wfn.org | Church of the Brethren in Brazil holds 5th conference

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: Jan. 5, 2006
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100  F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com) 
 
CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN IN BRAZIL HOLDS 5th ANNUAL CONFERENCE
 
Jan. 5, 2006 (Elgin, IL) -- Igreja da Irmandade (the Church of the Brethren  
in Brazil) celebrated its fifth Annual Conference Nov. 25-27, 2005, focusing 
on  "Evangelism, from the Anabaptist and Pietist Traditions: Yesterday,
Today,	
Tomorrow." Around 50 people participated, with representation from every  
congregation and fellowship, reported Greg and Karin Davidson Laszakovits,  
Brazil representatives for the Church of the Brethren General Board.
 
Leadership for sessions came from those inside and outside Igreja da  
Irmandade. The keynote speaker was Peter Gunther Siemens, a Mennonite pastor
and  
scholar from the city of Curitiba. Siemens's sessions tracked the history of 

Christianity and Anabaptism, focusing on how the church came to adopt various
 
beliefs and practices as it read the Bible and interacted with the realities
of  
the day. He focused on the Anabaptist belief that it is Jesus who changes our

 lives, not the church. "Jesus is real, the manifestation of God," he said.  
"Often the church gets mixed up and becomes religion and religiosity. Jesus
is 
 something different than religion. Something more--much more."
 
"Worship and prayer framed each day, with the pastors of the church  
providing leadership for both," said the report on the conference. Each
morning  began 
with prayer--communal, small group, and individual--followed by a  
meditation. Each evening the assembly worshiped together. The inaugural
worship  sermon 
was preached by Greg Davidson Laszakovits, who focused on letting  
evangelistic light shine in all that Christians do through love, service, and
 
faithfulness. Saturday evening's worship brought by a team from the Rio Verde
 
congregation focused on praising God. In the closing worship, national
director  of the 
Brazilian church, Marcos Inhauser, sent conference-goers forth with a  call 
to spread the good news that they have received, and to do so remembering 
the 
church's call to be "a different kind of church, making a difference."
 
Other sessions were given by church members, and treated Christian  education

and living as healthy families. Following a model that sought  participation 
by all, each session and worship was followed by the opportunity  for 
conference-goers to share reflections and interact with the presenters. 
"Many shared 
how they might have been touched, new concepts that were presented  in the 
session, and the exchange of ideas," said the Laszakovitses.
 
Held near the city of Campinas, and geographically close to the majority of  
the congregations, the setting of the conference at a camp facilitated 
community  building, they added. In addition to eating and residing as a
community,  
activities were held almost non-stop to provide forums for the sharing of  
thoughts and ideas and having fun together.
 
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to  
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith  in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith  
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its
 300th 
anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United	
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the  
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
 
# # #
 
For more information contact:
 
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the  Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-5100  ext. 260
_cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ 
(mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org) 
 
*****************************************************************
The  Church of the Brethren Newsline is produced by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford,

 director of news services for the Church of the Brethren General Board. 
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