Conversations between Mennonite Central Committee’s U.S. and Canadian boards and two former service workers resulted in further harm, according to the consultants who facilitated the 14-month process.

The former workers, Anicka Fast and John Clarke, raised concerns about workplace abuse at MCC and sought greater accountability and transparency by creating the organization MCC Abuse Survivors Together, or MAST. They allege MCC terminated their employment in Burkina Faso without sufficient cause while they were on sick leave (AW, March 2025).

Rus Funk Consulting and Hart Communication produced a report April 23 that said five online meetings between Dec. 2 and March 2 retraumatized the couple.

In a summary statement, the consultants said: “Despite extensive safeguards, intentional efforts to ensure balanced power and the goodwill of all participants, these facilitated conversations resulted in further harm from MCC to John and Anicka, re-traumatizing them. In our view, this outcome stems from the MCC Board’s failure to engage in trauma-informed practices, inattention to power dynamics and lack of a culture of accountability.”

The consultants’ full report is available at the MAST website.

MCC said in a statement that it continues to view the situation as workplace conflict rather than abuse. MCC said it was sorry that “five multi-hour meetings were insufficient for listening to John and Anicka’s story. There was also no space to share MCC’s story in this process, including the perspectives of other people who were harmed in this situation.

“We lament the trauma experienced by John and Anicka — and by others whose voices have not been heard. John and Anicka have much to offer the broader church and their communities, and we pray God’s blessing on them. . . .

“While there were ways we failed in timely and clear communication, this situation does not constitute systemic abuse. We are grateful for opportunities to look more broadly at our policies and processes, and we have made numerous changes over the past five years. Those changes have included trainings in being a trauma-informed organization and clearer processes for reporting and investigating harm.”

MCC’s full statement is available at mcc.org/our-stories/mcc-responds-facilitated-conversation.

Fast and Clarke said in a statement that the facilitators’ report was accurate. They said the boards “ended any hope of reconciliation” by unilaterally cutting the conversations short before they were able to tell their full story of abuse, an opportunity they had wanted for almost three years.

They said the meetings ended “without any accountability for those who caused harm to us or to others. We took a significant personal risk to participate in this process, and the cost to us has been extremely high.” They urged “an investigation into the allegations that is not controlled by MCC in any way.”

“Our prayer for MCC leadership is that they would drastically change course and have the courage to allow others to perform an independent, trauma-informed, survivor-centered investigation of all allegations so that the truth can be exposed,” Fast and Clarke stated.

The couple’s full statement and further details are available at mccabusesurvivors.org/mastnews/facilitators-report.

MCC announced in early 2025 that it would pay the couple $180,000 Canadian ($124,400 U.S.) in a settlement that neither admits nor denies wrongdoing.