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Date: Oct. 31, 2003
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

NEWS
 1) General Board wrestles with finances amid light agenda.
 2) Wildfires affect Brethren in southern Calif.; response begins.
 3) Council of District Executives leads drive for ecclesiology
discussion.
 4) Small Membership/Rural Church team plans series of
mini-conferences.
 5) Sudan delegation members find ways to share their experiences.
 6) Global Food Crisis grant aids North Korea; delegation to visit.
 7) Emergency Disaster Fund delivers additional relief to Liberia.
 8) Brethren bits: Annual Conference, college notes, and more.

PERSONNEL
 9) Manchester College president Parker Marden announces
retirement.

****************************************************************

 1) The Church of the Brethren General Board faced a light agenda
and few decisions to make as it met in a season of uncertainty Oct.
18-21 in Elgin, Ill.

Only issues related to the agency's 2004 budget required action by
the 20 elected members of the board, chaired by Donna Shumate of
Southeastern District. Otherwise, the fall agenda instead was
filled with worship, updates, reports, forums, and opportunities
for fellowship, conversation, and discernment.

"I expected a business meeting. What I found was a worship
experience," said Valerie Healton, one of a group of Bethany
Theological Seminary students attending the meeting. "I appreciated
the intentional way God was made the focus."

The budget did occupy a significant part of one day, as financial
figures continue to raise caution flags. General Board
treasurer/chief financial officer Judy Keyser acknowledged that
challenges lie ahead but assured the board the agency remains "a
financially solid organization."

The 2003 budget is running only slightly behind projections through
the end of September, but the parameter for the 2004 General
Ministries Fund budget had to be raised $37,000, to $5,263,000, due
to sharply increasing medical insurance costs and other
adjustments. Board members authorized an additional $50,000, if
needed, to meet the insurance increase.

Wil Nolen of Brethren Benefit Trust, which administers the
insurance plan, said the estimated 39 percent increase comes due to
"extraordinarily high" claims in the first three quarters of 2003.
He warned that another boost in premiums may be necessary July 1.

The 2004 budget, which board members approved, includes a shortfall
of $231,000 that will be covered by funds that had been set aside
for other special projects. This "patch" was approved to prevent
further staff cuts in the coming year, and to give the board time
to increase funding or weigh other alternatives.

"I see us as an organization that is being stretched," Keyser said.
"The fabric is thinner, but still wearable."

Board members, staff, and visitors spent another afternoon gathered
in forum discussions to share thoughts around some of the questions
before the board. Board vice chair Glenn Mitchell said it was an
opportunity to "share face-to-face out of our concerns for the
board" in an atmosphere of trust and respect and in a spirit of
prayer. Topics covered included ministry priorities, funding
issues, office location, and the needs of the larger church.

In other business, Kevin King of Mennonite Central Committee shared
about the work his organization is doing to rebuild schools in
war-torn Iraq. While no formal action was taken at this meeting,
the General Board plans to engage in a cooperative venture with MCC
to carry out the rebuilding. Plans for that effort will be
announced soon. It will build on previous General Board gifts to
ministries in Iraq through Church World Service's "All Our
Children" campaign and other endeavors.

General Board staff also presented a variety of reports, including
plans for a new children's curriculum from Brethren Press and for
a future denomination-wide mission conference. Robert Johansen of
the Committee on Interchurch Relations said the committee is
continuing discernment on the associated relationship with American
Baptist Churches USA and on the new Christian Churches Together
effort. New general secretary Stan Noffsinger noted that he senses
"tremendous energy and faithfulness among Brethren for the future
of the church." 

Citations were read for outgoing staff Glenn Timmons
(Congregational Life Ministries) and John and Janet Tubbs (Global
Mission Partnerships, Nigeria), while employees--led by Steve
Bickler of Brethren Press with 25 years of service--were honored
for tenure milestones at an afternoon reception.

Worship services opened and closed the meetings, with an additional
service Sunday morning. Each business session also began with
devotions built around the theme "For Everything . . . There is a
Season," from Ecclesiastes 3.

The Executive Committee, meeting on Oct. 17, affirmed the
appointments of Brandy Fix to the Committee on Interchurch
Relations and Nelda Rhoades Clarke as a World Council of Churches
representative. Jay Carter and Tim Harvey were named to the board's
Audit and Investment Committee, Vickie Whitacre Samland to the
Personnel Relations Committee, and Jaime Diaz to the Companeros en
Ministerio board. Executive Committee members also approved a new
$30,000 Emergency Disaster Fund grant to Liberia (see item 8).

