wfn.org | TITLE: AMERICAN BAPTIST NEWS FOR AUG 9, 1996

[LEAH_MCCARTER.parti@ecunet.org]

To: wfn-editors@wfn.org

American Baptist News Service_____________________
Office of Communication / American Baptist Churches USA
P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851
Phone: (610)768-2077 / Fax: (610)768-2320 
E-mail: RICH_SCHRAMM.PARTI@ECUNET.ORG
Richard W. Schramm, Director

_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________

UPDATE: AUGUST 9, 1996
_____________________________________________________________________
________

o  The Rev. Rhonda Cushman, of Royersford, Pa., has been named
interim director of Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counseling Services for
American Baptist National Ministries, effective immediately.  She
will serve in this capacity until the current search for a director
is completed.  Cushman has been a pastor, co-pastor and interim
pastor at churches in Colorado, New York, Rhode Island and
Pennsylvania.  From 1985-1995 she served as a volunteer chaplain at
Rhode Island Hospital; she currently is an American Baptist-endorsed
chaplain in the Pennsylvania Air National Guard.  Cushman received a
B.A. degree from the University of Redlands and a M.Div. degree from
the American Baptist Seminary of the West.  She completed an extended
unit of clinical pastoral education through Interfaith HealthCare
Ministries, Providence, R.I.  Susan Gillies, who directs the Ministry
Center for Mission Services for National Ministries, commended
Cushman's "experience as both chaplain and pastor [that] will
maintain our support of this very important group of home
missionaries."  The Office of Chaplaincy and Pastoral Counseling
Services enables the endorsement of American Baptist clergy for
ministry in specialized settings and provides liaison support with
American Baptist Churches.  Currently this group of clergypersons,
who also are National Ministries associated home missionaries,
includes approximately 600 persons serving at mission sites around
the world.     

o  "Called by God...Compelled by Christ...Charged by the Holy Spirit"
(2 Cor. 5:13-15) is the theme for the 1996 American Baptist National
Women s Ministerial Leadership Conference, to be held Sept. 17-21,
1996, at the Clarion Plaza Hotel, Orlando, Fla.  The conference is
sponsored by American Baptist Women in Ministry, a program of
American Baptist Educational Ministries.  The Rev. Valentine B.
Royal, director of American Baptist Women in Ministry, said the
conference is planned for all women in ministry, including ordained
and non-ordained clergywomen as well as seminarians and lay ministry
professionals.  Bible study leader and closing worship speaker will
be Dr. Molly T. Marshall, visiting professor of theology, worship and
spiritual formation at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas
City, Kans.  Also featured as preachers and preaching seminar leaders
will be Drs. Ella P. and Henry H. Mitchell, visiting professors and
mentors in the D.Min. program at United Theological Seminary, Dayton,
Ohio.  Other noted conference preachers will be the Rev. Clydia
Nahwooksy, associate minister of Lincoln Indian Community Church,
Lincoln, Nebr., and the Rev. Yamina Apolinaris, executive minister of
Iglesias Bautistas de Puerto Rico.  Royal noted that the conference
is a continuing education event, with a variety of workshops such as
spiritual development, ministry to seniors, sexuality and women in
ministry, developing the gift of preaching, conflict resolution, and
multicultural reconciliation.  "The conference theme emerged out of a
need to make a new commitment to our ministries, and to expanding our
vision of the ministry to which we ve been called," noted Royal. 
"There is a great need for advocacy and support for the placement of
women in ministry, both in our own denomination and across
denominational lines."  Registration information is available at 1-
800-ABC-3-USA, ext. 2058.

o  Ten practical mission projects engaged 125 senior high youth and
their leaders attending the "WorldChangers" National Senior High
Conference at the American Baptist Assembly, Green Lake, Wis., July
13-20.  Attendees met in small groups to discuss the challenges of
specific mission projects.  Daily Bible study around the conference
theme encouraged the youth to think of themselves as world changers. 
Participants attended afternoon workshops called "WorldWideWindows,"
designed to develop skills in bringing about change.  Topics included
decision making, the power of prayer in effecting change, and
conflict resolution.  Small groups then worked together to explore
their chosen projects, telephone directors of each mission project
and develop strategies for dealing effectively with the challenges
presented.  At week s end small groups presented their summation and
recommendations for each project to the whole conference.  Sample
projects and mission sites included Project Hope: Conflict Resolution
Among Community Youth (Second Baptist Church, Suffield, Conn.);
Taking a Stand Against Child Prostitution in Thailand (The New Life
Center, The House of Love, Chiang Mai, Thailand); Gangs and the
Destruction They Cause Within the Community (Milwaukee Christian
Center, Milwaukee, Wis.); and Providing Shelter for the Homeless and
Food for the Hungry (First Baptist Church, Olympia, Wash.).  A second
"WorldChangers" conference is scheduled for Aug. 10-17 at Green Lake. 

