A year in review…
In 2023, the PiE community came together around shared tables–both literally and figuratively. In January, we started our new dinner program, PiE for Supper, which ran twice throughout the year (from January to April and September to November). PiE for Supper has been a place where people from all of PiE’s different communities come together to share a meal and informal conversation before breaking into our regular programming. Generous volunteers from various local churches provided prepared meals while participants were often sent home with leftovers to feed them well into the week. We enjoyed informal conversations around the dinner table which created opportunities for getting to know one another in deeper ways.
The deeper connections made over the dinner tables were further fostered in conversations about faith and God through our regular programming, such as Feminist Bible Study and Queerly Christian. In Spring, we hosted two Bible studies, the first, engaging with the Anabaptism @ 500 project from Menno Media: an opportunity for faith groups to read assigned passages together and have notes become part of an Anabaptist study Bible being released for the 500 year anniversary of the Anabaptist movement. Together in community, we engaged questions of where God might be found in some obscure and strange passages of the Bible, and brought queer and feminist ideas to the project. Later in the spring, we ate potato chips together as we studied J. Nicole Morgan’s book Fat and Faithful. We explored our relationships with food and our bodies from a faith perspective and considered what it might mean to adopt a subversive expression of radical love for our bodies just as they are.
In June, we revived our Beyond Binaries Conference (pictured below), which had to be cancelled in 2020. We gathered almost 100 people in Rockway Christian Collegiate for a day during pride month to engage questions of how to make the church a safer place for members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, particularly trans and nonbinary youth. We ate delicious food, shared stories, and learned from one another while dreaming of a future for the church that includes and celebrates trans and nonbinary youth.
In the fall, we engaged PiE for Supper again, following it with Bible study, and our artistic devotional time studying the women in Jesus’ family line as outlined by Joanna Harader in her book Expecting Emmanuel (collages can be seen on p. 1 and below). We also studied queer pictures of God and Biblical characters through our Drag and Disguise Bible Study. Throughout the year, pastoral care continued, over coffee, meals and the occasional bubble tea or popsicle shared over deep conversations about where young adults find themselves as they navigate faith, health, activism, and regular mundane life. It has been a blessing to walk together to share meals together, and to grapple with our place in the world together over this past year.
Thank you, Jessie!
We want to extend our deepest gratitude to Jessie Reesor Rempel for her near decade of leading, visioning, and serving the PiE community. In August, Jessie wrapped up her time in the role of PiE Pastor/Executive Director and took on a new role at Conrad Grebel University College.
While we miss her involvement in our day-to-day activities at PiE, we are so grateful for her legacy of justice-seeking, advocacy, and community building, and all the ways Jessie continues to cheerlead and support the PiE community.
Thank you, Steve!
We would also like to extend a very big thank you to Steven Reesor Rempel for the way he served PiE in the role of bookkeeper. Steve has supported us in this role since the beginning of PiE and we want to honour the closing of this chapter which happened near the end of 2023.
We are so grateful for not only all of the ways you made financial reporting and operations as minimally stressful as possible- but also for all of the instances where you gave your time and energy to support the work of Pie!
Thank you, ministry partners!
We were privileged to partner with some amazing ministries throughout 2023.
Thank you:
Burning Bush Forest Church (Easter Sunday Sunrise Service)
Rockway Mennonite Collegiate (Beyond Binaries Conference)
Silver Lake Mennonite Camp (Winter Camp for Grownups)
W-K United Mennonite Church (regularly donates office space and space for us to run programs)
Thank you, board members!
This year we are especially grateful for the support and direction of the outstanding people who make up the PiE board. Thank you to Nolan Andres, Meghan MacMillan, Myrna Miller Dyck, Caleb Redekop, Noramy Gonzalia Diaz, Kristen Gingrech Berg, Sarah Wright, Kim Penner and Glenda Ribey Rozomiak .
Financial Update
If you compare PiE’s financial stories from previous years, you would notice a significant increase in both expenses and income in 2023. For the first time, PiE had a full-time staff person for a full year, which expanded our capacity to offer programming from previous years and increased our overall salary expenses. This increase was supported by the fundraising pledges that were made in 2022 and honoured in 2023. 2023 also required a scheduled payback of a portion of the government pandemic subsidy we had received. Despite this, we ended the year with a smaller budget deficit than in 2022 and are grateful for everyone who supported our work through fundraisers, monthly gifts, and generous donations.
We certainly couldn’t do this work without you! As we continue our work in 2024, we cherish your monetary support and encouragement of our work. .
Financial Summary
The fiscal year ended December 31, 2023
Thank you, Church Donors!
PiE is ever grateful for the donations of the many churches who support PiE’s work through offerings or including us in their budgets.
Thank you to:
Breslau Mennonite Church
Stirling Ave Mennonite Church
W-K United Mennonite Church
Erb St Mennonite Church
and Waterloo North Mennonite Church
Pastors in Exile 