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

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Oct. 3, 2003
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

NEWS
 1) BBT, credit union enter partnership agreement.
 2) Brethren join Hurricane Isabel response on many fronts.
 3) ABC board examines strategic goals, works on budget.
 4) Committee on Interchurch Relations explores ecumenical
connections.
 5) BVS Unit 256 volunteers begin assignments; Unit 257 begins
orientation.
 6) Brethren bits: Corrections, Nigeria, Bethany, workcamps, more.

PERSONNEL
 7) Delmas Keeney is called as executive director of Congregational
Life Ministries.
 8) Anna Speicher accepts contract position as project editor with
Brethren Press. 

FEATURES
 9) "Toledo's Other Bag Lady" totes ministry across the Midwest.

****************************************************************
 
 1) Brethren Benefit Trust and the Brethren Employees' Credit Union
(BECU) on Oct. 1 signed a partnership agreement that calls for BBT
to become the credit union's third-party administrator (TPA) in
2004. In that role, BBT will assume the credit union's daily
administrative responsibilities, including all staff and office
functions. 

The agreement is viewed by both agencies as the first step in what
could lead to expanded credit union membership availability and
services.

"It makes a lot of sense to combine an established member-owned
credit institution with the national denominational agency whose
charter calls for it to provide financial services to Church of the
Brethren agencies and individuals," said BECU board chair Russ
Matteson. "We see this partnership as opening up many opportunities
for both organizations, to the benefit of all Church of the
Brethren members."

Discussions about forging a partnership agreement between BBT and
BECU have been ongoing for nearly two years. A third-party
administrator agreement was tentatively reached in July, but was
contingent on a market study to be conducted this past summer to
assess whether a credit union with a broader membership base and
expanded services would be utilized by Brethren nationwide. After
conducting focus groups at the 2003 Annual Conference and
initiating a survey mailed to more than 9,000 Brethren across the
country, BBT and BECU both believe the answer is "yes."

With the TPA partnership agreement now signed, both agencies will
begin exploring the possibility of expanding the credit union's
membership base and services. BECU currently serves 1,200 employees
of Brethren-related congregations and agencies and their family
members and Church of the Brethren members who reside in Illinois
and Wisconsin. Its loan services consist of new and used auto,
motorcycle, and boat loans, and general unsecured loans. Its
savings services include general savings accounts, Certificates of
Deposit (CDs), and Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs).

The agreement signed Wednesday calls for BBT to assume all BECU
staff and office functions beginning April 1. Due to this move, BBT
will soon announce a job position opening for the director of
Credit Union Operations. 

 2) A host of cleanup and recovery efforts are under way along the
East Coast in the wake of Hurricane Isabel, which decimated areas
from North Carolina to Pennsylvania and affected millions of
people.

Virginia was particularly hard hit, with at least two congregations
suffering damage and a number of others losing power. Christian
Church Uniting in Virginia Beach had trees fall on its property,
while a house owned by and adjacent to the West Richmond church was
damaged when a tree fell on it.

Church life went on, however. Virlina District executive David
Shumate preached an evening service by lantern light in Nelson
County, and Southern Pennsylvania District went ahead with its
district conference the weekend after the storm struck despite
power outages and closed roads in the region.

The Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., twice lost power
and had to cancel conference groups during the Sept. 19-21 weekend.
The General Boardbs Emergency Response/ Service Ministries (ER/SM)
office based there continued in high gear, however, arranging for
Disaster Child Care (DCC) caregivers, coordinating work with other
response agencies, and sending out relief supplies from the
warehouse.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency quickly requested child
care in a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center in Poquoson, Va., near the
Tidewater area. Eight caregivers from Pennsylvania and Virginia
were sent along with Jean Myers of Sinking Spring, Pa., who served
as disaster project manager. "We were able to have volunteers
on-site in less than 24 hours after the request," DCC coordinator
Helen Stonesifer said.

Child care has since been requested at three additional recovery
centers elsewhere in the Tidewater region. As of earlier this week,
14 DCC caregivers were staffing these centers, with Myers
continuing as project manager assisted by Robert and Peggy Roach of
Phenix, Va. Additional teams were on alert and ready if called.

