wfn.org | Newsline - Items 1-15

[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      Jan. 23, 1998
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.ComNewsline
Jan. 23, 1999
News

1) Brethren Benefit Trust enters the Internet service provider
     business.
2) A grant of $170,000 is approved from the Global Food Crisis Fund
     to help combat the continuing hunger crisis in North Korea.
3) More than 20 older adults head to Puerto Rico for Association of
     Brethren Caregivers’second Older Adult Workcamp.
4) Seven Brethren depart for Africa to participate in the General
     Board’s annual Nigeria workcamp.
5) www.brethren.org goes offline temporarily as it moves to a new
     Web server.
6) Six new curriculum publications are now available from Brethren
     Press.
7) Pacific Southwest District youth spend a weekend at Shalom
     Ministries in Mexico.
8) A one-day training event on family-based youth ministry is held
     in Martinsburg, Pa.
9) The Walnut Grove Church of the Brethren works on revitalization.
10) Northaven Retirement Residence and Assisted Living of Seattle,
     Wash., is the newest member of the Fellowship of Brethren
     Homes.

Upcoming events
11) The General Board’s Annual Conference Live Report hits the road
     in Ohio.
12) A gathering of ethnic Church of the Brethren members is set for
     Feb. 19-21.

Personnel announcements
13) Earl Traughber is called as the new executive of Idaho
     District.
14) Lyall Sherred heads to Nigeria to teach six months at Kulp
     Bible College.
15) Toma Ragniya is elected president of the Church of the Brethren
     in Nigeria.

Features
16) Clarification regarding the Jan. 8 feature on Estelle Vinyard
     and Kathleen Craun.
17) Allen Hansell describes the new ministerial leadership paper
     that is headed for approval at Annual Conference in Milwaukee
     and the steps he’s taking so that Brethren throughout the
     denomination can add their input.
18) Brethren Benefit Trust this week announced it has established
     an Internet service provider business. President Wil Nolen
     explains the evolution of this new endeavor.
19) What’s it like in Central America 2 1/2 months after Hurricane
     Mitch? Excerpts from a recent report paint a vivid picture of
     the chaos.

1) A national Internet service using a values-based filter that
will screen out undesirable content is what Brethren Benefit
Trust’s newly created Internet business will offer Church of the
Brethren members early this spring. The first product, scheduled to
be launched in mid-March, will be filtered Internet access
memberships and e-mail service through BBT’s ClearViewNet.com.

This new service has been designed to filter out potentially
offensive web content by applying screens to 30 categories of
content including violence, hate, pornography, gambling, and
homework cheating, as well as sites delivering sexually oriented
material. 

As the basically unsupervised world of the Internet attracts a
wider audience, ClearViewNet.com promises to be “the first
family-friendly internet portal” that applies a continuously
updated filter to Web sites and information obtained through
subject searches.

“Our intent is to create a gateway to the Web that provides simple,
safe access to Internet resources - the way the Internet was meant
to be used,” said Michael Addison, director of BBT’s Information
Systems. “This is important to Brethren families who want to make
sure an intelligent gatekeeper is constantly watching over their
children as they explore the world of the Internet. It is equally
important to individuals and employers who want access to
information without the distraction and disruption of potentially
offensive sites cluttering the search process.” Addison added, “The
service was conceived first as a service for our Church of the
Brethren families but will also be offered to all who share our
values.”

Concentric Network will provide the technological backbone of the
ClearViewNet.com service. According to Addison, Concentric has a
nationwide network with more than 350 local phone access numbers
and extensive customer support, which will provide ClearViewNet.com
subscribers “a high-performance network delivering prompt and easy
access to the Internet.”

ClearViewNet.com will be activated in mid-March for $19.95 a month.
For more information or to request the ClearViewNet.com software,
write to clearviewnet_bbt@brethren.org or call 800 250-5757. 

