Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (1990-2023): A Critical History

The genesis of the book Recovering From The Anabaptist Vision (2020) can be traced back 20 years to the first graduate student conference organized by the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (TMTC), where many of the editors and contributors met for the first time and began the conversations about Anabaptist theology and identity later addressed in the book. At least one contributor describes the book as “such a TMTC product.”[1]

And yet nowhere in the book is TMTC mentioned.

One person associated with TMTC said, “TMTC whispers loudly.”[2] Another said, “So much of what TMTC did at [Toronto School of Theology], it did quietly.”[3] TMTC has also been called a modest project, an organic thing, a locus and a point that allowed us to cross paths with other people.

This paper — a critical[4] rather than an official history — will suggest another metaphor for how TMTC functioned during its 33-year existence: TMTC can be seen as a catalyst in the Mennonite academic and church world in North America. In its original meaning in chemistry, a catalyst is a substance that speeds up a chemical reaction; in the case of Recovering From the Anabaptist Vision and other projects, perhaps the scholars would have met in other ways without TMTC and perhaps their shared questions would have developed anyhow, but the important conversations came together through this peculiar entity whose work is not always even acknowledged.

This was not the original goal for TMTC.

Founding director A. James Reimer had a strong desire to create a center that would bring together and promote distinctly Mennonite scholarship in a way that had global and ecumenical impact.

This paper will trace the history of TMTC as it comes to an end, considering what it attempted, what it accomplished, and those people and factors that played key roles during its lifespan.

I. Origin Story

TMTC has been called a “partly historical accident,”[5] with different interdependent strands leading to its founding.

First was the person of Reimer, without whom, it is widely agreed, there would never have been a Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre. A second factor was the historic exclusion of Mennonite voices in theological schools in universities. Thirdly, the 1980s marked a time when views of education were shifting within Mennonite denominations, and when Mennonite students were appealing for a formal umbrella under which to gather.

James Reimer

Jim Reimer had arrived at the University of Toronto in the early 1970s to pursue an M.A. in history (1974) and then a Ph.D. in theology (1983). Despite the growing interest in ecumenism that had led to the 1969 formation of the Toronto School of Theology (TST), Reimer said, “During my studies at TST I met very few other students of Mennonite background…. [T]here was virtually no awareness among TST students, faculty and staff of the Anabaptist-Mennonite tradition.”[6]

Reimer wanted to bring Mennonite thinking to wider theological conversations. In his programmatic 1983 essay, “The Nature and Possibility of a Mennonite Theology,” published in Conrad Grebel Review, Reimer responded to H.S. Bender’s 1943 classic The Anabaptist Vision and the writings of other key 20th-century Mennonite thinkers. Reimer wrote: “For some of us it is absolutely imperative if we want to remain both Mennonite and Christian that we systematically bring together our inherited Christian beliefs with the critical questions and insights we encounter in the various disciplines and in the cultural matrix of the modern world.”[7]

This theology, he went on to say, would be a catechistic tool with which “to teach younger generations the accumulated wisdom of the ages but also to guide ministers in their preaching and teaching ministry.”[8]

Around the same time as he published “The Nature and Possibility of a Mennonite Theology” and as he finished his graduate studies, Reimer proposed teaching a course on Anabaptist-Mennonite theology at TST. Iain Nicol, then director of TST, was open to the idea. Reimer taught the first course in 1982-83. Reimer later said of that time, “I began dreaming of helping to create a more deliberate Mennonite presence within the TST world.”[9] This vision grew: “I began to think it would be good for there to be a Mennonite presence at the TST all year round.”[10]

While Mennonite seminaries existed, Reimer did not see a theological project like TMTC elsewhere. He intended TMTC as a place to bring together those voices and questions, guiding younger generations of scholars and pastors to think as Anabaptists. Early on, he described TMTC as “the only centre of its kind for Mennonites anywhere in the world,”[11] and said that it had “the potential of becoming a significant institution for the world-wide Mennonite community.”[12]

Excluded voices

TMTC did not emerge only from Reimer’s theological convictions and ecumenical interest in Mennonites having a voice in the academy, but also out of the difficulties he and other Mennonite scholars had faced in their efforts to find respect for their thinking.[13]

“Jim’s passion to have the Mennonite theological voice be a legitimate one in the broader academy — and others had this experience too — was very much informed by how hard they had to work to have their voice legitimated in their own programs,”[14] said former TMTC-affiliated student[15] Susan Kennel Harrison. “Much of TMTC was formed out of the experiences of some earlier Mennonites in the academy as a way of protecting the next generation.”[16]

Lydia Neufeld Harder, who would later serve as director of TMTC, said that when she began her studies at TST, each member of her doctoral committee wanted to shape her thinking to reflect their own theology, creating conflict as to the direction she should go and giving her little help in finding her own unique voice.

Mennonite women experienced a double exclusion. Neufeld Harder recalled a supervisor to whom she had been assigned as a teaching assistant blocking her from doing anything in class and only permitting her to create a bibliography, specifically because she was a Mennonite woman.

While addressing the patriarchal nature of the academy was — and still is — a larger, ongoing project, the inclusion of Mennonite voices became more of a reality with the presence of TMTC on campus. Neufeld Harder said, “Something changed once we had the Centre in terms of being invited to enter the ecumenical dialogue specifically as Mennonite scholars.”[17]

Mennonites and advanced degrees

Mennonites had long recognized that those who would teach at Mennonite seminaries and colleges needed doctorates and training they would get in non-Mennonite settings such as TST. Mennonite students had studied at TST for this purpose since at least the 1950s. In the 1970s, there was “a Menno House where Mennonite students at the University of Toronto lived together and formed a community of persons interested in how their studies related to their tradition.”[18]

However, by the 1980s, interest in advanced degrees was growing. More Mennonites were pursuing such degrees in a variety of disciplines. Leaders at the denominational level were also paying attention to this phenomenon.

As Larry Kehler, general secretary of the Conference of Mennonites in Canada, described it, there was “a larger ferment going on around the subject of pastoral and theological education among us.”[19] This conversation was taking place in the Theological Education Committee of the Mennonite Board of Education (Mennonite Church, binational), the Theological Education Group (General Conference Mennonite Church, binational) and the Pastoral Leadership Training Commission (Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada).

In 1986, a “Consultation(s) on Theological Education in Canada” attended by representatives of 30 conferences and schools across Canada set up a committee that served as a Canadian reference group for the Council of Mennonite Seminaries, examining theological training in Canada. That group would stress the need for several of what they called “Mennonite extension centres” across Canada which would “[use] the rich theological education resources available to them… . Canadian Mennonites need Canadian settings where graduate theological education is available reflecting Anabaptist perspectives.”[20]

Around the same time, Mennonite students at TST “dreamed of a structure to formalize a Mennonite presence within the TST Federation.”[21] When Dan Nighswander began his Ph.D. at TST, he sought an academic community that shared his faith assumptions and discovered an informal network of fellow Mennonite students. In fact, he recalled being impressed by how many Mennonites already had or were pursuing doctorates in theology, church history and other related subjects. In November 1985, Nighswander wrote to Gerald Good, with whom he had previously served on the Inter-Mennonite Pastoral Leadership Training Board, suggesting the need for a forum that would enable students doing advanced studies in non-Mennonite settings to participate in the theological reflections of the church.[22]

At Conrad Grebel College[23] in Waterloo, Ontario, where Reimer became faculty in 1986, then-president Ralph Lebold was already keenly interested in graduate-level pastoral and non-pastoral education for Mennonites — in 1983, Lebold and Grebel’s academic dean, Rodney Sawatsky, had held the first of many meetings with administrators at TST to discuss “our general interests in the area of higher Mennonite theological education in Canada and more particularly the possibilities of increasing the Anabaptist-Mennonite theological presence at the TST.”[24]

As to why this should be located at TST, this may be the historical accident earlier referenced: Reimer was already teaching at TST; Mennonite students were studying at TST; TST was in proximity to Grebel, which launched its own graduate program in theological studies in 1987; and TST had an ecumenical focus. According to Christina Reimer,[25] Reimer’s daughter and herself a former TMTC-affiliated student and TMTC coordinator, “If we wanted to offer graduate-level support, it would be good to be in that location. While TMTC was a Mennonite centre, it was also a place for Mennonites to be involved in ecumenism.”[26]

Although TST was not open to the formation of additional seminaries within the federation,[27] its leaders invited Mennonites to establish a center through which courses representing Anabaptist theology and tradition could be offered. This was a unique arrangement for TST. Later TST director Alan Hayes said, “It seemed like an unusual but worthy venture. We liked the idea of the ecumenical presence in the work they were doing, the efforts that they were making of creating a social and academic community for Mennonite students at TST. In our view, that was obviously a good thing, and not just for the Mennonite students, but also for students who weren’t in an Anabaptist tradition who could come in, listen to papers and be part of that community. They were always hospitable.”[28] Sawatsky called the emerging idea of a Mennonite center at TST a “unique opportunity for North American Mennonites to participate in a major federation of theological schools.”[29]

The center begins

In 1987, at a joint meeting of the Theological Education Committee of the Mennonite Church and the Theological Education Group of the General Conference Mennonite Church, Lebold proposed that Mennonites establish an ongoing presence at TST. This was formalized in a 1988 proposal for a “Mennonite Centre for Theological Studies in association with the TST.” The proposal described the TST entity as “a specialized center offering a unique range of educational opportunities.”[30] The proposal also reflected the interests identified by Nighswander, noting that approximately two dozen Mennonite students were studying at TST in the 1987-88 school year, and adding, “These persons would welcome a centre with staff to provide counsel, reference and create a setting for fellowship and dialogue.”[31]

The center began its work in 1989 — in what was described as a “modest proposal for 1989-90”[32] — with an interim board. Lebold was appointed as interim director. It had no designated office space.

By March 28, 1990, the venture was called the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre. Later that year, the TST formally welcomed TMTC, which received both its charitable status registration and its letters patent of incorporation in July 1990.

The next task was to appoint a director. The minutes of the September 1990 TMTC Board of Directors meeting suggest that the board thought Reimer would be the best candidate, “but he is too busy with Grebel’s [Master of Theological Studies] program.”[33] While this was true, by the end of May 1991, everyone, including Reimer, had become convinced that Reimer was the right person for the role.

