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Date: Feb. 15, 2002
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

NEWS
 1) Council of District Executives meets in Florida.
 2) The 2002 Youth Peace Travel Team is announced.
 3) Standing Committee begins Annual Conference ballot process.
 4) BVS Unit 247 participants head to projects.
 5) Don Vermilyea successfully begins his trek in Arizona.
 6) McPherson kicks off 2002 regional youth conference schedule.
 7) Brethren bits: Nigeria, camps, Elizabethtown College, and more.

PERSONNEL
 8) Gene Hipskind will retire as Pacific Southwest District
executive.

COMING EVENTS
 9) Cross-Cultural Consultation will meet in Philadelphia in April.
10) Manchester will host Creative Church Leader event in June.

****************************************************************
 
 1) Thirty members of the denomination's Council of District
Executives gathered in Daytona Beach, Fla., Feb. 2-6, for their
annual winter meeting. One full day was spent focusing on Bible
study and prayerful discernment on the question "Where is God
Leading Us in the Calling System?".

Additional agenda time focused on exploring what it means to be "an
organization within the denomination" as determined by action of
the 2001 Annual Conference. Council members affirmed that district
staff work in "the arena where Annual Conference agencies and
congregations interface," and that district staff carry an
important role of "spiritual influencers."

Along with hearing reports by appointed representatives and
standing committees, the Council reaffirmed participation in the
"DE In Residence" program with Bethany Theological Seminary,
establishing process and participation parameters. Meeting with the
Council were Jeff Garber of Brethren Benefit Trust, to discuss
possible changes to the current program of medical insurance for
pastors; Annual Conference moderator Paul Grout, to discuss his
recent article in "Messenger"; and general secretary Judy Mills
Reimer, to discuss continuing cooperative ministries with the
General Board. Council members expressed deep appreciation for the
time spent with these denominational leaders. 

The Council of District Executives will conduct a professional
growth event for Council members April 29-May 2 at Shepherd's
Spring Outdoor Ministries Center in Maryland. The event's focus
will be "Conversations with the new Director of Ministry, Mary Jo
Flory Steury." The Council's next regular meeting is scheduled for
June 27-29 in Louisville, Ky.; the executive committee of the
Council will meet April 14-16 in Ashland, Ohio.

 2) For the first time, the Youth Peace Travel Team will be an
all-male group. Ben Kreider of Lawn, Pa.; Chris Palsgrove of
Westminster, Md.; Carle Gaier of North Manchester, Ind., and Daniel
Radcliff of Elgin, Ill., will form this year's team.

The team will travel in the western United States this year,
including a week at National Youth Conference in Colorado. The tour
is being sponsored by Brethren Witness, the Church of the Brethren
Washington Office, Brethren Volunteer Service, On Earth Peace, and
Outdoor Ministries Association.

It is the 12th straight year a team has gone out. Several previous
teams have been all female, including the 2001 team of Katie Best,
Rachel Long, and Susan Chapman.

 3) The Nominating Committee of Annual Conference's Standing
Committee met the first weekend of January to develop this year's
Standing Committee ballot, consisting of four nominees for each
open position.

The committee chose to move this year toward a partial
implementation of the Process for Calling Denominational Leadership
statement adopted at the 2001 Annual Conference. The ballot
prepared in January has been distributed by mail to the Standing
Committee for its vote instead of waiting until the June meeting,
as was customary. Voted ballots are being returned to Joyce Person,
head teller, for tabulation.

An announcement will soon be made reflecting the results of the
Standing Committee vote and will provide a ballot with two people
for each open position. That ballot will be voted on by the
delegate body at the 2002 Annual Conference in Louisville.   

Full implementation of the provisions in the Process for Calling
Denominational Leadership statement will take effect in the 2003
balloting process. 

