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

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Jan. 18, 2002
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

NEWS
 1) Don Vermilyea prepares to embark on "Walk Across America."
 2) Brethren support major Church World Service response in
Afghanistan/Pakistan.
 3) Brethren Academy announces new leadership program.
 4) BVS Unit 247 prepares for orientation in Florida. 
 5) Global Food Crisis Fund grants go to India, Guatemala. 
 6) Brethren bits: Relief aid, Evangelism Council, and more.

COMING EVENTS
 7) Disaster Child Care volunteer training slated for 2002.
 8) On Earth Peace, Manchester to host "Organizing for Peace."

RESOURCES
 9) A new book looks at religious responses to Sept. 11.

****************************************************************
 
 1) When Don Vermilyea decides to go out for a walk, he really
takes it seriously. Vermilyea, a member of the Friends Run Church
of the Brethren in Franklin, W.Va., embarks next month on a "Walk
Across America," in which he hopes to visit every Church of the
Brethren congregation, camp, college, and other institutions.

The venture is being sponsored by the General Board's Brethren
Volunteer Service and Brethren Witness offices. Any donations
gathered along the way will go to support the Emergency Disaster
Fund and Global Food Crisis Fund of the General Board.

"This is a large undertaking, much larger than I can imagine,"
Vermilyea said in a letter to supporters and prayer partners. He
expects the walk, part of his quest for simple living and
dedication to the scriptures, could take several years.

 From the time he gets off a bus in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 2,
a pack, tent, and sleeping bag. He chose the Southwest as a
after his visits in Arizona.
restaurants, or accommodations in motels. He is traveling with only
Vermilyea says he will not accept any rides in vehicles, meals in
warm-weather spot to begin in winter, heading toward San Diego

Updates of the journey will be posted regularly at
www.brethren.org/genbd/witness/walk.html. Vermilyea, who has spent
the past two-plus years in Brethren Volunteer Service, will also
have a voicemail box at 800-323-8039, ext. 239, where congregations
and others who want him to stop while in the area can call and
leave a message.

Congregations are being urged to host Vermilyea as he hikes, have
members walk along for part of the journey, and offer prayers. More
information is available from Laura Kreider at the Church of the
Brethren Washington Office at 202-546-3202 or washofc@aol.com.

 2) Church World Service (CWS) has stepped up several projects as
it seeks to meet the needs of tens of thousands of refugees along
the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The ecumenical relief agency, which the Church of the Brethren
supports, has major efforts under way at multiple refugee camps
operating around the city of Quetta and elsewhere. Reports have
indicated a continuing stream of hundreds of families entering the
camps this month, with many others still awaiting registration.

CWS has been distributing 1,500 shelter kits in the region, along
with food parcels containing beans, rice, cooking oil, sugar, and
other basic items for the uprooted families.

It is also distributing quilts to help refugees deal with the
severe cold. A CWS quilt project in Quetta has about 400 Afghan
refugee women making quilts to earn income and provide the needed
coverings. They are seeking to produce 60,000 quilts, one-third of
which will be used in CWS shelter kits and the rest sold to UNICEF
and other relief agencies for use in emergency programs in
Afghanistan.

The Church of the Brethren General Board has sent $100,000 to
support CWS relief efforts in the region, $50,000 each from the
Emergency Disaster Fund and Global Food Crisis Fund. An expanded
appeal from CWS is expected soon, part of a $6.28 million shelter
assistance and food program. More than 300 CWS staff and volunteers
are working in the region.

CWS also continues to provide domestic aid to the post-Sept. 11
response efforts. It recently sent grants to several interfaith
organizations in New Jersey and New York to support continued
advocacy efforts and relief work with victims and their families.
The Emergency Disaster Fund sent $25,000 to support the CWS
domestic project in December.

 3) The Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership has announced
a new initiative to provide continuing education for pastors and
additional training for church leaders.