Very quickly this fell into place. Reimer was invited to share his vision for the center as well as to determine a job description and priorities. Sawatsky met with the director for advanced degrees at TST asking for Reimer’s teaching at TST to be regularized. By September 1991, Grebel freed Reimer from some duties to take on this role. The motion to hire Reimer was approved unanimously by the TMTC Board on Sept. 25, 1991, and a letter to Reimer three days later, “enthusiastically and unanimously agreed to invite [him] to become the first director.”[34]

Original goals for TMTC

Reimer had clear and ambitious goals for TMTC. He would describe it later as “the culmination of a decade of Mennonite involvement at TST… . The Mennonite Centre occupies office space at the TST, but is an independent institution with its own budget and an international board made up of representatives from a broad range of Canadian and American Mennonite church bodies and educational institutions.”[35]

An article by Nighswander in The Mennonite Reporter described the goals of TMTC:

“The new centre will concentrate on creating community among scholars and facilitating ecumenical dialogue rather than offering courses and establishing a library… . [P]ostgraduate students will be able to connect with Mennonite scholars as advisers and test their work and vocational directions with other Mennonites in related disciplines. The centre will also offer a congenial study atmosphere for scholars on sabbatical leave who will have a chance to contribute to the Centre through occasional lectures, colloquia and friendships fostered by social and worship activities. Scholars at TST welcomed the new centre as a context for scholarly and ecumenical relations.”[36]

In the August 1994 TMTC Newsletter, Reimer asked: “What can a small tradition like ours contribute to theological education at a place like the TST?”[37] It was a question he was committed to exploring through the activities of TMTC.

II. What TMTC Did

While TMTC did not register students nor confer degrees, it brought together a variety of scholars, not all of whom were studying theology. Some came from insular backgrounds and appreciated the opportunity to interact with the diversity of Mennonite traditions, while others were glad to have a familiar context within a new and wider ecumenical or interfaith framework. Some came from churches that encouraged academic thinking, while others came from churches that frowned on higher education.

At least 108 students were affiliated with TMTC over the years. TMTC also was characterized by several key activities throughout its history.

TMTC student gatherings

For most of its existence, student gatherings were the mainstay of the program of TMTC. Those who had been affiliated with TMTC recalled these monthly Scholars’ Forums held in the graduate study room at Emmanuel College as the most important part of their connection with TMTC. These events were organized around student presentation of works-in-progress, sometimes with the formal reading of a paper, and other times a more informal sharing of an emerging idea. Pizza was served, but students would also often go out afterwards to talk more informally. Grebel professor Derek Suderman recalled his time as a TMTC-affiliated student, saying that the open sharing of students ahead of him in their studies demythologized graduate work for him.[38] Many described the forums as formational, identifying the important rhythm and ritual of regularly gathering the community at a specific place and time.

This was early recognized as an integral aspect of the program of TMTC. In his 1993 “Director’s Report,” Reimer said, “It is important that TMTC provide public opportunities for these students to present and discuss their research projects with each other.”[39] Neufeld Harder thought it was important that those presenting papers came from a variety of disciplines. She encouraged Mennonite students in fields other than theology (such as history and law) to attend so that conversations were more wide-ranging.

Dorcas Gordon, former director of TST, recalled these gatherings as interdisciplinary seminars and remembered “the depth of critical thinking that was exhibited and the richness of discussion from all those in attendance.”[40] Suderman added, “Many of us were very ensconced in our specific discipline and often didn’t really have conversation beyond those in classes, so it was really helpful to consistently interact on a topic with people who were studying a variety of subjects.”[41]

TMTC students found the forums vitally important to test their ideas within a community of Anabaptist peers. Former TMTC-affiliated student Phil Enns said, “For those of us doing graduate studies who were also Mennonite, one of the challenges was to figure out how to connect the two or whether there was any connection. Being with fellow grad students who were sharing what they were working on and how they connected it to their Mennonite identity was very helpful in working out for myself what I thought.”[42]

Christina Reimer said, “One of the most wonderful experiences at TMTC was when you would get a chance as a young scholar to present your papers. The experience was both academic and communal. It focused on identity and what it means to be a Mennonite scholar, so it was really grounding. It was a wide-ranging place for Mennonite person beyond theology — I was in psychology of religion — to explore what it meant for you as a Mennonite scholar.”[43]

Often there would be a dozen or more students and faculty in attendance, but even smaller gatherings had lasting impact. Kyle Gingrich Hiebert, who served as director from 2017-22, recalled a Scholars’ Forum where he was the only attendee besides the student presenting, and how that student’s paper was later published after revisions that came from that conversation.[44]

Some female scholars described experiencing some aspects of the Scholars’ Forums as frustrating. In the 2010s, the forums were sometimes referred to as Fellows’ meetings, a name the female scholars found only too apt for meetings that took a philosophical, systematic approach that was typical of the larger university context that favored a patriarchal ethos. These women founded a women’s theology group where their conversation was grounded in experience and embodied ways of knowing, and where they could critique power structures and support each other.

Teaching and supervision

Bringing an Anabaptist voice into the teaching environment of TST was a key impetus for the founding of TMTC in the first place, particularly for Reimer. As TMTC became established at TST, Reimer suggested a list of Anabaptist texts to be added to the library at Emmanuel College. Reimer had taught at TST before TMTC was established but between the years 1990-2020, more than 50 classes were taught at TST under the umbrella of TMTC. Many of these were taught by Reimer and Neufeld Harder but also by Grebel-associated professors such as later TMTC director Jeremy Bergen as well as Rod Sawatsky, Carol Penner, Arnold Snyder and Tom Yoder Neufeld. Courses included “Bonhoeffer: Life and Thought”; “Bible, Authority and Postmodernism”; “Church: Fiorenza, Moltmann and Yoder”; “Anabaptist Spirituality”; “Anabaptist-Mennonite Theology”; “War and Peace in Christian Thought”; “History of Radical Protestantism”; “Ecclesiology: Free Church Tradition”; and “Peace Church Theology,” as well as reading courses.

In addition, directors of TMTC carried a very heavy load of graduate supervision and service on student committees. In 2004-05, for instance, Reimer supervised or sat on the doctoral committee of no fewer than six Ph.D. students.[45] TMTC-affiliated faculty members sat on doctoral committees of at least 51 students, in some cases as supervisor.

Programs and events

TMTC also organized many programs and events, with the goal of hosting a public event at TST each term. These were aimed at TMTC-affiliated students and faculty, but also at other TST students and faculty, as well as interested Mennonites from local churches. Events included public academic lectures by prominent academics such as John Howard Yoder, Gordon Kaufman, Stanley Hauerwas and Miroslav Volf. Other events were designed more specifically for TMTC students, such as lunches with visiting Mennonite professors. Still others were structured as panels or dialogues of interest to the wider TST community.[46] A few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, for instance, TMTC sponsored a panel discussion called “Jesus, Hope and the ‘War on Terrorism’” with three professors from Christian institutions offering a variety of theological perspectives, from pacifism to liberationist to just war.

There were one-time events that reflected the interests of a particular student or moment in history — such as the 1999 “Consultation on Worship” conference that arose out of Irma Fast Dueck’s scholarly interest in the intersection of worship and ethics. In 2015, the women’s group convened a symposium — “Engaging Women’s Voices on the Church, Theology and Mission: a Task for the Church and the Academy” — with mostly female speakers as a way of righting the historical balance that traditionally favored male voices.

Other projects had a longer lifespan and wider impact. The Anabaptist Mennonite Scholars Network began at the initiative of Neufeld Harder, at the advent of the internet, as a way of creating a database that would help scholars connect with other scholars, books and conferences. Similarly, 32 Mennonite Scholars and Friends receptions were held at the American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature annual conferences (AAR/SBL) between 1989 and 2023, with TMTC becoming the key organizer of this gathering during the 1990s.[47]

In the late 1990s and in the 2000s, TMTC hosted Iranian scholars who wanted to study Christian theology at the University of Toronto. This experience was transformative for many TMTC scholars and was a significant focus of TMTC in the 2000s. This led to a series of dialogues including the 2002 and 2004 Muslim-Christian dialogues organized by TMTC at TST.

All of these projects, as Bergen said, “foster[ed] and nurture[d] a Mennonite theological ecosystem”[48] whose result can be seen in lives, institutions and theological commitments that have been advanced. Dozens of publications were authored by TMTC affiliates, some of which arose directly out of TMTC programs. Bergen also noted that this ecosystem was especially helpful for those who did not have strong previous connections to Mennonite institutions, supporting their important contributions and launching them for service in broader church and academic settings.[49]

Graduate conferences

One larger ongoing program established by TMTC was the biennial binational conference where Mennonite graduate students (particularly doctoral students) studying in theology and adjacent fields were invited to submit proposals on a theme and then to present papers. The location rotated between TMTC, Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS) in Elkhart, Ind., Eastern Mennonite University (EMU) in Harrisonburg, Va., and Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) in Winnipeg. Grants offset the costs of travel for the 15-30 students who typically attended. Students were housed on campus and enjoyed meals and a social evening together as well as the presentation of papers. This extended the TMTC Scholars’ Forum experience to those not studying at TST.

Nine graduate conferences in total were held, with the first in November 2002 under the leadership of Bergen, Enns and Neufeld Harder, and the final one online in 2021. In his 2016 report to advisory council, Bergen described the graduate conference as “one of the most significant contributions that TMTC makes to doctoral Mennonite education and Mennonite theology.”[50]

In the “Preface” to the Conrad Grebel Review section that included papers from the second conference, organizers Bergen and Enns wrote, “The purpose of these conferences is to provide Mennonite graduate students, primarily in religion and related fields, an opportunity to present their academic research to other graduate students in an interdisciplinary context and to interact with each other as colleagues.”[51]

At that second Mennonite Graduate Student Conference, held June 18-20, 2004, in Elkhart, 25 student participants gathered to listen to and discuss 13 interdisciplinary papers on the theme “Religious Texts.” Among the papers presented and later published were the following: “Visual Images as Text? Toward a Mennonite Theology of the Arts” by Chad Martin; “The Lost Cause: A Psychoanalytic Reading of the Judeo-Christian Myth of Origin” by Christina Reimer; and “The Flooded Text: Finding Dry Land in the Wings of the Dove” by Jacob Jost.