At the warehouse, meanwhile, Service Ministries provided 300
blankets on behalf of Church World Service (CWS) to the Baltimore
American Red Cross the morning after Isabel made landfall. A
shipment of 750 CWS "Gift of the Heart" health kits, 750 cleanup
kits, 100 school kits, and 750 blankets were forwarded to assist
families in the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area, and 200 each of the
health kits, cleanup kits, and blankets were sent to a church in
flooded Baltimore for distribution. CWS noted in a release that the
New Windsor warehouse was the "primary staging area" for its
material assistance efforts.

"Our staff has responded quickly to requests for material
resources, support services, and volunteers in Virginia and
Maryland, sometimes working with only emergency lighting due to
power outages in New Windsor," said Roy Winter, executive director
of the Brethren Service Center.

Two grants from the General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund have
been made to support the response thus far. One $5,000 grant is
supporting the ER/SM Disaster Child Care volunteers, while another
$10,000 grant will aid a CWS appeal for recovery work in North
Carolina, Virginia, and Maryland. The funds will provide health
kits and cleanup kits, blankets, and the deployment of Disaster
Response and Recovery liaisons.

CWS has urged cash gifts, not material donations, for those who
wish to aid storm victims. Virlina District asked its congregations
to take up a special offering to assist the recovery and
reconstruction efforts. More than $500 was already received the
weekend after the storm.

 3) During its meeting Sept. 25-27, the Association of Brethren
Caregivers (ABC) board completed the first cycle of its Vision and
Planning Process by adopting a document entitled "Strategic Goals,
Objectives, and Action Steps."

The process began March 17, 2001, when the board approved a new
policy that defined the process and established a Vision and
Planning Committee to guide the organizationbs strategic thinking.
Since that date, a new vision statement was adopted, the mission
statement was revised, areas of strategic focus were identified and
interpreted, and strategic goals and objectives were established.

"Strategic Goals, Objectives, and Action Steps" sets in place an
action plan for the next three years which, according to policy,
will be reviewed, revised, and extended each year under the
guidance of the Vision and Planning Committee.

Also during the meeting, the board considered and adopted a
balanced operating budget for the coming year. By accepting the
budget, the board affirmed it would be necessary to continue with
five staff members. The organization's financial base cannot
support six staff members, as it did until the end of 2002. Through
realignment of staff responsibilities and attention to program
priorities, ABC will enter 2004 with its first balanced budget in
seven years.

The board also adopted a new board development policy that
specifies elements of new member orientation and affirms the
importance of ongoing board development, including a three-year
cycle of specific topics intended to keep the board operating at
maximum effectiveness. The chair-elect, who according to bylaws is
responsible for board development, will ensure that the new policy
is implemented.

In executive session, the board considered matters related to the
transition of leadership from Steve Mason, who will conclude his
service as executive director at the end of 2003. The Executive
Committee is serving as the search committee for a new executive. 
 
The board called new leadership to begin on Jan. 1. Sue Moore,
executive director of Good Samaritan Hospice, Roanoke, Va., will
begin a two-year term as chair of the ABC board.  Wally Landes of
Palmyra, Pa., was called to serve two years as chair-elect,
followed by two years as chair. Eddie Edmonds of Martinsburg,
W.Va., was re-elected by the board to a second term and called to
the position of treasurer and chair of the Finance Committee. Brian
Black of Ephrata, Pa., and Connie Burk Davis of Westminster, Md.,
will join Moore, Landes, and Edmonds on the Executive Committee.
Gayle Hunter Sheller of Springfield, Ore., was called to complete
an unexpired term. 

During the annual recognition dinner, retiring board members Joe
Schechter, Jim Tomlonson, and Bentley Peters were honored for their
service. Mason was also recognized for his six years as director.
Peters, chair of the board, announced that the board is
establishing an endowed fund in Mason's honor; more information
about this fund will be released soon.	 

In other business, the board affirmed new steering committee
members for the Brethren Chaplains Network, Denominational Deacon
Ministry, and Older Adult Ministry; and learned that the
organization's year-to-date financial position for 2003 is better
than budgeted, although still in a deficit situation. 

 4) The General Board's Committee on Interchurch Relations (CIR)
met at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., Sept.
26-28. CIR chair Belita Mitchell says the group "enthusiastically
explored ways to widen the circle of faith" through ecumenical
experiences and activities.

