MCC Abuse Survivors Together
Justice - Accountability - Transparency
Allegations about abuse of workers within Mennonite Central Committee
Compiled by MCC Abuse Survivors Together (MAST), June 2025. PDF version available here.
Check back here for regular updates; see the Survivors page for individual stories. To share your story, see https://www.mccabusesurvivors.org/share.
Notes
In addition to abuse experienced during employment (abusive mediation, sexual abuse, negligence of safety, psychological harassment), MCC leaders often responded in a harmful way to those who reported abuse or suspected fraud (for example with [more] psychological harassment, by firing the workers in cruel or callous ways, sometimes despite protected status, or by covering up the abuse with NDAs). In most of the 67 cases known to MAST, multiple types of abuse were present. MCC leadership continues to deny the existence of systemic abuse.
MAST is aware of 14 cases where NDAs were offered at termination; 11 of these were signed, sometimes under duress.
Sectors of MCC where abuse is reported include Executive leadership, Senior staff in US & Canada, Human Resources, Planning/Learning/Disaster Response, SALT, IVEP and YAMEN, International program leadership, Communications and Donor Relations, Financial Services, Voluntary Service, Ten Thousand Villages, Thrift
43 cases involve workers in International Program; North American service workers who reported about abuse very frequently mentioned the additional victimization of more vulnerable local staff, who often do not feel safe to come forward with details and be added to the tally.
Please stop supporting a culture of silence about abuse. Instead, support justice and healing by honoring survivors’ stories and requiring accountability from MCC.
Do you want to help?
Have you or someone you know experienced harm?
Browse our site for the latest news, survivor stories and documents, statements from supporters, reflection and analysis, and ways to get involved.
Speak out publicly, ask for an external investigation, support survivors, and coordinate your efforts with others. Read more here.
Our Organization
Share your story at stopmccabuse@proton.me.
Wondering about the pros and cons of sharing? Read our Q&A about coming forward here.
The June 11, 2024 open letter to the global constituency of Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), detailing serious concerns about workplace abuse within MCC, has been broadly supported. Over 1500 have signed a related petition. The close relationship between MCC and Mennonite identity makes the revelations in the open letter particularly painful, while also making change complex.
So far, MCC leaders’ responses give no indication of choosing a different path. MCC leaders consistently seem more concerned about their image than about truth, justice, or accountability.
Therefore, to coordinate ongoing efforts to hold MCC to account for its abusive behaviour, the group MCC Abuse Survivors Together (MAST) launched on September 5, 2024. The MAST steering committee includes open letter signatories as well as other MCC survivors and allies.
MAST seeks justice for survivors of MCC abuse, accountability for MCC, and transparency for the MCC constituency.
In addition to our efforts to hold MCC accountable, we seek to offer a space to support survivors. We continue to invite survivors to report their stories confidentially, track and report cases of abuse, and offer platforms for survivors to publicly share their stories. We will engage in advocacy in pursuit of these goals.
We seek to expose the truth about abusive behaviour so that harm against MCC staff and partners can end. Our ultimate goal is not to destroy MCC as an organization, but to pursue justice, truth, and healing within the broader community of Mennonites who support MCC. We long to see our communities become places where survivors’ stories are believed, harm is repaired, and offenders are held accountable.[1]
[1] Judith Herman, Truth and Repair: How Trauma Survivors Envision Justice (Basic Books, 2023), 3–4; Kathryn Post, “New Catholic Clergy Sexual Abuse Report from Fordham Charts a Path Forward,” Religion News Service, February 9, 2023, https://religionnews.com/2023/02/09/new-catholic-clergy-sexual-abuse-report-from-fordham-charts-a-path-forward/.