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Winnipeg, Man.
Voices for Non Violence relaunches; new coordinator


Voices for Non Violence will be heard again.

The program, designed to help the Manitoba Mennonite community respond to situations of domestic violence and sexual abuse, is restarting, with Eleanor Epp-Stobbe as its half-time coordinator.

As of February 1, Voices for Non Violence became a Mennonite Central Committee Manitoba program, with funding promised for the next three years.

Voices for Non Violence has acted in an education and resource role for Mennonite congregations dealing with violence and abuse issues. It has also offered support to victims of abuse, and in some cases worked with abusers.

Epp-Stobbe

“It will certainly continue to offer a restorative approach to healing in cases of violence and abuse,” says Epp-Stobbe, who previously directed the then-independent initiative on an interim basis. She would also like to spend more time working with congregations to help prevent abuse.

She says she wants to be proactive in encouraging positive relationships between men and women, dealing with issues of power and working at ways relationships can be deepened and enlivened.

Epp-Stobbe, who is completing her doctorate in theology from the Toronto School of Theology, is an ordained minister. She pastored the Hamilton (Ont.) Mennonite Church 1985-91.

She joined MCC Canada in January 1998 to coordinate the Women’s Concerns program, before leaving later that year to head up Voices for Non Violence.

Voices for Non Violence has struggled financially in recent years and became dormant from December 1998 to January 2000 when it had no staff and offered no programs, explains Epp-Stobbe.

Ken Reddig, executive director of MCC Manitoba, states that MCC Manitoba decided to pick up the Voices initiative after a commissioned study found the program was still needed in Mennonite communities and congregations.

“We’re very lucky to have someone of her (Epp-Stobbe) calibre coming into this position,” he says. “Her gifts, education and training are simply invaluable in this role.”

“I think it’s still hard for us to hear about abuse,” says Epp-Stobbe. The challenge is to help communities be open, to allow people to tell their stories of abuse in a safe environment and then respond in a healthy, healing way.

“It takes a lot of faith. And it takes a lot of hard work,” she says. But it can also be very rewarding. “It’s a very humbling experience to be invited in to hear these stories.”

She and her husband David Epp-Stobbe attend Bethel Mennonite Church, where he is the pastor. They have an eight-year-old daughter.

 – MCC Manitoba Release

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Last modified May 4, 2000.

© 2000 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
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