The full General Board next meets March 13-15, 2004, in Elgin.

 2) Disaster struck close to home for some Brethren this month as
wildfires burn in southern California, and the denomination's
Emergency Response/Service Ministries (ER/SM) office is beginning
work in the region.

Pacific Southwest District executive Bryan Boyer said the fires
have come close to La Verne, where the district office, Hillcrest
Homes, and the University of La Verne are located. "It was raining
ash for several days," said Boyer, who lives in nearby Claremont. 

Highways have thus far provided firebreaks to keep the flames north
of the city, but numerous homes in the surrounding hills--including
those of at least two La Verne Church of the Brethren members--have
been destroyed. Other fires are burning north of Los Angeles and
around San Diego, with more than 600,000 acres burned and 20 deaths
reported. Some members and friends of the San Diego congregation
had to evacuate, and staff at Camp La Verne in Angelus Oaks,
Calif., were under mandatory evacuation this week.

ER/SM director Roy Winter said the Disaster Child Care program
received a request this week to set up a care center in La Mesa,
near San Diego, with the possibility of a second center opening.
Doug and Sylvia Trenton visited the area this week to provide
assessment. A $5,000 Emergency Disaster Fund grant will support
this response. Winter said the office was on alert to respond to
other needs and requests.

 3) "Ecclesiology" is one of those words that many people can't
spell correctly, let alone define. A growing group, however,
strongly feels that the denomination needs to discuss it.

In essence, the question returns to the basics: What does it mean
to be the church? What is the church's meaning and purpose? The
Council of District Executives initiated the current discussion at
its February 2003 meetings, and continued brainstorming through the
spring on the need for a consultation on ecclesiology.

When the full council met again prior to Annual Conference, it
passed a "Statement of Concern" that noted the mistrust,
fragmentation, and lack of a common vision members of the council
observed in the denomination. It cited the "proliferation of
special-interest groups" in the Church of the Brethren, the
suspicion of denominational institutions, and the tendency for
people to carry their agendas onto a soapbox at Annual Conference
and elsewhere.

"These signs of fragmentation reflect a lack of a commonly owned
vision and an absence of a sense of a shared identity," the
statement said. "We believe this is the call of God to our
generation to reaffirm our identity as members of the Church of the
Brethren in particular and as Christians in general."

The council sent an invitation to all Annual Conference agencies to
join in a planning meeting held at Bethany Theological Seminary in
Indiana Sept. 4-5. Representatives of the Association of Brethren
Caregivers, Bethany, the General Board, and On Earth Peace
attended. The other agencies are expected to send representatives
for future meetings, and the Committee on Higher Education and the
Cross-Cultural Ministry Team have been invited to do so.

The September meeting began by focusing on two questions: the
concerns about the church that each of the representatives brought,
and those areas that created feelings of optimism or affirmation.
Consultation convener Mark Flory Steury, executive minister of
Southern Ohio District, said "a lot of excitement was generated."

The meeting continued by delving into more details for the
consultation, with the "broad intent . . . to help bring about the
renewal of the church." Participants created a timeline in which
preparation will continue through spring 2005, followed by a
denomination-wide "launching event" that spring, regional events in
spring 2006, and a denomination-wide "culminating event" in spring
2007.

Flory Steury noted in a presentation to the General Board that the
last denomination-wide conversation about the church occurred more
than 40 years ago, in 1960. That meeting, he said, shaped much of
the structure and polity of the church as it exists today.

While the 1960 gathering involved only a collection of church
leaders, the council hopes this new thrust can involve the entire
denomination. Several task groups already have been formed, with
some initial discussion of resources and tools to aid the process.
The planning committee will next meet Jan. 15-16, again at Bethany,
to develop the plans in more detail.

 4) The recently renamed Small Membership/Rural Church Leadership
Team met this month at the General Offices in Elgin, Ill., setting
some ambitious plans for the future.

A large gift from an anonymous donor has set up a source of funding
for the group, which hopes to "transform the Church of the
Brethren" by sharing resources, celebrating God's work in small and
rural churches, and changing the mindset by which those ministry
settings are viewed.

