Title: Brethren cross cultural celebration reflects on household of God Subject: Church of the Brethren Newsline Date: May 23, 2006 From: Church of the Brethren News Services Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.o rg
CROSS CULTURAL CELEBRATION IN THE CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN REFLECTS ON THE HOU SEHOLD OF GOD
(A Spanish translation of this piece, "Celebracion Intercultural refleja la casa de Dios," is available; contact Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford at cobnews@bre thren.org.)
May 23, 2006 (Elgin, IL) -- Lancaster (Pa.) Church of the Brethren hosted th e denominationâs annual Cross Cultural Consultation and Celebration May 4-7. The surrounding countryside, with its plain people and rich farmlan d, offered vivid reminders of the Pennsylvania Dutch heritage as more than 1 40 Brethren met to offer an intercultural model of church.
"Built Together: The Household of God," from Ephesians 2:17-22, provided the theme for the event. "This is the way church should happen," commented Jame s Washington Sr., pastor of Faith Center Fellowship Church of the Brethren, who attended from Whitehouse, Texas. "I pray that we learn...that the world is beautiful because it has color."
Brethren from African-American, Hispanic, Dominican, Mexican, Indian, Haitia n, Puerto Rican, Jamaican, Anglo, and other heritages attended from across t he US and Puerto Rico. Worship featured scripture reading, prayer, and singi ng in many languages including English, Spanish, Haitian Creole, French, Ger man, Russian, Portuguese, and Gujarati--a language of India.
Praise music got the congregation to its feet, and contemplative hymns calle d on the Spiritâs presence, led by bands, musicians, and choirs from many different congregations. A new music group of African-American and Ang lo Brethren made its debut at the consultation, led by Washington.
A message about the importance of taking personal responsibility for racism was given by keynote speaker Ken Quick, chair of the Pastoral Theology Depar tment at Capital Bible Seminary in Lanham, Md., and John Gordon, a medical p rofessional and seminary student. Quick and Gordon spoke at a worship servic e focused on confession. Telling his familyâs history of slave owner ship, Quick said, "I have to first of all apologize for the horrors that my family perpetrated. I owe debt."
Gordon followed with a confession of his own from the African-American persp ective, the story of how he awoke to his own racism when his daughter began to date a white man. Gordonâs reading of a pledge to live an anti-ra cist life was followed by an invitation for the congregation to receive comm union.
Larry Brumfield, a licensed minister and member of Westminster (Md.) Church of the Brethren, spoke for the closing worship. He called the church to an " honest moment" to "acknowledge that some of our behaviors and some of our bi ases do not reflect the behavior that God would have...in the body of Christ ."
Issuing a challenge to pastors to preach against racism from the pulpit, Bru mfield said, "We have to place the issues of importance in front of our peop le. The church is responsible for giving light, and we are responsible for t aking action on what that light exposes." He added, "Do you know how success ful we would be if we attacked this problem as a unified church of God? God will bless us for our courage and honor us for our obedience to the scriptur e."
The meeting also included an intercultural youth event--a first for the Chur ch of the Brethren, organizers said. Some 20 youth from several different co ngregations held an overnight at the Lancaster church, and then led a mornin g worship service followed by times for discussion of issues.
A youth panel presented two topics for open discussion during the worship: t he pros and cons of tradition in the church, and alternative lifestyles incl uding homosexuality. The panel elicited numerous responses from the adults p resent, who expressed a wide variety of points of view. The youth closed the discussion with their own statements about unity. "We need to accept everyo ne no matter what issues they come to the church with, we need to be loving, " said Serenity, of Harrisburg (Pa.) First Church of the Brethren.
The consultation also received a presentation on the disaster work of the de nomination, a report from the Intercultural Study Committee of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference, and a report from a January event in Baltim ore, Md., that gathered church leaders to talk about how to deal with racism . The Intercultural Study Committee reviewed the interim report that it will bring to Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren this year (www.bre thren.org/ac/desmoines/business_old.pdf, pp 215-234).
Discussion and testimony throughout the consultation reflected the ups and d owns of cross cultural ministries. Participants spent much time reflecting o n the barriers to inclusion and the continued existence of racism in the Chu rch of the Brethren, pointing to several particular issues including lack of diversity on denominational and district staff, rigid structure of Annual C onference, lack of interest in intercultural issues from Anglo pastors, lack of Brethren resources in Spanish, difficulty of ministry training for ethni c minority pastors, and lack of relationship between Brethren congregations of different ethnic or cultural backgrounds.
"Anti-racism work needs to be a commitment of the Annual Conference agencies at the top level," said one participant who had been at the Baltimore meeti ng. "Without that commitment, there will not be funding, and there will not be follow through."
Participants also expressed enthusiasm and love for the denomination. "Don ât be discouraged, the barriers are coming down," said Rene Quintani lla, a pastor from Fresno, Calif. "The Spirit is leading."
The Steering Committee for Cross Cultural Ministries planned the event. Area congregations hosted many participants in their homes, and also provided me als for the consultation.
The next Cross Cultural Consultation and Celebration is planned for April 19 -22, 2007, at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.
For more about cross cultural ministries in the Church of the Brethren go to http://www.brethren.org/www.brethren.org/genbd/clm/clt/CrossCultural.html. For photos from the event, go to www.brethren.org, click on "Photo Journal."
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continui ng the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in c ommunity. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith trad itions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its 30 0th anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United S tates and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the D ominican 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 800-323-8039 ext. 260 cobnews@brethren.org
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