Community

TMTC offered respite from the notoriously lonely doctoral student experience. Former TMTC coordinator Daryl Culp described academic life at TST as isolated, lonely and independent, especially after the first few years of coursework.[52] Creating a sense of community was a focus of Neufeld Harder’s pastoral care for students. It was also at the heart of the women’s theology group, which was one of several TMTC-sponsored programs that reached into the Toronto Mennonite community, in this case involving local female Mennonite pastors.

The community also extended out more broadly both globally and across lines of faith with programs like the TMTC-supported Iranian student exchange.

III. Challenges Within TMTC

Early in TMTC’s history, challenges arose, some serious enough to nearly bring the center to a close.

Governance structure

For the first ten years of TMTC (1990-2000), the center operated as an independent entity, with a governing Board of Directors made up of senior administrators from Mennonite conference boards or committees and others from related Mennonite colleges and seminaries.[53] Such institutions were invited to become members of TMTC by appointing a qualified board member and paying an annual membership fee, which was initially $500.

Some groups expressed doubt about the wisdom or even appropriateness of accepting the invitation to participate. John E. Toews of the Mennonite Brethren Church, for instance, wrote to Lebold, “The shape of Mennonite Brethren post-secondary education in Canada is in such flux right now…that they feel it would be difficult to justify participation in a new venture at the present time.”[54]

According to former TMTC board chair and CMU president emeritus Gerald Gerbrandt, the idea of having senior administrators on the board was that of Al Meyer of the Mennonite Board of Education, who saw this as a way of engaging those institutions.[55] Nighswander noted this was likely the only way to ensure some of those leaders would be part of the conversation that formed TMTC.[56]

Unfortunately, this approach to governance was problematic. Several institutions, unnamed but cited in the minutes of the first TMTC Board meeting in September 1990, “recognized the ambivalence of their institutions toward the establishment of a ‘competing’ agency but declare that they have taken the appropriate formal action to declare themselves members.”[57] Even Nighswander, who supported the approach, said, “People would talk about the tension that they felt between their institution and TMTC.”[58]

This ambivalence led to a lack of ownership for TMTC among board members. The board only met annually and, as Gerbrandt said, “The moment they left the board meeting, senior administrators had their own work to do. TMTC would leave their mind, and so there was only the director who carried on the vision between meetings.”[59] This also meant that when the board did gather, Gerbrandt said, “All of us had our own interests. We didn’t have a retreat at any point where we did visioning for TMTC.”[60] Instead, the minutes of nearly every meeting describe a board trying to figure out who they were and what they were doing, far more often than in most organizations.

Marilyn Rudy-Froese, who served on the Advisory Council in the 2000s and late 2010s, said, “The board had to always keep thinking through why they were around the table. Particularly the U.S. members asked: Why are we investing in and part of this conversation about a Toronto-based center? I always had to do a few leaps to figure out why we were investing in this. I think people saw the value of the Centre, but we struggled to figure out who we were as an advisory council.”[61] Only Grebel among the affiliated Mennonite institutions decided it was worthwhile to have faculty devote time to teaching at TMTC, although this might be at least partly a function of geography.

A significant factor in the ambivalence about TMTC was the challenge of funding. As Gerbrandt said, “When you’re fundraising for one school, you can’t simultaneously try to sell a mission for another school.”[62]

In hindsight, Gerbrandt said, “it might have been good to have a hybrid board, which would include some institutional and organizational representatives and some board members who were simply elected to be on that board. We could have said that in order to be a good board member, you have to give that board complete priority during a meeting.”[63]

All these structural issues around governance meant that there was significant administrative weight placed on the director. This was challenging for Reimer because, as Enns said, “he just had too much on his plate and he cared about everything, but he had to make choices. I think the administration of TMTC was one thing he felt he could give up.”[64]

This was where Neufeld Harder stepped in as interim director when Reimer went on sabbatical in 1994. Soon after, Reimer resigned, and Neufeld Harder became the director. Early in her time in this role, fundraising was added to her responsibilities.

If the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise

From very early on until the end, money was an enormous issue for TMTC. The first board set a lofty goal of an endowment of $250,000 within five years, but after the support of the members and an initial Lilly grant secured by board member Marlin Miller of AMBS, funding quickly became a challenge. Christina Reimer said of fundraising for TMTC, “It was always an uphill battle. It was very stressful for my dad, and it took constant fighting to keep it going.”[65]

Some of this reflected changing economic realities in the church and wider society. Nighswander recalled, “In the 1980s, there had been large church budgets for new initiatives and money to start new programs and explore ideas. But, as giving patterns were shifting, those were being closed down.”[66] While Nighswander supported the initial decision to structure TMTC around academic institution members, he said, “When their budgets became tight, it soon became clear that they were going to be stretched in terms of discretionary money. This was an obvious place for them to pull back: it wasn’t their own program.”

In May 1992, Nighswander, then the treasurer of the TMTC Board, recognized the need for serious fundraising efforts. But by early 1994, with start-up funding coming to an end and only three individuals responding to a letter inviting them to become Friends of TMTC, Nighswander sounded an alarm to the rest of the board about the financial health of TMTC. Later that year, Lebold wrote to the board, “It is obvious that we are in a precarious state in terms of having sufficient funds to survive financially as a corporation.”[67] He proposed containing costs and seeking income through denominational funds, although he acknowledged, “This option is a long shot since budgets are tight and boards are not inclined to take on new projects.”[68]

That year, TMTC operated on a significant deficit budget. In his 1993-94 “Director’s Report,” Reimer wrote, “The most pressing issue facing us is the financial one… . In light of our financial difficulties, we need to modify our programming needs with great care, not sacrificing the great momentum that exists in this unique venture of higher Mennonite theological education within an ecumenical context.”[69]  The following year’s budget noted it was possible only if costs were cut and “the good Lord’s willing and the creek don’t rise.”[70]

The September 1994 board meeting minutes noted, “Jim Reimer returned part of his salary in order to balance the books.”[71] This was the start of a pattern that perhaps concealed issues of the sustainability of TMTC. Marcus Shantz, current president of Grebel and former TMTC-affiliated student, observed, “The biggest donor by far to TMTC was Jim Reimer, if you consider the in-kind donation of his own time.”[72]  The same was true of subsequent directors from first to last. Gingrich Hiebert was hired at 31 percent of fulltime, but regularly worked more than twice that much. Neufeld Harder said, “I was most frustrated about the money because I knew I was doing volunteer work. But I believed in the vision that Mennonites have to pay attention to their doctoral students.”[73] Still, it was not a sustainable solution. Neufeld Harder said, “When I eventually left, it was theoretically to retire, but I found it too stressful to be the visionary, the administrator, the professor, and then to also build the relationships needed to raise funds to pay for my work.”[74]

But, first, Neufeld Harder worked tremendously hard to get TMTC on a stable financial footing. The board considered a variety of income sources, from charging tuition fees to increasing corporate membership fees to hiring a fundraiser or consulting with members of the business community. Corporate membership fees were increased, administrative support was cut, and Nighswander was hired to make a concerted effort at soliciting funds. The latter was not a resounding success, with Nighswander concluding in 1995, “It seems to me that people are not especially interested in contributing to this project. It is not seen as being important to scholars working in religious studies nor to individuals outside the academic milieu.”[75] At a meeting of the TMTC Board in September 1995, the organization was “at a critical juncture”[76] in terms of finances, leadership and structure, and a “minimum survival budget”[77] was presented.

In October 1995, fundraising was added to Neufeld Harder’s responsibilities.[78] By 1996-97, the “Director’s Report” observed that after fundraising events in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario,[79] as well as letters sent to MCEC pastors, faculty and board, donations were up.

But TMTC’s vision did not easily attract funders. Neufeld Harder discovered that most people had little information about TMTC. Those who were informed did not necessarily agree about the vision of such a center and its relationship to the church and to other educational ventures. Nighswander said: “It wasn’t an obvious need. People were more interested in supporting obvious needs: let’s support the seminaries because they provide us pastors. Should we support TMTC, which might sometime provide some people to teach at our seminaries, or might provide education for people who are like me, there because of my own passion, knowing that it might not lead to a direct contribution to the church’s institutions?”[80]

Loss of key people

Not only were finances an issue from early in TMTC’s history, but TMTC suffered from “the premature death or relocation of some of the early visionaries.”[81] Only three years into his role, Reimer resigned as director, intermittently returning to take a turn as director or academic adviser. But there were many other founding figures who moved on or died early in TMTC’s history. A 1995 note from Gerbrandt to the board described “passing the torch” with the moving on of key players.[82] Nighswander said, “Sometimes something will last for a generation and then the founders move on or retire, but this happened quite quickly with TMTC. A number of the founders were involved in institutions, and then they retired or moved on, and the replacements couldn’t be counted on to carry the same enthusiasm. A number of them died early as well.” [83]

When such events happen after a generation, it often results in a loss of institutional memory but, in this case, as Gerbrandt suggested, what was lost may have been enthusiasm for and clear commitment to the initial vision.

Differing visions

As a consequence of all of these factors and more, there were different visions for TMTC. This is not surprising given the complexity of TMTC with its vastly different entry points. Further, as Rudy-Froese said, some board members would take a greater interest in certain TMTC programs “as a means of justifying to their constituents their participation in the life of TMTC.”[84]

One big question is whether its early directors — Reimer and Neufeld Harder — had conflicting visions. Many involved in TMTC at the time thought, in broad strokes, that Reimer’s vision was centered on academia and ecumenism, while Neufeld Harder had a more pastoral vision for the Mennonite students at TST.[85] A handwritten note on board minutes from May 2010 stated, “in Jim R’s memory the teaching role was primary, and the local student life was derivative.”