2) A $170,000 Global Food Crisis Fund (GFCF) grant for North Korea
was approved Wednesday by the Church of the Brethren General
Board’s Executive Committee in response to the continuing food
emergency in the east Asian country.

“It is estimated that as many as 3 million people have perished
from hunger-related causes since 1995,” said David Radcliff, who
manages GFCF as the General Board’s director of Brethren Witness.
“This would equal over 12 percent of the population.” Radcliff
added that the 1998 grain harvest was over 1 million tons short of
the 4.5 million tons needed to provide adequate rations nationwide.

The current GFCF grant will provide 105 metric tons of barley seed
and 160,000 pounds of early maturing seed potatoes. It will also
contribute $45,000 toward a new North Korea relief initiative
launched by Church World Service, and $50,000 to send 100 dairy
goats later this summer. The goats will have a milk production
capacity four times that of North Korean goats. A portion of the
barley seed will be used by families to grow seed for next year’s
crop, lessening their dependency on outside seed supplies.

Church of the Brethren congregations and individuals are encouraged
to support this latest North Korea relief effort, Radcliff said.
“North Korea continues to need massive assistance from the outside
world,” he stated. “We are working at ways of not just meeting
immediate needs but helping the people of North Korea build a more
sustainable future.” 

For more information, contact Radcliff at dradcliff_gb@brethren.org
or at 800 323-8039.

3) More than 20 older adults traveled Thursday to Puerto Rico for
the second older adult workcamp, sponsored by the Association of
Brethren Caregivers’ Older Adult Ministries.

Although the group’s project is centering around the Rio Prieto
church, as it did in 1997, it is focusing this year on making
repairs to the houses of two Rio Prieto members — buildings that
were damaged last year by Hurricane Georges. The group also plans
to visit the majority of Brethren congregations in Puerto Rico and
to spend a few days in San Juan and Castaner.

This year’s group includes Max and Loretta Baughman, La Mirada,
Calif.; Joy Dull, Brookville, Ohio; Eugene and Barbara Hartman,
Westover, Md.; John and Adele Hartman, Westover, Md.; Doyle
Hendricks, Adrian, Mich.; Harold and Mary Houser, Peru, Ind.; Wil
and Maud Lengle, Juda, Wis.; Marian Patterson, Milledgeville, Ill.;
Chet and Mary Mason Peckover, Sebring, Fla.; Richard and Joyce
Person, Polo, Ill.; Bruce and Mary Sue Rosenberger, Greenville,
Ohio; Louise Spall, Pendleton, Ohio; and Ada Turner, Richmond, Ind.

The workcamp concludes Feb. 1. 

4) After a slight delay, seven Church of the Brethren members
headed to Nigeria Wednesday as part of the annual month-long
workcamp that is sponsored jointly by the Church of the Brethren
General Board and the Basel Mission of Switzerland. The group
originally had been scheduled to leave last weekend, but were
delayed several days awaiting their visas.

While there, the seven Americans and five Swiss will work on the
construction of a secondary school at the headquarters of
Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (the Church of the Brethren in
Nigeria), near Mubi.

The Brethren workcampers are Jeff Mummau of Elizabethtown, Pa.,
coordinator; Karin Davidson, Annville, Pa.; Lutricia Eberly, Silver
Lake, Ind.; Elvin Fillmore, Uba City, Calif.; Ellyn Hartzler,
Fredericksburg, Va.; Mark Keeney, Boulder, Colo.; and Jon Schrock,
Elgin, Ill.

They will return to the United States on Feb. 15.

5) www.brethren.org, the official Web site of six Church of the
Brethren national organizations, has been offline this week in a
move that will lead to an upgrade in its service.

The blackout is the result of www.brethren.org being transferred
from InterAccess, a Chicago-area Internet service provider, to
Brethren Benefit Trust’s Web server at the Church of the Brethren
General Offices in Elgin, Ill. Although InterAccess has released
the domain name and site from its computers, Internic, the
international governing body of the World Wide Web, at this
printing has yet to make the programming changes needed to reroute
traffic headed for www.brethren.org to BBT’s Web server.

