About
Conciliation Services Canada is a non-denominational private practice in church conflict transformation, headed by Nan Cressman. The roots of Conciliation Services Canada lie in Mennonite and Brethren in Christ Conciliation Services of Canada (MBiCCSC), Canada's first church-based conflict resolution service, of which Nan was the founding Coordinator. MBiCCSC was a project of the broader family of Canadian Mennonite churches, from 1990 to 2001, created to help the historic peace churches of Canada to better apply the principles of Christian peacemaking within the daily life of their congregations. Since 2001, the work of this project has continued on a non-denominational basis, through Conciliation Services Canada.
Some of the goals of the project, which continue today, were
- to lead training workshops across the denomination, providing opportunities for every lay and ordered church leader to access basic training in Christian conflict resolution
- to offer one-on-one consultation to church leaders in difficult conflict situations
- to provide outside facilitation and process planning assistance to churches facing challenging congregational or leadership group decisions
- to host annual Summer Training Institutes for Church Leaders - offering top quality training in various aspects of congregational health and leadership - particularly in the area of conflict transformation
- to provide third-party intervention in larger congregational conflicts
In the 1990’s, this Mennonite project was soon inundated with requests for service, not just from churches within the denomination, but from many other denominations as well. By the time the MBiCCSC project was brought to a close in 2001, its mission had become integrated to a large extent into the work of each Mennonite Conference office.
Nan Cressman, BA, B Ed, D.R.Cert., the founding coordinator of MBiCCSC, was encouraged to continue to offer the services non-denominationally, and has done so, working with over ten Canadian denominations and hundreds of congregations, under the auspices of Conciliation Services Canada.
An educator and mediator by training, Nan has taught at the elementary, secondary, and post-secondary levels in Canada and Botswana. Nan’s training in mediation and conflict transformation was with Mennonite Conciliation Services in Akron, PA, Community Mediation Services in Kitchener, ON, the Peace and Conflict Studies program of Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, ON, and Laurentian University in Sudbury, ON. Since 1985, Nan has taught and worked exclusively in the field of conflict resolution and peace making, primarily in churches, seminaries, ministry and social service agencies, church colleges, and schools.
Nan was a founding member and lay leader within a Mennonite congregation in Waterloo, Ontario, until 1998 when she moved north and became a member of St. Andrew's United Church in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Nan is a Licensed Lay Worship Leader with the Algoma Presbytery of the United Church and has served as a member of the national Conflict Resolution Task Group of the United Church of Canada. For the 2009-2010 school year, Nan has returned to Kitchener-Waterloo and is enjoying reconnecting with the church community there.