MCC Alberta's In Tune Conference

Daytime plenary session and workshops (3). Includes lunch and coffee breaks.

An evening of live theatre and video stories of resettlement from Ruth Janz and Alsar Zarour.

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Reverend Doctor Ray Aldred is a husband, father, and grandfather. He was first ordained with the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada and is now ordained with the Anglican Church of Canada. He is Cree from, Treaty 8. Born in Northern Alberta, he now resides with his wife in Richmond, British Columbia, Canada. Ray is the director of the Indigenous Studies Program at the Vancouver School of Theology whose mission is to partner with the Indigenous Church around theological education.

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Mulanda Jimmy Juma (PhD), is from the Democratic Republic of Congo. He is married to Dina and have 5 children, whom they call the SUPREME (Suzanne, Prince, Eto, Munga and Eca). He is currently the MCC Representative for Rwanda and Burundi. Prior to this, he served as MCC Representative for Congo (DRC) and Angola and also as Southern Africa Peace Coordinator for MCC. Mulanda has actively participated in mediation in many armed conflicts in Africa and beyond. Recently, he published a book in French titled “The Water of the Lake Was Red: A Congolese Peacebuilder in the Heart of Wars”.

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Jon Hand, PCC, MDiv, is a veteran church leader, leadership coach, church consultant, and network leader. Over the past 25 years Jon has been in church-based, non-profit, and business leadership roles. Over the past 10 years Jon has been specializing in leadership development roles in church networks and denominations. Jon also provides executive leadership Soul Coaching for business, non-profit, and church leaders across the UK, Canada, and the U.S.

Jon has been in church leadership for his whole career and has trained church leaders in how to create conditions for growing diverse communities of Jesus where unity does not equal uniformity. Learn more about Jon on LinkedIn and www.transformationalcoaching.me

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Cindy Colman is the Migration and Resettlement Coordinator at MCC Alberta. Her interest and passion for welcoming newcomers to Canada began many years ago when as a young adult, she volunteered at her university and in the local community as an EAL tutor. Before joining MCC Alberta, she was the Director of Language and Training Programs at the Centre for Newcomers in Calgary.

Cindy received her Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies (Culture and Language) from Brock University in Ontario (1990) and her Master of Arts in Intercultural Communications (Teaching English as an Additional Language) from Prairie Graduate School (1999).

Cindy lives in Airdrie with her husband, John, and teen daughter, Sitara, cat, dog and many plants.

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Tyler Retzlaff is the Migration and Resettlement Associate at MCC Alberta. His passion for supporting newcomers stems from his Mennonite heritage and the stories shared by his grandparents about their family history as refugees and subsequent migration to Canada in the 1920’s.

Previously, Tyler has served with MCC as a Community Development Assistant (2016-2017) in Mexico City, and as the Refugee Sponsorship Coordinator (2018-2021) at MCC Alberta. Tyler received his Bachelor of Arts in International Development and Conflict Resolution from the University of Winnipeg (Menno Simons College) in 2018.

Currently Tyler splits his time between his role at MCC and as a Paramedic in the city of Calgary.

Join this session to learn about the dynamics of social inclusion and exclusion in the relationships that develop in private refugee sponsorship. How do we join with refugee newcomers to understand and work toward meaningful integration or inclusion amidst broken relationships, systems and structures? 

Presented by Kaylee Perez with Cindy Colman and Tyler Retzlaff, MCC Alberta

Indigenous identity includes a relationship with their traditional territory. This relationships with land is maintained by story. With the arrival of new-comers to Canada, Indigenous treaty was used as a way to make relationship with these new-comers so that land could be maintained through proper relatedness. 

This workshop explores the spirituality behind the historic treaty process. This will show that Indigenous treaty continues to provide a way to share territory without violence. It provides a shared narrative through which newcomers are brought into relationship with the land as family. This same treaty spirituality finds resonance within the ongoing presences of Jesus Christ within the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. Indigenous spirituality is built upon a shared reality understood over time and within place or sacred land.

Presented by Dr. Ray Aldred

Becoming Communities of Belonging through Discipleship, Transformation, and Embracing Disturbance

It is too easy in our digitized world for us to cloister into relational silos with others who are similar to us. Social media and our online presence is curating a world according to our individual and social tastes, beliefs, opinions, and preferences. These forces are eroding the capacity within us to feel like we belong and to create belonging for others who are not like us. What does it look like for us to resist these forces and form ourselves into Jesus looking communities who create and experience belonging in Jesus looking ways in order to display a new possibility of belonging in a world where everyone feels out of place. 

Presented by Jon Hand

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This presentation will plunge you into an interactive experience, where you’ll be confronted with a series of difficult decisions; realities facing more than 110 million displaced people around the world. Develop awareness and understanding about the global refugee crisis.  

Then consider how you can support people in vulnerable situations as they flee conflict, migrate and resettle in new communities.

Presented by Rebecca Schnell, MCC Alberta

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Passage to Freedom is a moving documentary that features oral histories of Southeast Asian refugees that made the dangerous journeys from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to Canada. The Canadian response to the refugee crisis was recognized internationally with the UNHCR Nansen Medal in 1986. The film delves into the journey of the refugees’ integration into the fabric of Canadian life and highlights the contributions of this first generation and their descendants.

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In Tune features the premiere of "Aleppo Cookies" by Adam Schnell, a play which tells the story of an unexpected dinner shared by fourth-generation Canadians and a newly arrived family from Syria.