Saturday, October 26
9:00AM - 9:00PM MDT
Ambrose University
150 Ambrose Circle SW
Calgary AB T3H 0L5
Canada
Get directions
Welcome to In Tune 2024!
Engaging plenary and workshop sessions will explore migration and resettlement from different perspectives. The event will culminate in an evening of drama and storytelling focused on welcoming the stranger and the transformative potential for the newcomer and the welcoming community.
1 Plenary | 3 Workshops | An Evening of Story
When the Stranger Calls Us Home
Inspired by her faith, family, and work with refugees through MCC, Kaylee Perez' plenary session will share reflections on the joys and challenges of walking with people across difference and the way God’s love transforms how we show up and build community in a broken and messy world.
Registration Options
All conference events: plenary session, workshops (3), and an evening of theatre and storytelling. Includes lunch, coffee breaks, and evening dessert. Supper may be added at an additional cost.
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.
Meet our Speakers
Kaylee Perez is a passionate refugee advocate who holds an MA in Peace and Conflict Studies and has worked in the refugee (re)settlement sector since 2013. Add being raised in a Cuban-Colombian-Palestinian family in Canada, and you learn what has fueled her love for peace work both locally and abroad.
Based in Kitchener, Ontario Kaylee has worked with MCC in the Migration and Resettlement (M&R) program since 2015, currently serving as the National M&R Coordinator with a focus on Operations.
She serves on the board of the Canadian Refugee Sponsorship Agreement Holders (SAH) Association where she works to represent the needs of SAHs in Canada and engages in advocacy to strengthen the private sponsorship of refugee’s program overall.
In her free time, Kaylee enjoys salsa dancing, trying new food, and thrift shopping!
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.
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”.
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
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.
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.
Workshops
Today, the world is faced with a major challenge of forced migration due to wars and climate change. Ukraine, Gaza and DRC, to name but a few nations, are on top of the list of countries facing serious challenges of displacement. In this regard, one of the key focuses of MCC strategic direction is on supporting and equipping vulnerable people, especially uprooted people, including refugees and internationally displaced persons (IDPs). During his presentation, Mulanda will share personal experience as a refugee beneficiary of MCC support but also as a service worker of MCC working with churches (including Anabaptist churches) and other partners as they support uprooted people. The experience will focus on Africa.
Presented by Mulanda Juma
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
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
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.
An Evening of Storytelling
Beginning at 7:00pm, the evening session examines the personal experience of migration through storytelling.
You will hear personal stories from Ruth Janz and Aliss Zarour, two women who migrated to Canada at different times and under different circumstances. In hearing both stories, you will find part of the common humanity that ties us all together.
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.
Accommodations
Those travelling to Calgary for In Tune can receive a discount at Fairfield Inn & Suites Downtown if they register by September 24. The link to access the discount can be found in your confirmation email upon registration.