In 2000, Reimer reported, “I have quite a clear vision of what I believe the nature and purpose of the Centre is and ought to be…  . 1) the inter-Mennonite and international character of the Centre and 2) the ecumenical nature of its mission.” In the Summer 2003 TMTC Newsletter, Reimer noted that, since its inception, “TMTC has been dedicated to fostering ecumenical inter-Christian dialogue within the TST… .” In that same newsletter, Reimer returned to the ambitious initial hopes he had had for TMTC: “There is no doubt that TMTC has come to play an increasingly important role not only for Mennonite students on the campuses of the TST and the University of Toronto, but for Mennonite graduate students throughout North America and potentially around the world.” He also noted the shift from inter-denominational dialogue to inter-faith. In 2004, Reimer “argued that the academic core…of TMTC is absolutely essential for the vitality and credibility of all subsidiary parts of TMTC’s overall program.” [86]

Gerbrandt said, “As TMTC developed, somewhat different visions became evident as represented by Jim and Lydia. I’m not saying they were in tension with each other, but they had differing visions of what they were excited about.”[87] Enns agreed: “I felt that they had different visions for TMTC. But each of them brought something important and together they worked out something that was special.”[88]

But in fact, notes from Reimer to Neufeld Harder — whom he had known personally for many years, as well as in academic and church settings — suggest Reimer welcomed Neufeld Harder to foster relationships with students, think through the center’s vision and engage in fundraising, all tasks he felt he had not adequately undertaken.[89] Further, Neufeld Harder herself said, “We had a good relationship. We argued, but always about the bigger picture, not about smaller details. He never interfered when I became director.”[90]

Gender was another distinction between the two directors, with Neufeld Harder bringing a feminist lens to the original vision. This was a welcome shift for female scholars. Various female TMTC affiliates noted that TST and TMTC were not immune to the academic tendency to be dominated by typical, male-dominated Western thinking where systematic theology and philosophy were the most highly valued areas. With Neufeld Harder’s arrival and her emphasis on a feminist hermeneutic, this began to shift.[91]

Gerbrandt reflected that “probably our Mennonite world was somewhat too small to develop either of those visions to the extent that those two people originally hoped for, but Lydia’s vision probably had more legs because it required less resources and faculty presence to make it happen. Over the years, Lydia, followed by people like Jeremy [Bergen], did amazing work in providing a place where students could meet, and sponsor meetings or events that gathered students together.”[92]

Ownership of TMTC

The issue of ownership of TMTC was a perennial one for TMTC. Enns said of TMTC in the 1990s, “People were genuinely interested and committed to TMTC, but we just didn’t get any organization to take on and say, ‘Yes, we will take over leadership and we’ll fund it and we’ll staff it.’[93]” A 1998-99 “Director’s Report” stated: “Ownership issues have therefore been present from the beginning… . What has been missing is a ten-year plan and a commitment to provide the finances to carry out such a plan.”[94]

This became more pressing toward the end of the century and TMTC’s first decade, partly because of financial concerns. Institutional board membership fees had increased, first to $700 in 1995 and then to $1,000 by 1998-99, but this only made up a quarter of the TMTC budget.

Further, a significant amount of staff time was spent on fundraising and operational work. As Bergen said, “TMTC staff and volunteers were spending so much energy figuring out how to pay its bills and keep the lights on, doing its own charitable filings, writing all the administrative pieces. All that created extra burdens on the staff and volunteers.”[95]

There was also pressure on the board. The amorphous nature of TMTC — even after a new mission statement in 1996 — meant the TMTC Board had been especially responsive to pressure from the institutional interests of its members, but after nearly a decade in existence, interest in TMTC among those members was waning. The 1998 “Reflections on the Future Ownership of the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre” described the situation as follows: “The cooperative model is diffused and made of those with other primary loyalties who are busy.”[96]

Neufeld Harder said, “If Grebel hadn’t stepped up, TMTC probably would have died at that point.”[97]

Grebel to the rescue

From the start, Grebel had always been “the crucial piece in the puzzle,”[98] said Gerbrandt. In part this was a matter of geography as the nearest Mennonite academic institution, as an affiliate at TST in its own right, and as Jim Reimer’s employer. Grebel took a further step toward TMTC when Grebel and TST signed a memo of agreement for joint credit and cross registration.

The minutes of the 1998 TMTC Board meeting noted consensus on initiating conversations with Grebel about “a special relationship which would include management as well as financial implications.”[99] On Nov. 18, 1998, the board formally asked Grebel to assume responsibility for TMTC and to integrate their Master of Theological Studies and TMTC into one program. In the interim, the board put in place a management committee for two years.

“This was a key turning point,” said Bergen. “Grebel taking over administration was a lifesaver.”[100]

At the same time, this move raised questions for some, particularly Reimer, who by then was acting as academic adviser to the program. He recognized that both he and Neufeld Harder were only a few years away from retirement. In his “Future Directions for TMTC” document, Reimer observed: “The real question that must be considered at this juncture is whether the vision and viability of the Centre is limited to one or two individuals or whether it is a larger, more broadly based venture.”[101] He questioned whether Grebel’s affiliation with TST would strengthen or weaken the need for TMTC, and wondered about the effects of the absence of larger Mennonite involvement with TMTC, whether TMTC would survive such a radical restructuring. In response to his own questions, he wrote: “Grebel’s ‘ownership’ of TMTC runs the risk of parochializing the Centre, which in the absence of a larger Mennonite participation in the Centre could easily rob it of its raison d’être… . Would Grebel want to continue to carry the financial load for an institution that duplicates at least in some measure what is achieved through its own affiliation with TST apart from TMTC?”[102]

He was not alone in his concerns. Even the Reflections on the Future Ownership of TMTC document that proposed the idea of Grebel taking over management of TMTC said that this is “a positive direction and should help, but it does not solve the long-range ownership (ownership understood both as financial responsibility for direction and finances) question”[103] and that the downside might be a loss of inter-Mennonite identity.

Many described Grebel taking responsibility for TMTC as kind and necessary, affirming how well Grebel provided leadership and administrative support to TMTC. At the same time, Bergen said, “A lot of the people making decisions about TMTC actually didn’t fully understand what it was.”[104] Gerbrandt said, “There was always a bit of a sense by some within Grebel that TMTC was taking resources and energy away from Grebel.”[105] Gingrich Hiebert said, “To everyone outside of Ontario, those on the advisory council, and even people at TST, Grebel seemed pretty close, but for Grebel it seemed like TMTC was a million miles away. I think if you asked most people at Grebel, they wouldn’t even be able to tell you what TMTC was.”[106]

Some wondered whether Grebel was coerced into assuming this responsibility, but Jim Pankratz of Grebel, who assumed the directorship of TMTC, said, “I don’t think it felt foisted on us. We didn’t do it out of an obligation to Jim Reimer. We knew he’d been passionate about it, but there were [other] people on Grebel’s faculty who’d been nurtured by those contacts, saw the value of TMTC and felt a close connection to it.”[107]

This arrangement also offered apparent institutional advantages to Grebel, which was expanding its graduate studies program. Shantz explained, “There was a theory that taking on TMTC would put us on a path toward obtaining more recognition and funding for our MTS program.”[108] Another factor was financial. Bergen said, “The assumption was this would generate thousands of dollars a year for Grebel, providing compensation for Jim Reimer teaching at TST.”[109] In reality, the arrangement was never as lucrative as Grebel administration may have been led to believe, and Grebel was never significantly compensated financially for the teaching and supervision work of its professors.

As Grebel took on ownership of TMTC, other partners felt “great relief and gratitude for Grebel serving that function,” said Rudy-Froese, “but it meant that Grebel was left having to figure out how to actually do all of this with the resources and energies they had.”[110]

Nighswander said, “The downside was the other institutions could hold it even more lightly. With changing leadership and representation from those, they could say, ‘Oh, well, Grebel will take care of it.’”[111] But the other Mennonite institutions did stay involved, with the board shifting to become an Advisory Council for the next ten years.[112] Program-wise, too, Bergen said, “We did try to get one part of TMTC to be shared more broadly, and were partially successful. That was the part of planning the Mennonite gatherings at the AAR/SBL.”[113]

Reimer resumed the directorship of TMTC in 2000, with Bergen (then a graduate student) as his administrative assistant, after Neufeld Harder retired. When Reimer stepped back in 2005, Bergen then became interim director until 2007, at which point the model shifted so that the director was no longer based in Toronto but at Grebel. For the next four years, TMTC’s director was Pankratz who, unusually, was also both Grebel’s academic dean and the director of the Master of Theological Studies program. The advantage of this arrangement was, as he said, “It was easier for TMTC to be a natural part of my thinking about the future of Grebel.”[114]

Change in leadership model

There were also challenges in the change in leadership model, with the Grebel-based director taking on a more administrative role and supervising a series of Toronto-based TMTC coordinators. While many who were part of TMTC at this time expressed appreciation for all directors and coordinators, it became apparent — including to some of those coordinators themselves — that senior leadership had been a key to TMTC’s appeal. Christina Reimer, who herself served as TMTC coordinator, said, “Once the students took over leading, me included, there wasn’t that sense of experience and draw — you didn’t have the figurehead director who already had a long career in Mennonite studies.”[115] It became apparent that students had been attracted to TMTC by the possibility of such a director serving as a supervisor or adviser. A figurehead director also offered the potential for shaping and animating the vision of the center. Bergen said, “On one hand, Jim Pankratz taking over some of the work on behalf of Grebel saved TMTC to a certain extent.[116] But I don’t know that the vision moved forward as much with a director who had so many priorities in Waterloo. There became a recognition that we needed a director who was in Toronto who could give energy to TMTC.”[117]

In 2011, Pankratz recruited John Rempel to the role, in hopes that the newly retired professor of theology and Mennonite studies from AMBS would rejuvenate the centrer. Those hopes were realized, but when Rempel retired in 2015, there was no obvious successor of any stature in the Mennonite academic world who was willing to relocate to Toronto and tackle the challenges of TMTC for a modest salary. The difficulty in finding such a leader may well reflect a fundamental weakness in the structure of TMTC, one that had been hidden by the willingness of Reimer and Neufeld Harder to work far beyond their salaries.

Bergen, who had been hired by Grebel in 2008 and who had become director of theological studies at Grebel in 2014, stepped in from 2015-17 (with Grebel academic dean Trevor Bechtel assuming the role during Bergen’s sabbatical), followed by Gingrich Hiebert from 2017-22. Bergen assumed the role once more from 2022-23, as what turned out to be the final director of TMTC.

