Ken Warkentin has announced his resignation after almost 10 years of service to Mennonite Church Manitoba.

The announcement came this past Monday at a meeting of the Board. Warkentin expects to serve as Executive Minister until June 2020.

In his letter of resignation, he says, "These have been years of tremendous personal growth and learning, years of joyful collaboration with board, staff and constituency, and years of wonder as I watched what God has done and might be doing in the Church and Manitoba and beyond."

Board chair, Gerald Gerbrandt says, "Ken has provided excellent, sensitive leadership to MCM in a period of significant transition. His many years of pastoral experience gave him a love for the congregation which shaped the way he performed his role. We will miss him very much."

Ken Warkentin came to MCM on January 1, 2011, after 29 years in pastoral ministry in three Mennonite Church congregations and one non-denominational congregation. Warkentin’s passions for the Mennonite community and peoplehood were sharpened in this time, he says.

"When I began at Mennonite Church Manitoba, two large agenda items lay before us: the reorganization of our camping ministry; and the beginning of the conversation on LGBTQ+ inclusion. I didn’t anticipate the depth to which the reorganization of Mennonite Church Canada, our nationwide church, would become part of my work," he says. 

"A focus on congregational health became a passion for me, as we worked through these significant changes."

Warkentin says, "I have been privileged to work with capable and dedicated staff who seem tireless in their service of the Church they love. They have been a model of dedication to our congregations."