Launched in December 1997, www.brethren.org selected InterAccess as
its host as none of its partners had direct access to their own web
server. That has changed with BBT’s new Internet business. In
making the move, more sophisticated technologies standard on many
Web sites, such as audio and video streaming and encryption
services for e-mail transactions, will be possible. Aside from
these technologies, however, visitors to www.brethren.org should
not notice any difference. Although BBT will maintain the hardware,
the site will continue to be designed and administered by
www.brethren.org representatives. 

www.brethren.org’s partners are Association of Brethren Caregivers,
Bethany Theological Seminary, Brethren Benefit Trust, Brethren
Employees Credit Union, the General Board, and On Earth Peace
Assembly.

“This move is great for both the Web site and BBT,” said Nevin
Dulabaum, manager of News Services for the Church of the Brethren
General Board, who serves as www.brethren.org administrator. “The
Web site will be able to utilize some technologies that were cost
prohibitive at InterAccess while at the same time putting its
support behind BBT. Like the Web site itself, this move is a
collaborative effort that will benefit Church of the Brethren Web
users.”

BBT president Wil Nolen agreed, stating, “Working together makes us
all stronger.”

6) Six new curriculum publications are now available from Brethren
Press.

The March, April, May 1999 issue of Guide for Biblical Studies,
titled “That you May Believe,” a study of the Gospel of John, has
been released. Three authors contributed to this Brethren Bible
study standard — Virginia Wiles, Linda Logan, and Frank Ramirez.

“Jeremiah,” written by Thomas Kinzie, is the latest publication in
the Covenant Bible Studies series for small Bible study groups.
This series produces a new title three times each year.

Good Ground, an active learning Bible study curriculum for adults,
has two new titles — “All Heaven Breaks Loose: Studies in the
Gospel of Mark,” written by Kathleen Kern; and “Choosing Sides:
Faithfulness in the Book of Joshua,” written by Frank Ramirez. Good
Ground lets the Bible ask most of the questions and participants
struggle with the answers.

Two new titles are also available in the Generation Why curriculum
for senior highs — “Go for Broke: Using the Gifts God Gave You”
was written by Pam Peters-Price; “Where is Heaven?: Gospel of
Mathew” was written by Aiden Schlichtin Enns and Miriam Meinders.
Generation Why consists of Bible-based explorations of issues
facing youth.

For more information, contact Brethren Press at 800 4413712 or
brethren_press_gb@brethren.org.

7) A few days south of the border working and visiting with their
peers is how youth from Pacific Southwest District spent last
weekend.

Led by Dena Gilbert, district youth minister from La Verne (Calif.)
Church of the Brethren; Gilbert Romero and Fred Borne of Bella
Vista Church of the Brethren, Los Angeles; and Linda Williams of
San Diego Church of the Brethren, the 32 youth and advisers visited
Shalom Ministries, located just across the Mexican border in
Tijuana.

The group gathered Friday night in San Diego to get acquainted, as
participants came from California and Arizona. Upon their arrival
at Shalom Ministries on Saturday, the group participated in a
service project of cleaning out a gully to help prevent future
flooding. The afternoon and evening were spent with Shalom youth
and advisers at a nearby lake.

Sunday morning began with devotions and then a second service
project. Participants divided into four groups — one filled 804
bags with rice, beans, and candy; two dug out ground at the
residences of Shalom youth to prevent future flooding; and the
fourth dug out ground in preparation for an outhouse. A worship
service was held that evening.

The group’s weekend concluded Monday as they visited the Tijuana
landfill, where they distributed the bagged goods to people living
in or scavengering within the dump.

Shalom Ministries has long-standing ties to the Bella Vista church
and other Church of the Brethren congregations. At National Youth
Conference ‘98, an evening offering raised $10,013 to assist
Shalom’s ministries.

