MCC 50th Anniversary Rescheduled

Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba has rescheduled its 50th anniversary celebration for April 18th. The concert was postponed last November after the church, where it was to take place, feltuncomfortable about a First Nations drumming group holding a spiritual smudging ceremony prior to its performance. Ron Janzen, Executive Director of MCC Manitoba, says they fully respect the church's decision and have now rescheduled the event at another location.

"Because of the postponement last November over problems at the venue with the smudging ceremony with the aboriginal women's drumming circle , we have really lived a relationship through this experience. It's been a really wonderful thing. We have cried together, we have agonized together but we have also really celebrated the outpouring of support and encouragement from the community over this experience."

Janzen says the event will be both a celebration of MCC's 50 years of service and another step in building relations with First Nations people.

"We're filled with just a tremendous amount of thanks and encouragement and we're celebrating how this (the postponement) has actually drawn us closer together. The actual planning of the event has become part of what we hoped would be the outcome and the experience of the event. It's been transformative."

Former Prime Minister Joe Clark will be the guest speaker. Janzen says Clark is very fitting because of his role as a diplomat in bringing countries together despite various barriers. Clark was also recently appointed to the group known as Canadians for a New Partnership which wants to build bridges with aboriginal people.