The agenda included preparations for an evaluation of the
denomination's associated relationship with the American Baptist
Churches USA, and looking at participation in Christian Churches
Together (CCT) -- an emerging forum for all Christian communions
seeking unity in Jesus Christ through worship and theological
discussions.  

The committee continues to help promote the Decade to Overcome
Violence, with an emphasis on youth and young adults for 2004 and
2005. Details on this emphasis will be forthcoming through the
Source mailing to churches, and via other denominational
publications.

 5) Brethren Volunteer Service/Brethren Revival Fellowship Unit 256
held orientation at Camp Swatara, Bethel, Pa., Aug. 17-27. Curvin
and Mary Ann Martin of the Heidelberg congregation in Myerstown,
Pa., served as houseparents.

Of the volunteers, both Christiana Cater of White Oak Church of the
Brethren, Manheim, Pa., and Evan Negley of the Upton (Pa.)
congregation are now placed at Good Shepherd Food Bank in Auburn,
Maine. Joanna Hilty of Pleasant Hill Church of the Brethren, Spring
Grove, Pa., has been placed at Maine Home School Volunteer Project
in Greene, Maine.

BVS Unit 257 is currently holding orientation on Joyfield Farm in
North Manchester, Ind., through Oct. 17. Twenty-four volunteers and
four staff members were expected to attend. A BVS/Civilian Public
Service potluck will be held at 6 p.m. Oct. 6 at Manchester Church
of the Brethren, and any former BVS or CPS workers are invited to
attend. Those planning to come are asked to RSVP to 847-226-6567.

 6) Brethren bits: Other brief news notes from around the
denomination and elsewhere.
 *Corrections: The hurricane-challenged Sept. 19 issue of Newsline
included two errors. Dr. Jesse Hopkins, recently named choir
director for the 2004 Annual Conference, continues serving on the
faculty of Bridgewater (Va.) College as chair of the music
department. His colleague, Dr. John Barr, retired at the end of the
last academic year. . . . The correct home office number of new
Education for a Shared Ministry (EFSM) coordinator Greg Bidgood
Enders is 937-275-3841.

 *Tom and Janet Crago left for Nigeria in late August to begin
serving as mission coordinators on an interim basis until
mid-December through the General Boardbs Global Mission
Partner-ships office. The Cragos had served in Nigeria from 1968 to
1971, and after early retirement they returned in 2001 to serve as
funding consultants for the Theological College of Northern
Nigeria. They returned again in 2002 to assist the Nigerian church
with a membership count. The  search for a Nigeria mission
coordinator has been extended with the intent to fill the position
during the first half of 2004. For details, contact Mary Lou
Garrison at 800-323-8039. 

 *Bethany Theological Seminary will install Stephen Breck Reid as
academic dean and professor of Old Testament Studies at 7:30 p.m.
Oct. 25 at the seminary's Nicarry Chapel in Richmond, Ind. A
reception will immediately follow; all friends of the seminary are
invited to attend. Reid, a member of the Bethany board of trustees
from 1990-1998, is an ordained minister in the Church of the
Brethren. He is a native of Dayton, Ohio, and is married to Kathy
Reid. They are the parents of four young adult children.

 *The General Board's Youth/Young Adult Ministries office is now
accepting applications for a summer workcamp assistant. The
position will begin at the end of May 2004 and run through the
second week of August. The assistant spends two to three weeks in
the Elgin, Ill., office helping the workcamp coordinators prepare
for the upcoming workcamps, then spends about eight weeks attending
and helping to facilitate workcamps. To request an application,
call Cindy Laprade or Beth Rhodes at 800-323-8039, e-mail
cobyouth_gb@brethren.org, or visit the Youth/Young Adult website at
www.brethren.org/genbd/yya.

 *Joe Shultz, president emeritus of Ashland (Ohio) University and
an active member of and treasurer for the Brethren Encyclopedia
Inc. board died Sept. 24 in Ohio. He was 76. Memorial services were
held this past Saturday at the university. "He has been a warm
friend over the years of members of the Church of the Brethren, and
many in our denomination grieve this great loss to the broader
Brethren movement," said Donald Durnbaugh, a Church of the Brethren
representative on the Brethren Encyclopedia board. Shultz has an
entry in the fourth volume of the encyclopedia being developed.