IV. Why TMTC Ended

“One of the real temptations for those of us who work in institutions is to think that whatever we start will go into perpetuity and people after us will continue it,” said Pankratz. “But sometimes things fit a particular time and they’re not as essential later on.” When TMTC began, it was the only center of its kind in the world. By 2023, that was no longer the case. Many other factors changed between 1990 and 2023, some of which particularly contributed to Grebel’s March 2023 decision to close TMTC in the fall of the same year.

But several times before that, TMTC faced turning points that could have either sustained it or brought it to an earlier end.

Possible turning points

In 2005, the University of Toronto’s Emmanuel College budgeted half the money to endow a chair in Mennonite studies, and invited TMTC and Grebel to raise funds for the remaining $3 million required. Many described this as a potential turning point for a permanent Mennonite institutional presence at TST, but no one in the Mennonite world was willing to fund the chair.

In 2009, the provincial government began providing funding for Grebel’s Master of Theological Studies program, making part of Grebel’s original rationale for taking TMTC under its umbrella unnecessary. However, Shantz said, given the funds flowing into post-secondary education from the provincial government at that time, any decision to disband TMTC would only have come from a mission, vision and values perspective.

The death of Jim Reimer in 2010 might have been another time to take a hard look at the center. “Organizations need to set up systems that can survive the departure of any one person,” said Bergen, “but Jim was the founder and the animator of TMTC in many ways, and I think TMTC never really got beyond the question of what TMTC was without him.”[118] Gerbrandt said, “On the one hand, Jim had this amazing passion and vision. On the other hand, perhaps it was one that couldn’t really thrive because it was too much based on his personality and his unique talents. If Jim hadn’t been there [in the first place], I suspect the group in Mennonite Eastern Canada looking at pastoral education would have played a more significant role, and maybe something else would have developed. Or maybe Grebel would have developed a more significant pastoral training program earlier.”[119]

There were possibilities of other partnerships with Emmanuel College that did not materialize in the final years of TMTC. After a 2019 consultation by Grebel about the future of TMTC, the longstanding strategy of remaining neutral among TST colleges was reconsidered. Given the number of students then enrolled through Emmanuel College, Grebel and TMTC began pursuing a partnership with Emmanuel where Grebel and Emmanuel would jointly offer courses and where TMTC would have office space at Emmanuel. Grebel also saw this as a way to ensure more equitable compensation for Grebel professors advising doctoral students at TST.[120] Unfortunately, a combination of the pandemic and leadership turnover at Emmanuel meant that Emmanuel did not ultimately take up this option.

The pandemic that began in 2020 offered new opportunities to expand the reach of TMTC. As the 2021 TMTC Now said, “Our community grew larger and new connections were forged despite our isolation.”[121] Gingrich Hiebert said, “While Covid was obviously bad for in-person activities, TMTC’s program expanded in terms of numbers and diversity of participants during Covid restrictions. Because our programs moved online, we could connect with people in ways we couldn’t before.”[122] The final online graduate conference meant participants could attend from Africa, Asia and Europe. Making the Visiting Fellows program remote meant that scholars from as far away as South Africa and Germany were able to be part of the community.

Why did TMTC close in 2023?

“It would be easy to say that the closure of TMTC came down to money, but that would be a simple reading of the situation,”[123] Shantz said, adding, “Budget challenges were part of it, but on the other hand you can often find the money if there’s a compelling case for the project. We were having a hard time finding funding, but that was because it was becoming hard to make a good case for continuing the program.”[124]

This reassessment of programs was, and is, happening at many other institutions. Shantz said, “Seminaries, Bible colleges, religious studies programs and theology departments everywhere are grappling with financial challenges, enrollment challenges, and the challenge of maintaining meaningful connections to their founding traditions.”[125] As Rudy-Froese said, “There are big questions about how we, as church and church institutions, will continue to do what we’ve been doing. I think we can’t keep doing it in the same way, and I think Covid accelerated something that was already a trajectory in the church.”[126]

TST had also changed. Over time, it had begun to move away from its ecumenical roots. This meant each college at TST began to place a higher value on students taking courses from their own colleges. This resulted in fewer students able to take courses outside their colleges, thus reducing enrollment in TMTC courses. Further, when TST introduced a new conjoint Ph.D. program in theological studies between the University of Toronto and individual colleges in 2015, the new degree required fewer total courses and several common courses, again limiting the capacity for students to take electives such as TMTC courses. This conjoint program guaranteed funding for students, but this funding structure limited the number of students who could be admitted into the Ph.D. program. In the Fall 2015 TMTC Now, Bergen acknowledged that this might well decrease interest in the specialized courses TMTC had offered in the past.

Changes were happening at Grebel as well. Ever since Grebel had assumed responsibility for TMTC, the center had operated at a loss, and Grebel had used operating funds to make up the difference. But when provincial funding became increasingly harder to find in the 2010s, and Arts enrollment began declining at both Grebel and the University of Waterloo, the revenue stream Grebel drew from to fund TMTC was less certain than it had been. A January 2015 TMTC Advisory Committee meeting included “discussion on re-examination of funding model given current funding realities,” adding that “embedded in this discussion will be the perceived value of TMTC for members, the wider Mennonite church in North America, and the realities of current budget cycles and pressures.”[127] Grebel began considering other sources of funding for TMTC, from fundraising campaigns to corporate partners and strategic partnerships with other Mennonite institutions, and even the cost-saving measure of not replacing the director.

In the fall of 2019, Shantz convened a gathering that included a wide constituency of interested TMTC alumni, church representatives and representatives of other TST colleges to consider whether TMTC was sustainable.

Shantz said, “It felt like TMTC was occupying our attention in an outsized way. To me, it was a question of the human resources and the attention that it required. Did we have the capacity and the interest at Grebel in giving it the attention and the human resources that it needed in light of everything else that we were trying to do?”[128]

Writing on the wall

While the outcome of the 2019 consultation did not bring TMTC to a close, it did acknowledge many factors that would eventually lead to the end of the center.

Many key people had left or began to leave around that time. In the Fall 2015 TMTC Now, Bergen pointed to this transition, writing, “Key leaders have retired. In Spring we honoured the work of John Rempel and celebrated with him on his retirement as TMTC Director… . This past academic year marked the conclusion of Lydia Neufeld Harder’s work in a formal faculty role… . We mourned the death of the tireless founding director of TMTC…in 2010.”[129]

By the summer of 2016, the TMTC Advisory Council had not met in person for more than a decade. Later that year its role as a regular advisory body came to an end, although it was noted that TMTC would likely convene occasional meetings of the group around matters such as the formation of theological leadership for the church, or new directions for TMTC. The 2019 consultation was an example of that kind of gathering.

Then events began to cascade. The pandemic hit in spring 2020. All activities became virtual, and TMTC terminated their lease of TST office space. Later in 2020, John Rempel was found to have committed ministerial sexual misconduct.[130] In August 2022, Gingrich Hiebert resigned as director, and Bergen was again appointed interim director. Throughout 2022-23, nearly all TMTC events remained virtual, no one replaced Gingrich Hiebert on the TST Academic Council, and TMTC gave notice to Emmanuel College that they would not be seeking shared office space. TST’s Hayes said, “Over the long haul, TMTC had done something important but over the last few years, it was getting to be a bit of a ghost.”[131]

While consideration was given of potential ways to sustain TMTC, ultimately Grebel leadership began to do the hard work of considering closing TMTC after many fruitful years.

Neufeld Harder said, “I think it had to die because you cannot keep a thing going halfway. There comes a point — and maybe it should have died sooner — where just keeping it going and not doing new visioning wasn’t good enough.”[132]

Shantz agreed. “The fact that you choose to end a program doesn’t mean the program failed. You should celebrate its impact and achievement. But if you decide that you can never close anything down, then you’ll spend all your resources on continuing old initiatives, and you can’t respond to new challenges and opportunities. Colleges are great at starting programs, and we have a hard time ending them. I think a disciplined college must have the courage to do that.”[133]

In the summer of 2022, Shantz and Grebel did just that, circulating a proposal to close TMTC, citing finances as a primary reason. After discussions with various stakeholders (including members of the Advisory Council, the theological studies department and the College Council), College Council endorsed the recommendation to close TMTC,[134] a recommendation that was finalized by the Grebel board.

V. Assessing the Impact of TMTC

In a collection of essays published posthumously, Reimer described 16th-century Anabaptist Pilgram Marpeck and his circle as “perhaps the most fruitful theological and ethical way into the future.”[135] What he wrote about “the Marpeck model” might describe the early vision for TMTC: “a non-separatist Anabaptism with a clear sense of Christian and moral identity; a collaborative-communal approach to biblical interpretation, theological reflection, and witness; energetic engagement in apologetics and ecumenical debate; and active participation as a full-fledged citizen in civic affairs and public life but always with a personal proviso, namely, freedom of conscience before God in Christ and the Holy Spirit.”[136]

There were high hopes for TMTC at the time of its founding: that it would be a global Mennonite academic center, a place that would draw visiting scholars, and the occupant of a legitimized seat at the ecumenical academic table.

The institution never happened

TMTC did provide the Mennonite voice in TST’s ecumenical setting that was initially hoped for, but structurally and institutionally, TMTC was at a disadvantage from the start.

It did not fit easily into existing structures and relationships. While TST was generous and welcoming to the center, TMTC had no real official capacity at TST, as the other denominations that had colleges at TST did. TMTC did not have its own students, nor did it confer degrees. It was not a partner at the TST table

“Some of the traditional things you look for when you’re an educational institution were not true of TMTC because it worked in an in-between space where it felt there was a need,” said Bergen.

Similarly, TMTC was welcomed by other Mennonite institutions, but it wasn’t organized in a way that led those institutions to see its raison d’être and theirs as interdependent.

For both TST and other Mennonite institutions, TMTC was a good thing, but not essential. Likely even TMTC board members thought of TMTC as “them” rather than “us.” This was particularly true when it came to vision and fundraising, tasks the early boards left to the directors.

Grebel probably saved TMTC when it assumed responsibility for it, but even then, Grebel seemingly held TMTC at arms’ length.[137] Reimer’s concerns for what would happen if Grebel assumed management for TMTC largely proved to be true.

Money problems

While for Reimer and other early dreamers, the mission was clear, TMTC had a complicated vision that was difficult to define and communicate. That was not only challenging institutionally but also was a huge problem for funding.

