wfn.org | Newsline - Church of the Brethren news update

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Date: Sept. 12, 2001
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

SPECIAL REPORT
NEWS
 1) Brethren response to Tuesday's tragedies continues.
 2) Moderator Paul Grout points to a youth/young adult response.

****************************************************************
 
 1) Response and reaction continued around the Church of the
Brethren Wednesday in the wake of Tuesday's terrorist attacks along
the East Coast. 

The General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries office
activated Child Care in Aviation Incident Response (CAIR) teams,
calling them to the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.,
for orientation. Team members were coming in by car from a variety
of locations as far away as Nebraska.

ER/SM manager Stan Noffsinger said he expected some teams to be
taken by van to New York Thursday or Friday. They will go to
yet-to-be-named locations in the city, which saw its World Trade
Center twin towers flattened Tuesday when hijacked planes flew into
them. Two churches in Atlantic Northeast District, which includes
New York, were helping to find drivers.

In addition, a $25,000 grant from the General Board's Emergency
Disaster Fund was approved to assist with the CAIR teams, Disaster
Child Care, and emergency response volunteers, as needed. It will
also support Church World Service Emergency Response efforts.

Encouragement also poured in from around the world, as other
churches and relief organizations sent notes of sympathy and
consolation as well as statements of solidarity.

Among them was a letter from the Middle East Council of Churches
(MECC), delivered through the US National Council of Churches. MECC
general secretary the Rev. Dr. Riad Jarjour said, "In gathering
after gathering in America, Christians will lift up their hearts in
prayer. We assure you that we too are gathering, and our prayers
join yours. We ask for healing beyond understanding, we pray for
courage beyond our outrage and fear."

Another note of support came from the Church of North India, in
which general secretary Dr. V.S. Lall said, "This is to let you
know that we in the Church of North India are upholding the people
of America and particularly the Church of the Brethren in our
prayers at this time of trial and agony." 

In the US, meanwhile, Brethren close to the events recounted their
experiences. Western Pennsylvania District's Camp Harmony, in
Hooversville, Pa., is located just a few miles from where the
hijacked jet crashed in Somerset County Tuesday. Maintenance
workers at the camp saw the plane going down.

A student group from Johnstown, Pa., was at the camp holding a
program on conflict resolution and mediation at the time. Camp
Harmony executive director Neal Harvey said the focus of the event
quickly turned to helping students cope with the violence once news
of Tuesdaybs events had been received, as the school asked for
students to remain at the camp.

"The challenge for us as a society is to respond in a manner that
reflects our values," Harvey said. "I hope we do not rush out in
vengeance . . . but rather seeks ways to resolve the conflict."

Numerous Church of the Brethren congregations are located in
Somerset County and the surrounding area, some within a few miles
of the crash site. Mark Bendes, pastor of the Somerset (Pa.)
congregation, said he talked to members who lived within a mile of
the crash site and felt their house shake. Phone service was out in
the area for several hours, but Bendes eventually found that the
church members were unharmed as the plane crashed in a vacant strip
mine, killing all aboard. 

Churches in Somerset, including the Church of the Brethren,
organized a community prayer vigil Tuesday evening, and Bendes said
plans were under way for another one Wednesday.

At the Washington (D.C.) City Church of the Brethren, located less
than two miles from the Pentagon, pastor Alice Martin-Adkins said
the church remained open to serve lunch in the soup kitchen, as
well as to serve as an emergency shelter. Four people stayed at the
church for part of the day. The sanctuary will be open from noon to
1 p.m. every day this week as a place for prayer and meditation.

In addition to those previously known to be traveling Tuesday
morning, Brethren Benefit Trust staff member Nevin Dulabaum
reported that he arrived in Baltimore on a flight from Chicago
shortly before the ground stop on air travel was ordered. Others
were to have joined him for a meeting later in the day. Carol
Bowman of the General Board's Area 5 (West) Congregational Life
Team was stranded in Alaska following meetings there. InterAgency
Forum meetings scheduled in New Windsor, Md., later this week were
cancelled.

Carol Christiansen--a daughter-in-law of Ron and Darlene
Christiansen, SERRV volunteers in New Windsor, Md.--said she
arrived for work at the World Trade Center running late Tuesday and
was in the subway concourse below the center when the first plane
hit. As building materials fell, she left the area and escaped
unharmed. She worked on the building's 88th floor.

Atlantic Northeast District executive Craig Smith said he believed
there would be "some special emphasis," still to be determined, at
next weekend's Brethren Disaster Relief Auction in Lebanon, Pa.
Smith said he had been in touch with members at both the Brooklyn
First and First Haitian congregations in the New York area,
assuring them of prayers as well as any support needed to assist
with relief efforts there.

The Brooklyn First church was taking a lead in organizing
desperately needed blood supplies for the area, especially type O
positive, and said Brethren could give to the New York chapter of
the American Red Cross and indicate the Brooklyn First Church of
the Brethren as the requesting agency.

Finally, Brethren voices--while condemning the attacks--continued
to urge a spirit of reconciliation amid calls for war. Christian
Peacemaker Teams suggested congregations take a "prayer walk" in
lieu of regular worship Sunday, reflecting on what it means to be
a Christian, remembering victims of war and violence, and renewing
a commitment to walk in Jesus' way of nonviolence.

"This new-found sense of vulnerability can also remind us that we
are not and cannot be made secure by all the weapons we may want to
place on land or sea or in space," wrote David Radcliff of the
General Board's Brethren Witness office. "How can we replace the
hatred in so many hearts with some more promising emotion?"

On Earth Peace co-executive Bob Gross also sent out a statement,
writing, "We do not know what God may call us to do. It is clear
that in the days to come the Christian message of peace and
reconciliation will be deeply needed by our communities and our
nation."

 2) Church of the Brethren moderator Paul Grout was in Allentown,
Pa., when Tuesday's attacks occurred, en route to a meeting, and
has since returned to his home in Putney, Vt. In response to the
tragedies, Grout called attention to a statement made by Church of
the Brethren young adult Doug Balmer, a Bridgewater College student
and member of the Chiques Church of the Brethren in Manheim, Pa.:

"As I witnessed the horrible events along with you today, I was
filled with rage and shock. President Bush's remarks started to
make me think. This horrible tragedy is a chance for us, as
Christians and Brethren, to reach out. This not only applies to the
victims, their families, but also the culprits.

"Yes, we can be angry and have extremely hard feelings toward the
perpetrators, but we can not hate them. We, the mighty United
States, the ultimate power of the world have a chance to "Be like
Christ." Jesus knew that he would be killed. He knew that many of
his followers would be martyred. He could have called down 12
legions of angels, but yet he did not.  He showed mercy to all
those living on the earth. We need to implore our government not to
seek revenge. We need our voice to be heard immediately before our
country commits another atrocity. I guess I'm asking for someone to
organize us as Brethren youth to 'speak' to our government. I pray
God will tell you how to respond."

Updates to this story will be posted on the www.brethren.org
website as news dictates. The date for the next regularly scheduled
Newsline is Sept. 21. Additional information is available at the
Emergency Response/Service Ministries website, at
http://www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/index.htm

Newsline is produced by Walt Wiltschek, manager of news services
for the Church of the Brethren General Board, on the first, third
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