8) A one-day training event on family-based youth ministry,
intended for pastors and youth leaders, was held Nov. 7 at
Martinsburg (Pa.) Memorial Church of the Brethren. Associate
pastors David Steele of the Martinsburg church and David Witkovsky
of Roaring Spring (Pa.) Church of the Brethren led 30 participants
from 18 congregations and four districts through “a new model of
implementing youth ministry, which emphasizes wholistic rather than
a programmatic approach,” said Jan Kensinger, coordinator of the
Church of the Brethren General Board’s Area 1 Congregational Life
Team. 

“With previous formal training in this model, both leaders have
begun putting a distinctive ‘Brethren spin’ on an exciting
ecumenical approach,” Kensinger added.

9) The Walnut Grove Church of the Brethren in Johnstown, Pa., is
working on revitalization by consulting with the Church of the
Brethren General Board’s Area One Congregational Life Team.

The first step was for the congregation to organize a “Vision Team”
that represented the diversity of the congregation’s membership;
this was done with the assistance of pastor Michael Clark. Jan
Kensinger, coordinator of the Area One Congregational Life Team,
met several times with the Vision Team and then prepared a
bibliography of printed resources for the congregation’s members on
leadership, spiritual direction, and transition in congregations.

With the assistance of Linda McCauliff, part-time Area 2 CLT
member, the revitalization process included presenting information
concerning the life cycles of congregations, preparing a time line
of the history of the congregation, developing a congregational
survey to gather essential information and perspectives about the
ministries of the church and community, and compiling and
presenting the survey results.

Kensinger and McCauliff met with the congregation on Nov. 8 for
worship and fellowship. They then divided church members into four
groups with the goal of drafting ideas for the formation of a
mission statement.

“This process invites pastoral, congregational, and community input
into adopting a ‘vision’ that enables a congregation to move into
a new and exciting extension of ministry within the community
context,” Kensinger said.

“This process is extremely helpful and important to our church as
we define where we are headed,” said Clark. “It energized the
Vision Team and was very well received.”

10) Northaven Retirement Residence and Assisted Living of Seattle,
Wash., is the newest member of the Fellowship of Brethren Homes,
bringing the number of retirement communities that are
organizational members of the Association of Brethren Caregivers to
22.

“Each new facility to join the Fellowship affirms the benefits and
services that Brethren retirement communities receive through the
Fellowship’s ministry,” says Roger Golden, coordinator of
centralized services of ABC and staff for the Fellowship of
Brethren Homes.  

All retirement communities affiliated with the Fellowship are
eligible to receive distributions from the Gahagen Trust and to
participate in the Long-term Care Insurance program, the Brethren
Homes Forum, and the Fellowship’s section of ABC’s Web site.
Members also receive a subscription to Brethren Homes Connection,
a quarterly publication.

Northaven opened in 1972 under the sponsorship of Olympic View
Community Church of the Brethren, Seattle, Wash.

11) Northern Ohio District in February and March will break new
ground by taking an abbreviated version of the Church of the
Brethren General Board’s popular Annual Conference Live Report on
the road. Cast as actors/musicians will be five district youth —
Elizabeth Beer of County Line Church of the Brethren, Harrod; Joy
Hostettler of East Chippewa Church of the Brethren, Orrville; Sara
Keegan of Danville North Bend Church of the Brethren; Alysia
Lubbers of Hartville Church of the Brethren; and Jared Zuercher of
Ashland Dickey Church of the Brethren. They will tour eight
churches with new material created by the General Board Live Report
Committee. 

“It’s fun to do a pilot project with such an enthusiastic and
energetic group,” said Beth Sollenberger Morphew, coordinator of
the General Board’s Area 2 Congregational Life Team. “They will be
good spokespeople for the General Board.”