The reality that TMTC’s mission didn’t address “an obvious need,”[138] as Nighswander said, presented enormous financial challenges. Potential funders were more inclined to fund ventures that could more easily be grasped and whose work had direct impact on the church. TMTC was never able to describe its mission in a way that captured the interest of a major donor. No one thought TMTC was a bad idea, but its champions were few.

Further, the actual financial unsustainability of the center as an organization was hidden behind the individual generosity of TMTC directors who perennially did far more work than they were compensated for.

Bergen noted, “When you’re doing something like what TMTC was doing, which is intensive in terms of staff and faculty time, but doesn’t bring in the money, then it’s the worst of both worlds from an institutional point of view.”[139]

Similarly, Enns said, “TMTC didn’t have a mission, it didn’t have goals, it didn’t aim to bring about particular outcomes, and it was never able to get solid institutional support. By this measure, in many ways, it was doomed.”[140]

Finding other dreamers

This became particularly challenging in the matter of succession. In many ways, TMTC was built around Reimer — from its location to its mission — and while Reimer had a clear sense of what TMTC was and could be, the fact of his premature departure and death (and the early departures, deaths or retirements of other early TMTC visionaries) laid the foundation for its eventual unsustainability as an institution. As Bergen said, “I think TMTC never really got beyond the question of what TMTC was without [Jim].”

TMTC was not set up in a way that it attracted late-career Anabaptist scholars to serve as directors. In part, this was likely a budgetary issue of low salary, and because directors consequently volunteered significant amounts of time. Also, because of TMTC’s amorphous nature and the resulting funding challenges, taking on TMTC was a daunting task for such potential directors. Finally, it is not easy to invest huge energy in someone else’s vision or to transform it. Even Bergen, who likely would have been the most logical longterm director, had other priorities and recognized that TMTC needed to be someone’s life work for it to flourish. Christina Reimer believes her father saw TMTC as a legacy, and suspects that, if he hadn’t gotten sick, he would have been motivated to recruit senior professors to keep the advisory role strong. But this was not possible.

Vision, structure, leadership and money were interrelated factors in the institutional challenges that faced TMTC, the roots of which were present from the beginning. If any one of those had been strong, TMTC’s sustainability could have been altogether different. If the vision was one that fit within the structures of TST and the Mennonite academic ecosystem, it would have been easier to get a director and money. If TMTC had found a figurehead director who saw this as their life’s work and who could explain its vision in clear-cut terms, that person could have attracted students and potentially secured a major sustaining donor or legacy gift. If there had been funding, TMTC could more likely have attracted a director with a sense of vision.

Neufeld Harder said, “In the long run, it shouldn’t be a one-person dream. You need to have enough dreamers, and we couldn’t afford a dreamer. So it does come back to the facts that we needed a donor and a sustainable financial plan.”[141]

As it was, in some ways, TMTC was never able to fully achieve the vision of its early dreamers had for it. Rudy-Froese said, “Jim’s vision was even for something bigger than what it was, more established and of value for the global church. He saw this as unique within the church, too, valuing graduate level work as serving the church.”[142]

But despite the challenges, the efforts at building an institution were not futile. Enns observed that some of the programs of TMTC — such as hosting the Iranian scholars — took a multi-year commitment from TMTC. “I’m not sure this kind of visioning could have happened without commitment to building an institution. It’s just that the institution never happened.”[143]

Further, although TMTC never had the macro-structure in place to be a successful and sustained institution, what it did have was nimbleness to be able to respond to the interests of its people. Enns described a “trade-off” in that lack of institution-building. “If we had been more institutionally tethered, I’m not sure we could have been as flexible and adaptive as we were. A lot of what we were able to do was because we didn’t have those ties that would have perhaps narrowed our focus and our efforts. It’s not a long-term strategy and it’s terrible institution-building, but it did some pretty incredible stuff.”[144]

Pretty incredible stuff

The impact of TMTC could be quantified in typical ways — for instance, the number of TMTC graduates, the faculty at Mennonite institutions who studied at TMTC, the papers and books published by TMTC-affiliated scholars, the body of scholarship that came out of TMTC-sponsored conferences[145] — but as Bergen said, “I think any one of those metrics gets it wrong in a sense that it misses a lot of a lot of key things. But if you ask: How did it impact people? How is it formational? How has it affected other institutions? How has it prodded theological conversations, research and teaching in new direction? then one can see how the effort has been worth it.”[146]

Where TMTC had most impact was as a catalyst, helping to foster and nurture a Mennonite theological ecosystem whose fruit was evident in lives, theological commitments and scholarship.[147]

Many of those associated with TMTC described the experience as transformative and life-changing. Fast Dueck had grown up in Mennonite churches and Mennonite communities where, she said, “The formation, strangely, was fairly negative in the sense that we Mennonites were always against everything.”[148] For Fast Dueck, TMTC offered an opportunity to “think more positively or affirmatively about what it meant to be a Mennonite Christian person, to think more positively about Mennonite theology, even as I interrogated it religiously through my work as a doctoral student.”[149] Harrison said, “I lived and breathed TMTC. It was really important and a huge part of my life.”[150] Bergen said, “I feel like I have benefitted tremendously from TMTC. I may be in the office I’m in right now in part because of my TMTC work.”[151] Gingrich Hiebert said, “It was exhilarating to be there.”[152]

TMTC also prepared people for their work. Many of the more than 100 people who were associated with TMTC serve as Mennonite pastors, scholars and church leaders today. Many of them continue the conversations begun through TMTC in their current work.

Rudy-Froese said, “For me, its value was in the relationships built around the table, the people who cared about the church and saw themselves as doing this work to contribute back in and for the church. Some of them are teaching today, some of them are pastors, and some are active members in the church.”[153] For Culp, “The experience of studying at TST and my experience with TMTC prepared me for venturing out to teach in Lithuania. Because TST already was a bit of a foreign land, it prepared me in a way for opening my horizons.”[154]

In terms of advancing theological commitments, some point to the developments of Reimer’s commitments to Mennonites and classical theology and Neufeld Harder’s feminist Mennonite voice and perspective among other advancements in Mennonite thought. Bergen said, “Some of those would have been there without TMTC, but I think TMTC helped to light a fire under impulses that have continued to resonate in the wider system, creating synergy.”[155] Though many of the programs TMTC fostered only existed for a season, what is ongoing are the effects of such activities in forming the lives of individuals and communities. Neufeld Harder and others called this the hermeneutic community, the peer support of people who shared values and experiences, and who could test their scholarship and ideas against one another.

Bergen said of TMTC, “It addressed the challenges of our day, in everything from theological ethics to who we are as Mennonites, from interfaith dialogue to the often-hidden forms of violence within Mennonite theology. It deepened Mennonite theological voices in an ecumenical setting, both reshaping Mennonite theology, but also contributing to theology beyond the Mennonite world.”[156]

New visions

These should not be underestimated as radically different ways of meeting the initial goals set out for TMTC. If the success of the organization is that of institution-building, TMTC did not achieve or sustain that. Institutionally, TMTC wasn’t big, and ultimately it wasn’t sustainable. It was strange and amorphous and very hard to fund. Those from other institutions could never give it the attention it needed to thrive. It didn’t really fit at TST. Structurally it didn’t quite work.

But if its goal was to function as a center that brought people and ideas together, TMTC succeeded marvelously. TMTC functioned as a catalyst, drawing people together and helping them do their work better. That’s where the metaphors about TMTC whispering loudly come into play. TMTC advanced the legitimacy of Mennonite scholarship by bringing thinkers together in public lectures, scholars’ forums, conferences and publications. It introduced people who might not have met otherwise and gave them an opportunity to see Mennonite scholarship in action, to think intellectually with others who shared an Anabaptist lens.

TMTC could have been a more generally sustainable organization with a few different factors: a dynamic mid- or late-career Mennonite academic with a passion to see the center succeed and the ability to communicate its vision; a diverse board who understood why they were on the board, helped develop the vision, and had the capacity both to impart that vision and to raise funds for it; an endowed Mennonite chair at TST or a lead funder with passion for the project; and/or, a simpler model with a vision that showed clear benefit to the church and to donors.

But the book Recovering From the Anabaptist Vision is an example of how seeds planted by TMTC have germinated and grown long after they were sown. “Some of my key theological colleagues in the Mennonite world are those I met at the very first graduate student conference in 2002,” Bergen said. “This book didn’t emerge from that conference, but the relationships developed there all came to fruition in a book published almost 20 years later. To me it is such a TMTC product. It explains how these people know each other, why they are asking the questions they are, and how this has come about.”[157]

Lamenting the likely end of such graduate student conferences, Gingrich Hiebert said, “I think we won’t really realize what we’re losing because some of the really big things TMTC did were not visible in the ways that can be measured, like the relationships that get built through these grad conferences, these connections that then flourish. TMTC is not solely responsible for those, but without them, they might not have happened. That’s the kind of thing that we’re going to lose and that most people probably won’t even recognize we’ve lost.”[158]

Another possible loss is to the Mennonite church generally. Neufeld Harder said, “We’re going through a very radical change, and radical change needs people with a radical vision. It doesn’t all have to be scholars, but if you go back to early Anabaptist history, it was scholars who began it. I think if we could find that kind of scholarly vision, and if we could think of [doctorates] as more of a resource to the larger church, that’s what we need, and that’s one of the things that we will lose if we do not continue supporting students.”[159]

But even the book that arose out of the first graduate student conference might point to a new way forward for those who are Anabaptists and scholars. In Recovering From The Anabaptist Vision, Karl Koop is certainly including TMTC when he writes, “In the final two decades of the 20th century, scholars were engaged in issues around the nature of Mennonite theology.”[160] Koop adds that the mosaic or tapestry of the Anabaptist history “will always elude our interest to nearly define or possess, which itself may be seen as a virtue. Such thinking clearly calls into question ‘essentialist’ understandings of what the Anabaptist tradition looks like.”[161] Another contributor wonders “whether such a thing as Anabaptist theology is a possible, necessary or desirable moving forward.” [162]

As TMTC ends, it remains to be seen whether attempts to understand and define Anabaptist theology, and to gather its scholars, continue to be necessary, and consequently whether an organization like TMTC will be missed, or whether TMTC did its work well enough that it is no longer necessary.