Called "Advanced Foundations of Church Leadership," it will be a
two-year, intensive experience designed to enhance the leadership
capacity of participants. Learning will take place in a
"cohort-based," or peer/colleague group, setting.

Academy coordinator Jonathan Shively says the program will take "a
holistic approach to leadership development, focusing on both the
personhood and skills necessary to meet the complex demands of
today's church ministries."

The cohort groups will be guided by a variety of Bethany
Theological Seminary faculty, Brethren Academy staff, and guest
facilitators. The first group will begin this May and will be
limited to 15 participants. 

More information is available by contacting the Academy--a joint
program of Bethany and the General Board--at 765-983-1824 or
academy@bethanyseminary.edu. Registration materials can also be
viewed online at www.brethren.org/bethany/academy.htm.

 4) Brethren Volunteer Service Unit 247 will be held from Jan. 20
to Feb. 8 at Camp Ithiel near Orlando, Fla. Eleven participants
will be in the unit, including five representing Church of the
Brethren congregations. They are Shalon Atwood of South Waterloo
(Iowa) Church of the Brethren; Pete Dobberstein of Trotwood (Ohio);
Kendra Flory of McPherson (Kan.); Travis Poling of Carlisle (Pa.);
and Beth Shively of the Manchester congregation, North Manchester,
Ind. Three of the incoming volunteers are from Germany.

Leadership will be provided by General Board member Merle Crouse of
St. Cloud, Fla., on "Who Are the Brethren?"; Chris Douglas of the
Youth/Young Adult Ministry office on "Spiritual Formation"; Lucas
Benitez of the Coalicion de Trabajadores de Immokalee on "Farm
Worker Issues"; Noelle Dulabaum Bohrer of Elgin, Ill., on "Conflict
and Resolution"; Al Herring of Louisville, Ky., on "Community
Building"; SueZann Bosler of Hallandale, Fla., on "Death Penalty
Issues"; David Radcliff of the Brethren Witness office on "Social
Environmental Trends and Paths to a Better World"; and Matt Guynn
of Richmond, Ind., on "Nonviolence and Nonviolent Action."

The group will make a three-day trip to Miami, where Pastor Ludovic
St. Fleur and the Eglise des Freres Haitiens congregation (Haitian
Church of the Brethren) will host the unit. The volunteers and
members of the congregation will share a time of fellowship,
worship, learning from each other, and connecting. At the
conclusion of the orientation, volunteers will head to one- or
two-year project placements in the US or at international sites.

 5) The General Board's Global Food Crisis Fund has started the new
year by making a pair of grants, one to India and one to Guatemala.

The first grant is for $12,000 and will go to a longtime partner,
the Rural Service Center in India. The funds will be used to help
with programs including land leveling, methane digesters for
cooking gas, and small-income development.

A second grant, for $6,000, will aid the Pastoral Social department
of the diocese of Huehuetenango in Guatemala. The funds will assist
with a stove and cistern program, helping poor families build
wood-conserving stoves and water-storing cisterns. Brethren
Volunteer Service worker Todd Bauer currently works with this
project.

 6) Brethren bits: Other brief news notes from around the
denomination and elsewhere.
 *The Brethren Service Center distribution center in New Windsor,
Md., this week shipped a 40-foot container to Sierra Leone for
Church World Service. The shipment contained 22,380 pounds of
blankets, school kits, health kits, and baby layette kits. Several
shipments of blankets were also being sent to other destinations.

 *Through Jan. 10, registration for the upcoming Anabaptist
Evangelism Council stood at 115. The event, featuring keynote
speaker Leonard Sweet, will be held Feb. 15-17 in suburban Chicago.
Scholarships remain available for people serving in ministry. Call
New Life Ministries at 800-774-3360 for details or to register. 

 *The application deadline for the position of camp manager at Camp
Bethel, Finksburg, Va., has been extended. Applications may be sent
through Feb. 25 to Nancy F. Knepper, Office of District Ministries,
1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120. A full position description can
be found online at www.brethren.org/genbd/ministry/distvac.htm or
by calling 800-323-8039.

