Board, I've come to realize that I have not been empowered in my role to make things right.
I want you to know that I do not think that everything is fine with MCC, and that there's nothing to see here.
Even though I only heard part of your story, what I heard is enough to make me concerned, and that continues the concern I felt since I heard of your complaint. And I see that systemic change has to happen, and I am committed to working towards those changes.
I am not asking you to take responsibility to find the solutions. I do think that we have a shared goal for MCC to be safe and to be free from abuse.
And I want you to know that even though this conversation is incomplete, it is moving us towards that first step of having MCC admit that wrong has happened, and that MCC was the cause of it, and that you were the recipients of that.
And just that piece is nothing to be applauded. It should have happened a long time ago. There's a lot further to go, but I want you to know that your emotional energy hasn't been wasted.
I want to take ownership for the part that is mine to own, the part of the harm that was done to you, and that is that as a member of the board, as a chair of the Board Development Committee, I did not recognize that lack of a board grievance policy for the U.S. Board, and that the Canada Board didn't have one either.
That gap or that lack that I allowed to happen didn't give you, as staff, a way forward to file a formal complaint against the executive directors, and that lack harmed you because the Canada board chair didn't have a policy on how to handle a grievance, how to investigate, how to correspond in a timely manner, and I am responsible for that harm.
I am sorry for what happened to you indirectly as a result of our lack of proactive governance, accountability as boards, and our ability to hold the executive director accountable.
And as a part of my accountability and my apology to you, I commit to the development of a clear grievance policy and changes with accountability at MCC. Thank you for sticking with it.
Statement by Rod Hollinger-Janzen (support person)
I want to thank [board members] for your willingness to give your time, effort, your listening skills to this process. And for the other traveling companions in this group, thank you so much for the love and care you've shared here in this circle. And, most of all, John and Anicka, thank you for the courage and the perseverance you've demonstrated throughout this process.
People are… are frail humans. We don't see everything. I can't see behind my back. And so I need other people.
I want to make two comments. First: when I went to the U.S. MCC board chair two years ago to talk about John and Anicka's case, there was a complete refusal to hear me, and what I was told was, ‘Go back to the Human Resources Department.’
That was part of the abuse.
This circular abuse system has to change! And the way that can happen is that MCC boards take responsibility and do not abdicate their responsibility to hold executive directors, HR, or whatever, accountable for their actions.
I can't underline that enough.
Second, because I can't see my back, MCC also cannot see its back. It needs people outside of the system to be able to help to move it forward. That's why I advocate for an independent, victim-centered investigation that is not controlled by MCC that can help us to get to the truth of what's happening, and to move us forward in this process. Thank you.
Statement by Julene Fast (support person)
It was with thankfulness that I saw this facilitated conversation finally begin. I was very glad that the letter-writing campaign to the board seemed to finally push MCC to respond to this request.
I was not prepared for the toll the telling of the story would take on Anicka and John.
I have been walking with them now for two-plus years, and listening and watching them tell their story took me much more deeply into their experience of chaos, illness, and abandonment.
Each session of this conversation left me feeling sort of fatigued and battered, and I was aware that I was at least in a small way holding John and Anicka to make it more bearable for them to tell, and then to process the aftermath as it affected their daily life. It was so very visible that the… that the events in their lives have such a shattering power that can be evoked so easily.
I was very thankful for you, [MCC US board rep] and [MCC Canada board rep], for listening so carefully and so sincerely. It was good to see this happening at each session. I witnessed a carefulness in your questions of clarifications and comments, and I was conscious that there was somewhat of a sense of ownership and care that you were experiencing.
It was something so very overdue, and it was good to observe the depth of the carefully told details that Anicka and John shared. It was not all an easy listen. I heard things I had not heard before.
I saw and heard John and Anicka feel that they were being heard. I knew that it had to be a tentative trust, but I saw in this process that it was being placed, and the hearing they were receiving.
Each session was difficult. I witnessed the pain when it became clear that you would not continue this conversation, you didn't have the time, [MCC US board rep] and [MCC Canada board rep], to do that, and then the added cryptic ending of the conversation from the board chairs.
I experienced this abandonment along with Anicka and John with anger and hope dashed.
Last session was particularly difficult, as the answers that came to the questions sounded “board”-like.
Very briefly, this is what I have witnessed and observed. I have observed that while in the process of telling their story, Anicka and John, though it was a huge effort and took its toll, were careful and detailed and able to clearly speak of what happened, and I witnessed the gratefulness that they were finally able to tell it.
I observed a deep listening from you, [MCC US board rep] and [MCC Canada board rep], in your presence, and then I observed the breaking down of it, and the shattering of it all again, and the trust completely, completely broken.
Statement by Stephanie Krehbiel (survivor advocate)
I would like to share a few words about the local workers who interact with the international workers in MCC settings.
When there are public announcements from executive leadership in MCC that deny the presence of systemic abuse, that conveys a very particular message to people who are working for MCC. It conveys a message of unsafety, for lack of a better word, to people who are very dependent on MCC in order to live.
And when they watch their white North American colleagues being treated in the way that John and Anicka have been treated, it is reasonable to assume that they will not feel safe saying anything about how they have been treated.
We know, from multiple reports, that there is abuse of local workers.
