TUMC is fully affirming and inclusive of 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and families. Our policies and practices welcome people to full membership, participation, recognition and leadership, inclusive of all our various sexual orientations and gender identities. We continue to listen out for ways to improve our welcome, which we understand as part of our faithfulness to God.
TUMC aims to be ‘Public, Intentional, and Explicit’ (see pieday.ca) in its inclusion, and understands advocacy for the dignity, rights, and full inclusion of 2SLGBTQIA+ people and families within the broader church to be part of its mission.
This congregation has a long and complex history leading up to this stance of full affirmation. This history has involved a lot of painful struggle, hard work, prayer and study, disagreement and compromise, with joy and new understanding along the way. There is no way to comprehensively record and honour all of this labour, but we wish to acknowledge it in this way.
Below you can read our congregation’s statement, affirmed at our 2024 AGM, which tries to summarize our current stance, and explain our relationship to the 1995 Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective. This statement was shared with our national and regional bodies and also communicated to other affirming congregations. You can also see some of the reference materials that help us to understand the history of discussion and discernment in Mennonite circles.
Statement of Variance with Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective
TUMC is part of Mennonite Church Canada. Its document, the Confession of Faith in a
Mennonite Perspective, is intended as a guide for faith communities. As a result of our
congregational discernment, TUMC is at variance with this document; in particular, Article 19
“Family, Singleness and Marriage”. We acknowledge that the perspectives reflected in this
article have caused harm to LGBTQ+ persons. TUMC has repented, and continues to repent, of its former adherence to definitions of marriage and other practices that have excluded persons
from the LGBTQ+ communities.
We remain committed to reconciliation, wholeness, and wellbeing in regards to LGBTQ+
inclusion and to MC Canada. Therefore we:
- Call for the Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective to be revised.
- Urge denominational partners to become inclusive of LGBTQ+ persons.
- Commit to continuing our own journey towards healing: to raise awareness of harms
done, discern further steps, and advocate for change.
TUMC commits to networking with other congregations and advocating with our wider church family.
Reference materials
MC Manitoba Guiding Statement February 2023.
MC USA Resolution for Repentance and Transformation May 2022.
MCEC Statement Regarding MCEC Credentialing and Persons Who Identify as LGBTQ* May 2019.
MC Canada apology September 2017.
Being a Faithful Church resolution July 2016.
TUMC Statement on Human Sexuality 2003 including policy updates and resolutions in 2015, 2016, and 2017 (with original “for now for later” content related to covenanted relationships).
A Call to Affirmation, Confession, and Covenant Regarding Human Sexuality from 1987.