 4) Brethren Volunteer Service Unit 247 completed orientation at
Camp Ithiel in Gotha, Fla., on Feb. 8. Ten volunteers participated
and took assignments at the following project sites:

Shalon Atwood of Waterloo, Iowa: Bridgeway, Lakewood, Colo.; Hannes
Birkhofer of Bielefeld, Germany: Tri-City Homeless Coalition,
Fremont, Calif.; Cal Carpenter of Woodstock, Ill.: Bread and Roses
Catholic Worker House, Olympia, Wash.; Pete Dobberstein of
Brookville, Ohio: Gould Farm, Monterey, Mass., then in June to
Kilcranny House, Coleraine, Northern Ireland; Kendra Flory of
McPherson, Kan.: Hopewell Inn, Mesopotamia, Ohio; Amy Moses of
Washington, D.C.: Proyecto Libertad, Harlingen, Tex.; Sonja
Partikel of Berlin, Germany: Samaritan House/Cafe 458 in Atlanta,
Ga.; Travis Poling of Hagerstown, Md.: Center on Conscience and
War, Washington, D.C.; Beth Shively of North Manchester, Ind.:
Trees for Life, Wichita, Kan.; and Udo Sommerhoff of Fohren,
Germany: Lancaster (Pa.) Area Habitat for Humanity.

Orientation unit dates for the remainder of 2002 include Older
Adult Unit 248 in New Windsor, Md., April 21 to May 2; Unit 249 at
Camp Colorado, Sedalia, Colo., July 14 to Aug. 3; BVS/Brethren
Revival Fellowship Unit 250 in Roxbury, Pa., Aug. 18-28; and Unit
251 in New Windsor, Md., Sept. 15 to Oct. 5.

 5) And, he's off! Don Vermilyea has reported a successful start to
his "Walk Across America," a multi-year journey to all Brethren
congregations and institutions.

Vermilyea began his trip as scheduled in Tucson, Ariz., on Feb. 2,
speaking at the Tucson Church of the Brethren the following Sunday.
He left behind a few items to lighten his pack, then headed more
than 100 miles northwest toward Phoenix. He has been staying in
private homes and homeless shelters or occasionally sleeping
outdoors in culverts along the way.

Tucson member and secretary Barbara McCune says the church was
excited to be the first stop on the journey, calling it a "happy
surprise." She says the congregation enjoyed Vermilyea's message in
church and Sunday school even more.

"It's nice to see the church still talking about that and still
working at it," McCune said. "People have become a little more
conscious about what they're doing environmentally." She said even
the children and youth in the congregation seemed to be paying
close attention.

This past Sunday, Vermilyea visited the Community Church Fellowship
in Mesa. He was staying in the Phoenix area this week, with stops
planned at the Papago Buttes congregation and in Glendale. He will
then head on a long leg westward toward San Diego.

"I've had wonderful hospitality from Tucson and Mesa Community,"
Vermilyea said by phone this week. He said his biggest challenge
has been rationing water along the trip. Updates of his journey are
being posted at www.brethren.org/genbd/witness/Walk.html. The walk
is being sponsored by the General Board's Brethren Volunteer
Service and Brethren Witness offices.

 6) Regional Youth Conference season officially kicks off this
weekend as senior high youth from the Plains districts and
Missouri/Arkansas gather at McPherson (Kan.) College. Bethany
Theological Seminary staff David and Marcia Shetler are serving as
keynote leaders for the annual event, focusing on calling and
vocation as part of the Lilly grant-funded Theological Exploration
of Vocation program.

Other upcoming conferences are:
*Eastern Regional Youth Conference for the four Pennsylvania
districts, March 8-10 at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College. Ken Medema
will serve as keynote leader for the theme "Life Interrupted:
Equipping the Saints." Medema will also present a Saturday evening
concert. 

*Regional Youth Conference for Midwest youth at Manchester College,
North Manchester, Ind., April 12-14. Trotwood (Ohio) pastor Amy
Messler, Elkhart (Ind.) Valley pastor Frank Ramirez, and Manchester
chaplain Jim Chinworth will speak at three main sessions using the
National Youth Conference theme "For Such a Time as This."
Methodist comedian/storyteller Chris Danielson will provide
Saturday evening entertainment.

*Roundtable regional youth conference at Bridgewater (Va.) College
April 20-21 for youth from the Mid-Atlantic and southeastern
regions of the US, and Puerto Rico. Brooklyn (N.Y.) First associate
pastor Phill Carlos Archbold, the 2001 Annual Conference moderator,
will lead sessions on the theme "On Eagles' Wings." A variety show
and a band of Bridgewater students will provide entertainment.

Youth from the West Coast districts and Idaho hold their Western
Regional Youth Conference every four years. The next one is
scheduled to take place in 2004.