 7) Seven workshops for Level I Disaster Child Care volunteer
training have been scheduled for 2002 by the General Board's
Emergency Response/Service Ministries office. The sessions provide
the basic training for those wishing to serve on volunteer teams
called to assist children in the wake of a variety of disasters.

Workshops are scheduled as follows: Feb. 9-10 at La Verne (Calif.)
Church of the Brethren; March 1-2 at Prince of Peace Church of the
Brethren, Littleton, Colo.; March 8-9 at Mount Morris (Ill.) Church
of the Brethren; March 15-16 at Reeman Christian Reform Church,
Fremont, Mich.; March 22-23 at Old Replogle Elementary, New
Enterprise, Pa.; April 12-13 at Goshen (Ind.) City Church of the
Brethren; and late spring or summer at the Westminster (Md.) Church
of the Brethren.

Local coordinators will help to facilitate the events at each
location. The La Verne workshop will run 10 a.m. Saturday to 3 p.m.
Sunday. All others run 4 p.m. Friday to 7 p.m. Saturday.

Early registration fee is $45, including all meals and an overnight
stay; the registration is $55 if mailed less than three weeks
before the training. Each workshop is limited to 25 participants.
For more information, contact Roy Winter at 800-451-4407 ext 7 or
view the full listing, including local contacts, at
www.brethren.org/genbd/ersm/dcc.htm

 
 8) On Earth Peace and the Manchester College Peace Studies program
will co-sponsor "Organizing for Peace," a conference for those
seeking ways to promote nonviolent alternatives in the post-Sept.
11 world, March 15-17 in North Manchester, Ind.

"We are at a crucial time, when we need to gather together to bring
our peace witness to life," says Barb Sayler, co-executive  and
coordinator of Peace Witness for On Earth Peace. "Through this
conference we hope to spread the seeds of nonviolence and organize
ourselves to be active in Christ's way of peace."

Goals for the event are to motivate, activate, and connect Brethren
peacemakers across generations; to learn from current organizing
efforts; and to lay the groundwork for future peace action. It will
have a special emphasis on college students and young adults, and
on local church congregations. For more information or to register,
contact Matt Guynn of On Earth Peace at mguynn@myvine.com or
765-962-6234.

  9) A new book titled "Where Was God on Sept. 11?," published by
Herald Press, looks at the religious community's responses to the
tragedy. Particular attention is given to responses from the peace
church tradition.

Edited by Donald Kraybill, who attends the Elizabethtown (Pa.)
Church of the Brethren, and Mennonite freelance writer Linda Gehman
Peachey, the anthology-style book includes numerous writings from
Brethren authors.

Many of those pieces are taken from resources that were posted to
the www.brethren.org website in the weeks after Sept. 11 or printed
in Messenger. Among them are the General Board statement passed in
October and excerpts from the writings of Brethren pastors and
other leaders including Christy Waltersdorff, Andy Murray, Bob
Gross, Robert Bowman, Ralph Detrick, Carl Bowman, and Dale Brown. 

The book also includes questions for discussion and reflection
based on each of the book's seven chapters, and a bibliography of
helpful books and websites. It will be available for order from
Brethren Press in the near future.

Newsline is produced by Walt Wiltschek, manager of news services
for the Church of the Brethren General Board, on the first, third
and fifth Friday of each month, with other editions as needed.
Newsline stories may be reprinted provided that Newsline is cited
as the source. Sue Grubb and Loretta Wolf contributed to this
report.

To receive Newsline by e-mail or fax, call 800 323-8039, ext. 263,
or write CoBNews@AOL.Com. Newsline is available at www.brethren.org
and is archived with an index at http://www.wfn.org. Also see Photo
Journal at www.brethren.org/pjournal/index.htm for photo coverage
of recent events.