And when the executive leadership uses racialized divisiveness to portray our North American workers as entitled, as asking for more than they deserve, and as being difficult because they don't want to live in difficult environments, I can't emphasize enough how harmful that is across the board. That rhetoric is consistent, and it needs to stop. It's doing lots of harm.
Statement by John Clarke
[MCC US board rep] and [MCC Canada board rep], I really am thankful for you—for your being here, for what you bring. Some of what you had to say was difficult, still is difficult, and unbelievable for me to hear. But you're children of God, just as everyone else is on this call, and human. And I love you. Thank you for being here.
Thank you for trying to listen to us. If I put myself in your shoes, I have to be honest: I might also act similarly and respond similarly to you, maybe with not‑perfect responses, and we weren't asking for perfection. I'm not holding you to a higher standard than I would hold myself to. And I do believe you were trying to listen.
However, as a survivor of abuse, I'm deeply troubled by your responses and by MCC's continued deflection and denials of what is so clearly a case of cruel abuse toward our entire family. You haven't heard our story yet! You don't know the level of hurt that we've experienced. You also don't know the level of hurt that people who worked with us and for us experienced, also losing their jobs shortly after we were fired. You don't know this!
The board chose to lead us to believe that they were ready to listen to us, only to unilaterally walk away from the conversation without providing any justification—I'm not talking about you individuals, I'm talking about the board—saying, “No more. We're done with the conversation,” without any justification, after the harm we've experienced.
The board's behavior is eerily similar to the abuse we experienced at the hands of MCC's executive leadership. Then HR directors claimed we were over our time limit to make a complaint, even though they were the ones who stalled. And during the firing call, the IP Director and HR Specialist unilaterally ended our relationship and repeatedly called for the call to end, even though we had unanswered questions.
And after we were fired, board chairs responded to say that we weren't allowed to file a grievance because we had just been fired... because we were no longer employees. Boards refused to talk with us and blamed us for having taken our limited legal counsel from the Quebec Labor Board, even though MCC policy states that we should be allowed to do so and treated no differently.
Even after MCC boards agreed to do an investigation, MCC repeatedly delayed—sometimes for months—to provide documentation into the investigative process, only to blame us later that we were uncooperative. And then EDs refused to meet with us on our terms, even after church leaders reached out multiple times, pleading with them to listen to us. Church leaders from around the world and MCC's own consultant exhorted MCC to pivot and to listen, but MCC senior leadership ignored their pleas and became angry that people were reaching out to them.
And even after a biased investigation was finished, finding senior staff guilty of multiple counts of policy violation and harassment, no meaningful admission of wrongdoing or harm caused was ever offered to us. No meaningful action was taken against the perpetrators. Rather, they were able to leave with compliments, honorable salutations and public acclaim while we suffered the humiliation of detrimental public defamation. (John had to end his statement here because of the time.)
Closing statement – Anicka Fast
I echo what everyone else said, so because time is short, I'm not going to reiterate it, but I am thankful for your efforts to listen.
There are things you said that were helpful that are now said and can't be unsaid. It helps to hear that, for example, you believe us. It helps to hear that you thought certain things that happened to us shouldn’t have happened. That's helpful, and that can't be taken away.
I'm also very thankful that the other people in this room heard everything that was said. I'm thankful that these conversations are not confidential.
But I'm ultimately very sad, and I feel very angry. Because I came into the call wondering if it would be worth it. The process has a huge cost. It felt very risky, and on our first day, we said, ‘We want you to hear us out. Don't come and apologize to us unless it's for real. It's too painful otherwise.’
And I cannot describe the betrayal I feel to know that I cannot finish telling my story. And not only that, but that it seems clear to me that you don't want to fully recognize the systemic nature of the abuse...
I know it's really hard to be a bystander, and your options are limited. You basically have three choices. You can either believe us completely, and that's going to be incredibly costly. It will probably cost you your seat on the board, and might cost you many relationships, if you were to really believe us. Another option is that you could disbelieve us. I don't think that's what you're doing. And the third option is to find a way not to know it all, so that you don't have to get involved.[1]
I saw you leaning toward option one and ending up at option three. And that breaks my heart. Because we want to tell you about the web of abuse that has taken decades to get put into place. And it will take a lot longer than five sessions (that focus on just one story) to give you a handle that would allow you to actually take any meaningful action. You do not have the information you need to be able to make a significant difference to this situation. It is way deeper than what we've been able to tell you in the time. And you can have really good intentions—I believe you do—but you will not be able to fix it if you don't know what's actually happening. And so, ultimately, that makes me really sad.
I know I'm out of time. I'm still open to hear from you if you're ready to go back to option one, but otherwise—I'm not. And that's where I'm going to end it.
[1] Anicka was referring to the analysis of Ruth E. Krall, retired professor at Goshen College and former program director of its Peace, Justice and Conflict Studies program. Krall observes that “when ... abuse accusations become public information, there is no place of communal innocence to which to retreat. One’s choices in situations of lost innocence are limited: one can choose to believe, disbelieve, or retreat into a false innocence of not seeing, not hearing, and not speaking – the false innocence of non-involvement.” —Ruth E. Krall, “Bearing Witness,” in Resistance: Confronting Violence, Power, and Abuse within Peace Churches, ed. Cameron Altaras and Carol Penner (Institute of Mennonite Studies, 2022), 197.