The team set goals of creating at least seven "mini-conferences" on
small and rural church ministry in district and regional areas in
2004. Each will aim to address local issues, with a second round of
conversations a year later. Another eight mini-conferences are
envisioned for 2005, and 10 for 2006. Districts are being invited
to set dates for the gatherings.

In addition, the team is working on major eastern and western
conferences "in the near future," as well as on creating a website
and finding additional funding. Other goals include having better
trained full- or part-time pastors in rural and small-membership
congregations, and working toward a denominational statement that
would provide "appropriate strategies" for renewal and
transformational ministry in these contexts.

Team members are Mary Jane Button-Harrison, Ray Barkey, Les Cooper,
Chuck Cupp, Rick Koch, Roger Schrock, and Don Willoughby.
Congregational Life Team member Jim Kinsey serves as General Board
liaison to the team.

 5) Phil Jones, director of the General Board's Brethren
Witness/Washington (D.C.) Office, is sharing ways that participants
in a delegation to southern Sudan are responding to what they
experienced in this region of civil war. The Faith & Advocacy
Expedition, held from Aug. 22 to Sept. 6, was sponsored by the
Global Mission Partnerships office of the General Board. 

Jones said that the group--which was led by Phil and Louise Baldwin
Rieman, pastors of Northview Church of the Brethren in Indianapolis
and former Sudan mission staff with the New Sudan Council of
Churches (NSCC)--was moved to begin production on a study guide.
This tool will educate church members about the political, social,
and faith struggles of the people of the southern Sudan and how the
Christian community might best respond, he said.

The delegation has produced an article about the trip that will be
highlighted in the November "Messenger." "We responded to a
challenge by Merlyn Kettering (current General Board staff and
advisor/consultant to NSCC) to move beyond 'mission tourism' into
an intentional exploration of the issues and struggles that affect
not only the people of Southern Sudan, but the larger global
community," Jones said.

For two weeks the group immersed themselves in the history, the
faith experiences, and the people, he said. He added that group
members witnessed the work of a boys' and girls' school and were
greeted by young men displaced from their homes in the north due to
war. They also shared in dialog with women's cooperatives, local
health clinics, and local non-governmental organizations. 

In addition to Jones and the Riemans, the delegation also included
Amy Beery of Indianapolis; On Earth Peace co-director Barb Sayler
of Westminster, Md.; Kelly Burk of Richmond, Ind.; and Otto
Schaudel of Leola, Pa. Congregational presentations by these
participants can be arranged by calling Jones at 202-546-3202.

 6) A new $20,000 grant from the General Board's Global Food Crisis
Fund will support a Church World Service (CWS) appeal for North
Korea. The funds will help provide a shipment of 420 metric tons of
wheat flour in conjunction with a CWS delegation visit to the
nation.

The delegation, which will include General Board Global Mission
Partnerships executive director Merv Keeney, is scheduled to travel
to both North and South Korea in mid-November. CWS executive
director John McCullough and US National Council of Churches
general secretary Bob Edgar will lead the eight-member delegation.

The group will visit Pyongyang, North Korea, Nov. 11-15 to monitor
distribution of the flour shipment and to assess future
humanitarian needs through site visits and talks with the
international aid community. The shipment fills seven railway
wagons, each carrying 2,400 55-pound bags of flour. The flour is to
be distributed among baby homes, children's centers, and maternity
hospitals. 

This latest grant continues a steady stream of aid to the
impoverished and famine-stricken Asian nation from the Global Food
Crisis Fund, totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars. 
Total food aid provided by CWS to North Korea since the outbreak of
the food crisis in 1996 now stands at $4,349,989.

The delegation then travels to South Korea Nov. 15-19, where their
agenda will include a specially convened National Council of
Churches of Korea Assembly and an international Interfaith Peace
Conference. The peace conference, hosted by the Korea Peace Forum,
will have as its theme, "From Ceasefire to Peace: Peace Making Role
of World Religions."

The trip grew out of a series of meetings over the past year,
including a June 16-18 consultation in Washington, D.C., at which
North American and South Korean church leaders joined humanitarian
and Korea experts in calling for the US government to promote a
peaceful solution to the tensions on the Korean peninsula. 

 7) The General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund will send another
$30,000 in aid to Liberia, following approval by the board's
Executive Committee at its October meeting.