Appendix A: Methodology

This project was supported by a grant from the Academic Research and Development Fund of Conrad Grebel University College (Grebel). While Grebel supported this project, I was given editorial freedom; this is not an official history.

My own position toward TMTC is as an observer. In 2022, I completed a Master of Theological Studies degree through Grebel, where I worked closely with some TMTC leaders but not in connection with the Centre. In this paper I rely on the voices of those who were part of its history.

This history was largely reconstructed through a series of individual interviews and through archival TMTC material. Anecdotes from the October 2023 online closing ceremonies for TMTC were also used. I made minimal use of other scholarly sources examining the landscape of Mennonite higher education.

Dr. Jeremy Bergen and the committee who initiated this project had determined with the University of Waterloo’s Office of Research Ethics that this project did not require formal ethics approval primarily because it was a not a university project conducted by students or faculty at the university, or with university funding.

I began my research into TMTC with an orientation session with Bergen in 2023.  I then read through 54 inches of archival material, which included annual reports and minutes from board meetings, as well as TMTC newsletters, promotional materials and other correspondence. It also included material that predated the establishment of TMTC. I pieced together a timeline, determined key players, and began to compile interview questions.

Together with Bergen, I developed a list of selected key members and eyewitnesses to different times in TMTC’s history. The aim was to broaden the perspective from an organizational/institutional one to understand its impact on individual scholars, other academic institutions and the church. We wanted to be careful to hear not only from cheerleaders or from central decision-makers. We sought a gender balance, in the end interviewing six women and ten men. Bergen advised that I not interview former director John Rempel; I agreed with this decision as I was not writing an official history.

Bergen made the initial contacts with those we proposed to interview, introducing both me and the project itself, and making it clear that agreeing to be interviewed gave us implicit consent to use their names, quotes and paraphrased and attributed ideas within the history. During each interview, I ensured it was clear that interviewees gave their consent, could withdraw it at any time, and would be offered the opportunity to confirm the accuracy of their statements; interviewees also understood that they did not have undue influence over the narrative as a whole.

While it is often useful to use a template of questions when interviewing for such a project, here I instead asked different questions to each person, depending on the role they had played within or around TMTC. I used prepared questions but also adapted during the interview with relevant follow-up questions. None of the interviewees received questions ahead of time.

Participants were offered the opportunity to be interviewed in person, by telephone or by Zoom. The vast majority opted for telephone, with one overseas interviewed on Zoom, and three interviewed in person. In each case, I recorded the audio of the interviews (audio files of all interviews are archived in Grebel’s archives). Interviews ranged from 30 minutes to 90 minutes in length.

I transcribed, color-coded and arranged material by themes before writing the paper.

No invited participants refused to be interviewed. In one case, Lydia Neufeld Harder’s husband, Gary Harder, joined the interview, offering his own comments in addition to hers. I formally interviewed Bergen last, in an effort to avoid his opinion biasing the paper.

Appendix B: After the End of TMTC

Some ongoing responsibilities connected with TMTC shifted as it came to an end.

Grebel remains an affiliated member of TST. This arrangement enables students in Grebel’s Master of Theological Studies program and those in TST programs to take courses at the other institution. It also means that several Grebel faculty are available to serve as supervisors or on supervisory committees of doctoral students at TST. The decision was made for all revenue from the A. James Reimer Endowment to be available exclusively for students in Grebel’s MTS program.

The Institute of Mennonite Studies (IMS) at AMBS agreed to assume all the administrative and coordinating roles for the annual Mennonite Scholars and Friends at AAR/SBL that were previously done by TMTC. IMS also assumed responsibility for the Anabaptist-Mennonite Scholars Network, which hosts occasional networking gatherings and curates a list of calls for papers, conferences, journals, job openings, grants and other information relevant to Anabaptist Mennonite scholarship.

No institution as of the time of writing has indicated willingness to host any future graduate student conferences.

Increasingly online resources and classes offer easier access to Anabaptist teaching and resources, something that made Gingrich Hiebert speculate whether the future of Mennonite theology “won’t need to have a geographical center.” But while Bergen described some interest at Grebel in keeping TMTC programs going with “a more occasional presence in Toronto, maybe with Grebel faculty going to Toronto from time to time,”[163] he expressed concern that the formational work and the provision of a Mennonite home base at TST is difficult to do at a distance.

Notes

[1] Jeremy Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[2] Tim Reimer, quoted by Lydia Neufeld Harder, “Fundraising letter,” Feb. 18, 1996, Toronto Mennonite Theological Center (hereafter TMTC) fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[3] Dorcas Gordon, TMTC closing ceremonies, Oct. 24, 2023.

[4] Notes on methodology can be found in Appendix A.

[5]  TMTC, “Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre Review Document 1994-5,” undated, 1994-95, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, Mennonite Archives of Ontario (hereafter MAO).

[6] A. James Reimer, “15-Plus Years of TMTC: Historical Reflections” in TMTC Newsletter, November 2005, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[7] Reimer, “The Nature and Possibility of a Mennonite Theology,” Conrad Grebel Review 1, no. 1 (Winter 1983), 53.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Reimer, letter to Gerald Gerbrandt, Oct. 30, 1990, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[10] Reimer, “15-Plus Years of TMTC.”

[11] Reimer, “Proposal submitted to the Board of Trustees of the Toronto School of Theology,” Dec. 2, 1991, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[12] Ibid.

[13] Former TMTC-affiliated student Dan Nighswander said (conversation with the author, Oct. 3, 2023), “I remember one of my profs would talk about Jim Reimer and his ‘heresies,’” while Susan Kennel Harrison recalled (conversation with the author, Oct. 21, 2023): “One time, Lydia and I were walking down the hallway together, and one of her former professors, who was a pretty prominent theologian, made some passing comment about how you Mennonites are still in the medieval times. It was a very aggressive comment.”

[14] Susan Kennel Harrison, conversation with the author, Oct. 21, 2023.

[15] As TMTC did not admit students or grant degrees, those who had a connection with TMTC will be referred to throughout as (former) TMTC-affiliated students.

[16] One TMTC-affiliated student, Irma Fast Dueck, recalled using the term “non-Mennonite” in a class presentation at TST, and how the class laughed at the idea that “this little group thought the rest of the world was not you,” TMTC closing ceremonies, Oct. 24, 2023.

[17] Lydia Neufeld Harder, conversation with the author, Oct. 10, 2023.

[18] Reimer, “15-Plus Years of TMTC.”

[19] Larry Kehler (CMC), letter to the Ecumenical Foundation of Canada, April 11, 1990, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[20] Ralph Lebold, Rodney Sawatsky, Richard Yordy, “Proposal for a Mennonite Centre for Theological Studies in Association with the Toronto School of Theology,” May 1988, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[21] Dan Nighswander, “Why I Believe in TMTC,” TMTC Newsletter, May 1999, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[22] Nighswander, letter to Gerald Good, Nov. 21, 1985, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[23] In 2001, this became Conrad Grebel University College.

[24] Reimer, “15-Plus Years of TMTC.”

[25] Throughout, Christina Reimer will be named with both given name and surname. “Reimer” indicates Jim Reimer.

[26]  Yordy, Sawatsky, Lebold, Nighswander, “The Proposed Mennonite Centre – Toronto School of Theology at U of T, March 13-14, 1989,” March 1989, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[27] Alan Hayes, later director of TST, said, “If that conversation had started under the following director of TST, I think they would have said, ‘That’s a great idea, let’s pursue that.’ I think that decision was probably circumstantial in terms of the leadership in place at that point.” (conversation with the author, Oct. 11, 2023)

[28] Hayes, conversation with author, Oct. 11, 2023.

[29] Sawatsky, “Updated proposal formalizing center,” March 1989, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[30] Lebold, Sawatsky, Yordy, “Proposal for a Mennonite Center for Theological Studies in Association with the Toronto School of Theology,” May 1988, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[31] Ibid.

[32] Yordy, “Mennonite Theological Centre Ad Hoc Committee Minutes,” Nov. 8, 1989, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[33] TMTC, “Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre Founding and First Annual Meeting September 19-20, 1990 at Toronto School of Theology Minutes,” September 1990, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[34] Gerald Gerbrandt, letter to Reimer, Sept. 28, 1991, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[35] Reimer, “A note on the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre,” CTS Newsletter/Communique, November 1992, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO. By 1994, the following were corporate members of the TMTC Board: Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary (AMBS); Canadian Mennonite Bible College (CMBC); Conrad Grebel College (Grebel); Eastern Mennonite University (EMU); Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary (MBBS); General Conference Mennonite Church (GCMC); Mennonite Board of Education of the Mennonite Church (MBE); Conference of Mennonites in Canada (CMC); and Mennonite Conference of Eastern Canada (MCEC), as well as several at-large members. This was to be a a management board.

[36] Nighswander, “New centre to support post-graduate study and ecumenical dialogue,” Mennonite Reporter, Oct. 29, 1990, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO. In the next issue of Mennonite Reporter, an issue was flagged, one that would recur throughout TMTC’s history: “Where are the women on Toronto Centre board?” was the title of a letter to editor from Debbie Fast.

[37] TMTC Newsletter, August 1994, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[38] Gordon, TMTC closing ceremonies, Oct. 24, 2023.

[39] Reimer, “TMTC Director’s Report,” Sept. 20, 1993, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[40] Gordon, TMTC closing ceremonies, Oct. 24, 2023.

[41] Derek Suderman, TMTC closing ceremonies, Oct. 24, 2023.

[42] Phil Enns, conversation with the author, Sept. 28, 2023.

[43] Christina Reimer, conversation with the author, Oct. 5, 2023.

[44] Kyle Gingrich Hiebert, conversation with the author, Nov. 16, 2023.

[45] In the “Annual Advisory Board Meeting Minutes, October 1-2, 2004,” Reimer described his committee responsibilities as having gotten “especially out of hand.”

[46] Bergen noted that this type of wider event was not something individual colleges at TST typically initiated, but he said that there was widespread appreciation for TMTC’s initiative.