o  Several African American congregations which have suffered fire
damage from arson attacks on their church buildings in recent months
now are reporting the loss of their insurance coverage.  In response
U.S. Congressional Representative Bob Filner of California has
introduced legislation that would prohibit insurance companies from
cancelling or refusing to renew insurance policies covering churches. 
The "Protect Our Churches Insurance Act of 1996" (HR 3830) would
prevent insurance companies from taking punitive measures against
churches and congregations following acts of arson against them.  The
bill also would prohibit companies from declining or canceling
coverage or increasing premiums of religious properties because of
arson or any previous occurrence of arson.  American Baptist National
Ministries' Office of Governmental Relations in Washington, D.C. is
encouraging American Baptists to contact their representatives to
support the bill.  "The cancellation or refusal to renew the
insurance coverage of churches following suspicious fires is a
disturbing development," said the Rev. Curtis Ramsey-Lucas, National
Ministries' director of Legislative Advocacy in Washington.  "The
hardship of losing a church to fire and the challenges of rebuilding
should not be compounded by the loss of insurance coverage.  We see
this as a justice issue and support congressional efforts to address
it as such."  American Baptists have responded in a variety of ways
to the arson attacks.  The Rev. Thelma C. Mitchell, who directs the
Ministry Center for Biblical Justice and Issue Development for
National Ministries, is coordinating the response. 

o  The Rev. Richard G. Harris, pastor of First Baptist Church, North
Oxford, Mass., and executive secretary of the Northern Baptist
Education Society, Dedham, Mass., has been appointed associate
director of American Baptist Personnel Services by National
Ministries.  Harris will begin in his new position Oct. 7.  American
Baptist Personnel Services (ABPS) provides the means for bringing
together trained leadership and churches.  Currently more than 3,700
active church leaders are in the computerized system.  As associate
director of ABPS Harris will direct the enrollment of American
Baptist ministerial leaders and seminarians into ABPS.  He also will
oversee the production of individual ABPS profiles.  During his 26-
year tenure at First Baptist Harris also served American Baptists as
a member of the church-based community ministries planning unit for
National Ministries.  He has worked with the American Baptist
Churches of Massachusetts, the Central Massachusetts Baptist
Association and the Conference of Baptist Ministers in Massachusetts
in a variety of board and committee roles.  He also completed a four-
year term on the American Baptist Ministers Council Senate.
Harris is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Andover Newton
Theological School.  He was ordained in 1970.  National Ministries
Executive Director Dr. Aidsand F. Wright-Riggins III commended
Harris' "experience in the pastorate, his commitment to American
Baptist Churches--locally, regionally and nationally--and his contact
with seminaries and seminarians [which has] equipped him in an
unusual way for ministry with others responding to God's call to
church leadership."  Mary L. Mild, currently associate director of
ABPS, will become director on Oct. 1, following the retirement of
Edward Kaechele.

o  Mary Evans Johnston, former director of Special Services for the
American Baptist Mission Center here, died July 29 in Santa Barbara,
Calif.  Johnston served as building hostess and then as director of
Special Services for many years before resigning in 1978.  Her
husband, former American Baptist Churches general secretary, Dr.
Frank E. Johnston, died in 1982. 

96U89
_____________________________________________________________________
______________________
"Update" currently is available in print form (mailed first class at
$40/year subscription cost); as document #111 on Fax Vault, a fax-on-
demand service at (610)337-7439; as "American Baptist News Service"
on ABNET, the American Baptist Churches' computer network (a
branch of ECUNET); and on the Internet Web sites for American Baptist
Churches USA (http://www.abc-usa.org) and for World-Wide Faith
News (http://www.wfn.org/wfn).                              

         
                        
                        
                        
 -0-