The group will perform —
     * Feb 27, 7 p.m., Poplar Ridge Church of the Brethren,
          Defiance.
     * Feb. 28, 10:30 a.m., Lakewood Church of the Brethren,
          Millbury.
     * March 7, 10:30 a.m., East Chippewa Church of the Brethren,
          Orrville.
     * March 7, 7 p.m., Hartville Church of the Brethren.
     * March 14, 10:30 a.m., Lima Church of the Brethren.
     * March 14, 7 p.m., DuPont Church of the Brethren.
     * March 20, 7 p.m., Kent Church of the Brethren.
     * March 21, 10:30 a.m., Brook Park Community Church of the
          Brethren. 

Spearheading the project are Beth Sollenberger Morphew, Area 2
Congregational Life Team coordinator for the General Board, and Tom
Zuercher, executive of Northern Ohio District. David Radcliff,
director of the General Board’s Brethren Witness office, wrote the
script; David Sollenberger of Annville, Pa., is serving as video
producer. Leslie Lake of East Chippewa, Ohio, is serving as
director. Congregational Life Team Area 2 is contributing to
production and travel costs.

This project was initiated following brainstorming by Sollenberger
Morphew, Radcliff, and several other General Board staff — Judy
Mills Reimer, executive director; Wendy McFadden,
publisher/director of Brethren Press; and Howard Royer, staff for
Interpretation.

12) A gathering of ethnic members of the Church of the Brethren
will be held Feb. 19-21 at First Central Church of the Brethren,
Kansas City, Kan. The purpose of this gathering “is to heal hurts,
build bridges, worship, and to plan positive steps for the future
as ethnic Brethren seek to more firmly establish their place in the
Church of the Brethren,” said Duane Grady, member of the Church of
the Brethren General Board’s Area 2 Congregational Life Team.

This meeting, called the Second Ethnic/Urban Consultation, follows
an earlier gathering several years ago that was held at Pleasant
Dale Church of the Brethren, Decatur, Ind. 

For more information, contact Sonja Griffith at the First Central
church at 913 281-3760.

13) Earl Traughber has been called to serve as the new part-time
executive of Idaho District, beginning Feb. 1. Traughber retired
from the pastorate in 1994 after serving 30 years. In addition to
formerly holding pastorates in Illinois and Missouri, he previously
served as Idaho District’s executive for eight years. Traughber
currently is serving as a project director for the Church of the
Brethren General Board’s Emergency Response/Service Ministries.

Traughber’s address will be 1565 W. 1st Street, Fruitland, ID
83619. He can be reached at 208 452-5420 or at
earlt@cyberhighway.net.

14) Lyall Sherred and his wife, Vivian, departed the United States
on Wednesday for Nigeria, where he will teach Bible and Christian
doctrine for six months at Kulp Bible College, near Mubi. The
Sherred’s are from Denver, Colo. Lyall is a retired college
professor who has served as interim pastor at Prince of Peace
Church of the Brethren in Denver.

15) Toma Ragnjiya was elected president of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a
Nigeria (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) Jan. 7 during a
specially called “majalisa” (annual meeting) as the denomination
implemented a new constitution and structure. Two hundred forty one
delegates and pastors reconfirmed Abraham Wuta Tizhe as general
secretary and called Blama Hena to serve as vice president. They
also selected department heads for education, finance, and
community development. 

Ragnjiya had been serving as principal of Kulp Bible College, which
is located less than a mile down the road from EYN headquarters
near Mubi. Previously, Ragnjiya served as EYN’s general secretary.
He is known simply as Toma to many United States Brethren from his
time of study at McPherson College and Ashland Seminary during the
1980s.

Hena had been directing EYN’s theological education by extension
(TEE) program.

Attending this majalisa were Mervin Keeney, the General Board’s
director for Global Mission Partnerships, who is on sabbatical in
Nigeria until early February, and John Tubbs, Global Mission
Partnerships staff at the Mason Technical School in Garkida.