[47] Former TMTC-affiliated student and staff Daryl Culp said, “The Mennonite Scholars and Friends was a really significant impulse for TMTC to try to encourage Mennonites further abroad. That was one of Jim’s visions: he wanted to connect, and he wanted TMTC to be a bilateral institution, and so AAR was an important venue for those conversations to continue” (conversation with author, Sept. 29, 2023). These conversations were one of the ways that Jim Pankratz (then at Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary) first encountered TMTC.

[48] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[49] Ibid.

[50] Bergen, “Director’s Report to TMTC Advisory Council,” 2016.

[51] Bergen and Enns, “Preface,” Conrad Grebel Review vol 23. No 3 (Fall 2005): 32.

[52] Daryl Culp, conversation with the author, Sept. 29, 2023.

[53]In 1996, MBBS ceased to be a corporate member and Mennonite Central Committee joined the TMTC Board. By 2000, the following were corporate members: Mennonite Church Canada (succeeding CMC), AMBS, CMBC (later Canadian Mennonite University, CMU), EMU, MBE (later succeeded by Mennonite Education Agency of Mennonite Church USA, MEA), MCEC, MCC, and GCMC (later succeeded by MC Canada and MEA [MC USA]).

[54]  John E. Toews, letter to Lebold, Feb. 15, 1990, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[55] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[56] Nighswander, conversation with the author, Oct. 3, 2023.

[57]  TMTC, “Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre Founding and First Annual Meeting September 19-20, 1990 at Toronto School of Theology Minutes,” September 1990, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[58] Nighswander, conversation with the author, Oct. 3, 2023.

[59] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[60] Ibid.

[61] Marilyn Rudy-Froese, conversation with the author, Oct. 6, 2023.

[62] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[63] Ibid.

[64] Enns, conversation with the author, Sept. 28, 2023.

[65] Christina Reimer, conversation with the author, Oct. 5, 2023.

[66] Nighswander, conversation with the author, Oct. 3, 2023.

[67] Lebold, “Long-term funding for TMTC,” Aug. 15, 1994, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[68] Ibid.

[69] Reimer, “1993-4 Director’s Report,” Sept. 20, 1993, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[70] Nighswander, “Treasurer’s Report in TMTC Annual Board Meeting (conference call) Minutes,” Sept. 27, n.d., TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[71] Ibid.

[72] Marcus Shantz, conversation with the author, Oct. 23, 2023.

[73] Neufeld Harder, conversation with the author, Oct. 10, 2023.

[74] Ibid.

[75] Nighswander, “Report to Board,” undated 1995.

[76] TMTC, “TMTC Board Minutes,” 1995, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[77] Ibid.

[78] In her undated 1996-97 “Annual Director’s Report,” Neufeld Harder sounded a warning note: “If fund-raising becomes a primary task, then other aspects of the work will suffer.” She also asked: “Can TMTC be kept alive for another year?”

[79] The best fundraising ventures were concerts by Reimer’s bluegrass musical group, Five on the Floor. Reimer joined his musical group performing on behalf of TMTC 36 hours before his death in 2010. Christina Reimer said, “Our whole family thought that he was crazy for wanting to do this, but he said, what’s the worst that could happen? He was passionate about TMTC until the very end.”

[80] Nighswander, conversation with the author, Oct. 3, 2023.

[81] Neufeld Harder, “Annual Director’s Report of the TMTC,” undated, 1996-97, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[82] Gerbrandt, “1995 Annual Corporation Meeting,” June 13, 1995, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[83] Gerbrandt said, “If I look at the original board, Marlin Miller passed away, Richard Yordy was gone, Ralph Lebold left Grebel. Al Meyer retired. Dan Nighswander and Sawatsky left.” (conversation in author, Oct. 18, 2023)

[84] Rudy-Froese, conversation with the author, Oct. 6, 2023.

[85] Interesting is Christina Reimer’s response to this perceived dichotomy: “Maybe it’s true to some degree, but I think Lydia would bristle to hear that. She was very much an academic” (conversation with the author, Oct. 5, 2023).

[86] “Annual Advisory Board Meeting Minutes,” Oct. 1-2, 2004, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[87] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[88] Enns, conversation with the author, Sept. 28, 2023.

[89] Neufeld Harder, “Interim Director’s Report,” September 1994, and A. James Reimer letter to Lydia Neufeld Harder, January 6, 1994, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[90] Neufeld Harder, conversation with the author, Oct. 10, 2023.

[91] This would shift even more in the 2010s with the formation of the women’s theology group.

[92] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[93] Enns, conversation with the author, Sept. 28, 2023.

[94] Neufeld Harder, “Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre Director’s Report 1998-9,” undated, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[95] Bergen, in conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[96]  Nighswander, Gerbrandt, “Reflections on the Future Ownership of the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre,” Aug. 28, 1998, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[97] Neufeld Harder, conversation with the author, Oct. 10, 2023.

[98] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[99] TMTC, “1998 TMTC Board Meeting Minutes,” undated, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[100] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[101] Reimer, “Future Directions for TMTC,” Sept. 21, 2002, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[102] Ibid.

[103] Nighswander, Gerbrandt, “Reflections on the Future Ownership”

[104] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[105] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[106] “I think this shows how difficult it was to communicate what TMTC was actually doing even to people at Grebel who had responsibility for overseeing and making decisions about TMTC,” said Bergen. (conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023)

[107] Jim Pankratz, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023. Pankratz was Grebel’s dean of graduate studies and the chair of theological studies in addition to serving as TMTC’s director.

[108] What ended up happening was quite different. Bergen said, “It turned out that in the mid-2000s, the provincial government was really looking for graduate studies programs and the University of Waterloo gave very favorable terms to Grebel for Grebel’s [Master of Theological Studies] program to become a conjoined program with the University of Waterloo. And so, Waterloo was the partner, not TST.” (conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023)

[109] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[110] Rudy-Froese, conversation with the author, Oct. 6, 2023.

[111] Nighswander, conversation with the author, Oct. 3, 2023.

[112] MCC ended its affiliation around 2005. MEA ended its affiliation in 2020.

[113] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[114] Pankratz, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[115] Reimer, conversation with the author, Oct. 5, 2023.

[116] Bergen said: “One of the things that saved TMTC was transferring responsibility for the Iranian dialogues from TMTC to Grebel. Because I think had that responsibility remained with TMTC, TMTC would have had to stop doing just about everything else to focus on those conferences” (conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023).

[117] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[118] Ibid.

[119] Gerbrandt, conversation with the author, Oct. 18, 2023.

[120] This was a shift from the ethos of the early days of TMTC when a funding strategy was for directors to work with little to no compensation. Gingrich Hiebert’s experience was not much different from that of his earlier predecessors, but in 2019, Grebel sought partnerships to make this work more sustainable.

[121] TMTC, TMTC Now, 2021, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[122] Gingrich Hiebert, conversation with the author, Nov. 16, 2023.

[123] Shantz, conversation with the author, Oct. 23, 2023.

[124] Ibid.

[125] Ibid.

[126] Rudy-Froese, conversation with the author, Oct. 6, 2023.

[127] TMTC, “TMTC Advisory Committee meeting,” January 2015, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO..

[128] Shantz, conversation with the author, Oct. 23, 2023.

[129] Bergen, TMTC Now, Fall 2015, TMTC fonds, XV-61.1/1, MAO.

[130] In 2020, Mennonite Church Eastern Canada terminated Rempel’s ministerial credentials following an investigation into multiple complaints of ministerial sexual misconduct that happened while he was campus chaplain at Grebel in the 1970s and 1980s. This also brought an end to Rempel’s work with Grebel and TMTC.

[131] Hayes, conversation with the author, Oct. 11, 2023.

[132] Neufeld Harder, conversation with the author, Oct. 10, 2023.

[133] Shantz, conversation with the author, Oct. 23, 2023.

[134] Some ongoing responsibilities connected with TMTC shifted as it came to an end. See Appendix B for details.

[135] Toward an Anabaptist Political Theology: Law, Order, and Civil Society, edited by Paul G. Doerksen (Eugene, Ore.: Cascade, 2014).

[136] Ibid, page 124.

[137] As a Grebel theology student, I had no idea of the connection between the two institutions and never heard the suggestion that one led into the other.

[138] Nighswander, conversation with the author, Oct. 3, 2023.

[139] Bergen noted a related challenge that would be less of an issue in a larger institution with access to grants and other financial resources, “Where there wasn’t income for the students being supported, there were questions about how that supervisory work could be compensated in a fair and just way” (conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023).

[140] Enns, conversation with the author, Sept. 28, 2023.

[141] Neufeld Harder, conversation with the author, Oct.10, 2023.

[142] Rudy-Froese, conversation with the author, Oct. 6, 2023.

[143] Enns, conversation with the author, Sept. 28, 2023.

[144] Ibid.

[145] A 2020 summary document created by Gingrich Hiebert notes 51 courses taught, 51 graduates supervised by TMTC professors, 25 publications that emerged from TMTC events, 26 publications authored by those affiliated with TMTC, 33 Mennonite Scholars and Friends at the AAR/SBL, 56 other events, 108 affiliated students, and 22 faculty, staff and fellows.

[146] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[147] Ibid.

[148] Irma Fast Dueck, TMTC closing ceremonies, Oct. 24, 2023.

[149] Ibid.

[150] Harrison, conversation with the author, Oct. 31, 2023.

[151] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[152] Gingrich Hiebert, conversation with the author, Nov. 16, 2023.

[153] Rudy-Froese, conversation with the author, Oct. 6, 2023.

[154] Culp, conversation with the author, Sept. 29, 2023.

[155] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.

[156] Ibid.

[157] Ibid.

[158] Gingrich Hiebert, conversation with the author, Nov. 16, 2023.

[159] Neufeld Harder, conversation with the author, Oct. 10, 2023.

[160] Karl Koop, “Contours and Possibilities for an Anabaptist Theology,” in Recovering From The Anabaptist Vision: New Essays in Anabaptist Identity and Theological Method (London: Bloombury Academic, 2020), retrieved online, location 402.

[161] Ibid, retrieved online, location 460

[162] Paul Martens, “Challenge and Opportunity: The Quest for Anabaptist Theology Today,” in Recovering From The Anabaptist Vision: New Essays in Anabaptist Identity and Theological Method (London: Bloombury Academic, 2020), retrieved online, location 312.

[163] Bergen, conversation with the author, Dec. 6, 2023.