 7) Del Keeney has accepted the call to the position of executive
director of Congregational Life Ministries for the Church of the
Brethren General Board, a Leadership Team position, beginning
January 2004. He will work out of the Church of the Brethren
General Offices in Elgin, Ill. Current executive director Glenn
Timmons will conclude his service on Jan. 4. 

Keeney, currently of Leola, Pa., has been serving in "consultative
interim pastorates," including Oakton Church of the Brethren,
Vienna, Va., and Green Tree Church of the Brethren, Oaks, Pa. Prior
to that, he was lead pastor at Conestoga Church of the Brethren in
Leola from 1986 to 1999.

He has been a trainer in The Creative Church Leader Program and
holds a variety of certifications pertaining to the development of
church leadership. He has taught and co-taught Academy-level
classes for Bethany Theological Seminary and its Susquehanna Valley
Satellite in Pennsylvania.

Keeney has an undergraduate degree in religion from Manchester
College and received his Master of Divinity from Bethany in 1980.
He and his wife, Lois, have three sons: Christopher, Benjamin, and
Jonathan. 

 8) Anna M. Speicher has accepted a new contract position in
Brethren Press as project editor for a forthcoming children's
curriculum to succeed "Jubilee!" This position is initially for a
two-month period as the publishing house awaits a decision on a
potential grant.

If funding is approved through this grant or other sources, the
position will continue through 2005. Speicher will be responsible
for overall management of the project, including completing
development work on the project in collaboration with a partner
denomination, supervising the writing and production process, and
editing all manuscripts.

Currently an independent scholar, writer, and editor, Speicher has
a Ph.D. in American studies from George Washington University, an
A.M. in religious studies from the University of Chicago, and  an
A.B. in government from Oberlin College. She has taught at the
School of the Art Institute in Chicago and at Carleton College in
Northfield, Minn. She is author of a book and numerous articles and
book reviews, has made a number of scholarly presentations, and has
carried out several research projects. 

Speicher is an active member of Highland Avenue Church of the
Brethren, Elgin, Ill., currently chairing the church board. She
earlier served as a Brethren Volunteer Service worker in the 
Church of the Brethren Washington Office and more recently has been
involved with editing curriculum for the denomination.

 9) Jeanene Pifer is proud to be a bag lady.

Known as "Toledo's Other Bag Lady," Pifer -- who grew up in the
Lima (Ohio) Church of the Brethren and is now a member of and
organist for the Heatherdowns congregation in Toledo -- has more
than 500 tote bags in her collection. It's blossomed into a
ministry that takes her to engagements across the Midwest,
including a recent show in Illinois.

"I must have been born with a love of bags," says Pifer, who
recalls, as a 3-year-old, urging her mother to buy a bag.

The collection today includes a wide variety, from department store
bags to one made of seat belts to others shaped like animals and
some she picked up overseas. One even has panels containing photos
of family members. Pifer tells stories and anecdotes associated
with some of the bags -- she uses about three dozen in a show --
interspersed with songs that she plays at a piano. At one point she
dons a coat made entirely of bags. Her goal is always that
"everyone will feel better when they leave than when they came."

Pifer is retired now, but she began the show 13 years ago while she
was still teaching in the Toledo school system. "It's really been
a ministry I've not had to work at," she says. "It's strictly word
of mouth."

She ties in her faith with bag stories urging people to be who God
has created them to be, or talking about the importance of
volunteering, or sharing the background of the one bag in her
collection that she made herself, while her father was dying. Pifer
concludes with a "Praise the Lord" bag containing a Bible, then
wraps up the evening with a hymn. She says doing the performances
is always a moving experience for her.

"I'll speak to 3,000 people, and it just doesn't bother me a bit,"
Pifer says. "But I'm more nervous doing a bag show than anything
else I do."

Newsline is produced by Walt Wiltschek, director 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. Kathleen Campanella, Marcia Shetler, Nevin Dulabaum,
Steve Mason, and Shalon Atwood contributed to this report. Thanks
are extended to Camp Eder in Fairfield, Pa., whose facilities
allowed the Sept. 19 issue of Newsline to be completed and sent
amid the power outages and other aftermath of Hurricane Isabel.

Newsline is a free service sent only to those requesting a
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