 7) Brethren bits: Other brief news notes from around the
denomination and elsewhere.
 *John Tubbs, the General Board's mission co-coordinator in
Nigeria, reports that to his knowledge no members of the Ekklesiyar
Yan'uwa a Nigeria (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) were directly
affected by the recent explosions in the major city of Lagos and
the riots that followed. The panic after a major munitions depot
exploded on Jan. 27 left more than 1,000 people dead, according to
a United Nations report. Many others were left homeless, with up to
20,000 people estimated to have been affected.

 *Four buildings at Virlina District's Camp Bethel, in Fincastle,
Va., were damaged as a result of breaking and entering discovered
Feb. 13, according to a report from the district. A television and
VCR were stolen.

 *Registrations for the 2002 Church of the Brethren National Youth
Conference, to be held July 16-21 in Fort Collins, Colo., stood at
3,130 through Feb. 14. The summer workcamps being offered by the
Youth/Young Adult office, meanwhile, are nearly full. Through Feb.
5, all five junior high workcamps had filled, a senior high
workcamp to the Dominican Republic had only two spaces, and a
senior high/young adult workcamp to Pine Ridge, S.D., also had only
two spaces left. 

 *The Church of the Brethren Washington Office has issued an action
alert asking members to urge their representatives not to
co-sponsor the Universal Military Training Bill that would
reinstate conscription authority and to instead support a bill that
would repeal Selective Service. Both bills have been introduced in
the US House of Representatives. Details are at
www.brethren.org/genbd/washofc/alert/SelectiveService.htm.

 *The General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries office
continues to work at disaster relief in several locations: a
cooperative effort with Mennonite Disaster Service to rebuild a
tornado survivor's home in Cordell, Okla., with Ben and Mary Hutson
serving as project directors in February; continuing work in Siren,
Wis., restarting in May, when Paul and Patricia Haffner and Ed and
Bonnie Bryan will serve as project directors; and ongoing hurricane
recovery work in North Carolina, with Marlin Kreider as project
director in February. 

 *Another Brethren was among those running the Olympic torch on its
way to Utah. Bob Bertrand, a member of the Woodgrove Brethren
Christian Parish, Hastings, Mich., was a torch runner in Lansing,
Mich., on Jan. 6. Bertrand was nominated by his sister-in-law. He
was badly injured in April 1991 when he was hit by a car while
returning from a 100-mile bicycle ride. After a long recovery, he
and his son, Randall, now enter events on a tandem bike.

 8) Gene Hipskind, district executive minister of the Pacific
Southwest District, has announced his retirement effective July 31.
He has served in the district since September 1994.

Hipskind and his wife, Linda, plan to move to Boise, Idaho, to be
near their grandchildren.

 9) This year's Cross-Cultural Consultation, sponsored by the
General Board's Cross-Cultural Ministries Team, will be held April
18-21 at the Germantown Church of the Brethren in Philadelphia.

This year's theme is "Once you were not a people but . . . now you
are," from I Peter 2:10. A variety of presentations and small-group
discussion times will explore new church development and
congregational renewal, especially in urban contexts. Members of
several new ethnic church plants will share their experiences.

Worship will also fill the event, with leadership by Germantown
pastor Richard Kyerematen, Area 3 Congregational Life Team member
Carol Yeazell, the Bittersweet Gospel Band, Tony Lynch and Choir,
and area Korean congregations.

Local congregations are covering housing and meals for the
consultation, and travel assistance is available for requests
received by March 1. For more information, contact Duane Grady at
765-649-4384 or dgrady_gb@brethren.org.

 10) The second in a series of Creative Church Leader training
events being offered through a special Lilly grant will be held
June 17-21 at Manchester College, North Manchester, Ind.

A similar event was held last year at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College,
and another is planned for 2003. It is one of 12 programs taking
place under the Theological Explorations of Vocation grant received
by the six Church of the Brethren colleges, Brethren Colleges
Abroad, and Bethany Theological Seminary in 2000.

James P. "Pat" Carlisle, director of The Center for Creative Church
Leadership, will be the primary leader. Participants will discuss
key issues in ministry, assess present leadership strengths and
areas of needed improvement, examine personality traits, and learn
about new tools for use in the congregation.

The event will be limited to the first 25 people to register, with
registrations due by April 17. The normal program cost is $975 plus
room and board, but Manchester is covering all expenses through the
grant. Participants are asked to make their own travel arrangements
and turn in expenses upon arrival. To register or for more details,
contact Wendi Hutchinson at 260-982-5232 or
WAHutchinson@manchester.edu.

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. 

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of recent events. Tom Zuercher contributed to this report.