The grant will support a renewed Church World Service appeal for
humanitarian aid to the West African nation, recently torn apart by
war. The funds will help to provide counseling and medical and
material assistance to abused and traumatized women and their
families, and to provide shelter management, food, and
peace-building efforts to at least 500,000 displaced children and
their families via 25 activity centers.

The aid will be distributed through the Liberian Council of
Churches, in conjunction with Concerned Christian Community and the
YMCA of Liberia. "We need to continue working together, mobilizing
our efforts to assist Liberia's sick and needy," Liberian Council
of Churches general secretary Benjamin Lartey said recently.

In addition, $1,500 of the grant was directed to support a Liberian
Council of Churches-sponsored Church Leaders Conference on Peace,
Reconciliation, and Post-Conflict Consolidation being held in late
October. The meeting was designed to begin the faith community's
work in rebuilding the lives of Liberian people while also working 
to prevent further violence. 

The General Board has now sent a combined $55,000 to relief efforts
in Liberia.

 8) Brethren bits: Other brief news notes from around the
denomination and elsewhere.
 *The Annual Conference Council has begun a strategic planning
process for its work, with the first session held in Elgin, Ill.,
Oct. 21-22. Annual Conference executive director Lerry Fogle says
the process "will take some time to complete." Further details will
be released as the process continues. 

 *The Annual Conference study committee responding to the 2003
"Query on Congregational Disagreement with Annual Conference
Decisions" has begun its work with a meeting Oct. 28-30 in Elgin,
Ill. The committee, which has already contacted district executives
for feedback, is preparing to distribute surveys to pastors of all
congregations in the next few weeks. The survey is also posted
online at www.brethren.org/ac for others to respond. Bob Kettering
is serving as chair of the committee.

 *The denominational website, www.brethren.org, will be down for
maintenance beginning about 7 a.m. Central time on Nov. 1, along
with other services provided by eMountain Communications. Mail sent
to brethren.org e-mail addresses during this time will be returned.
Staff hope to have the services back up by mid-afternoon.

 *Church of the Brethren member Cliff Kindy, who had a lengthy stay
in Iraq earlier this year with Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT),
will return to Iraq the first week of November to join a six-member
CPT team in the country.

 *The Disaster Child Care Level I Volunteer Training Workshop that
had been scheduled at Elizabethtown (Pa.) Church of the Brethren
Oct. 25-26 has been postponed until 2004.

 *Four people with Church of the Brethren connections were honored
by Bridgewater (Va.) College Oct. 10 at the President's Dinner.
Bridgewater Church of the Brethren member Marion Mason, a longtime
member of the college's board of trustees, received the Outstanding
Leadership Award. Judy Mills Reimer, recently retired as general
secretary of the Church of the Brethren General Board, received an
Outstanding Service Award. Current Bridgewater students Peter
Barlow of the Montezuma congregation and Amanda O'Donnell of the
Providence congregation also received Outstanding Service Awards.

 *Ron Hovis will officially be inaugurated as the new president of
McPherson (Kan.) College on Nov. 7. 

 9) Manchester College president Parker G. Marden on Oct. 25 told
the board of trustees he plans to retire from the college on June
30, 2005, shortly after his 11th anniversary as the college's 13th
president. 

The Manchester trustees accepted the notice with regret and
authorized formation of a search committee, which will recommend a
successor by next fall, said board chair David A. Haist of Fort
Wayne, Ind. The college will search nationwide for a successor,
said Haist, who chaired the search team that brought Marden to
Manchester.

Board vice chair J. Bentley Peters will chair the confidential
search committee. It will include 13 to 15 members selected by the
board from Manchester College trustees, faculty, staff,
administration, students, alumni, and the community.  

Marden, 65, has served as president of Manchester  since June 1994,
after six years as vice president for academic affairs and dean of
Beloit College in Wisconsin. The Massachusetts native has a
bachelor's degree in sociology from Bates College in Maine, and a
master's and doctorate in sociology from Brown University in Rhode
Island, where he served as a sociology research associate for The
Center for Aging Research.

"President Marden always is focused on the college's mission that
is centered in faith, learning, and service," said Haist. "He has
made an unparalleled contribution to Manchester College since his
appointment 10 years ago." 

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. Eddie Edmonds, Norman Harsh, Janis Pyle, Jeri
Kornegay, and NCC News Services contributed to this report.

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