Newsline: BVS opens new Intentional Community House in Portland

From CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>
Date Thu, 13 Jan 2011 11:12:55 -0600

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl

Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Brethren Volunteer Service opens new Intentional Community House

>in Portland

(Jan. 13, 2011) Elgin, IL -- In a continued effort to foster 
intentional

Christian community for volunteers, Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS)

opened its second Intentional Community House this past fall. The new

BVS house is a partnership with Portland (Ore.) Peace Church of the

Brethren, where the effort was spearheaded by Beth Merrill, a former

>BVS volunteer.

Four current and former BVS volunteers are living in the house in 
Portland,

paying special attention to life together, spiritual formation, 
conflict

resolution, and being a presence in the neighborhood. Projects 
connected

with the Portland house include On Earth Peace and Snow Cap, a local

>food bank.

Volunteers who live in BVS Intentional Community Houses agree to be an

active part of the life of the sponsoring congregation, in addition 
to carrying

out their fulltime work at project sites. Sponsoring congregations 
offer

spiritual support, fellowship, and Christian community to the 
volunteers.

The first BVS Intentional Community House opened in the fall of 2009 
in

partnership with Cincinnati (Ohio) Church of the Brethren, located in 
the

Walnut Hills neighborhood. In addition, the longstanding BVS House in

Elgin, Ill., which for decades has housed volunteers working at the 
Church

of the Brethren General Offices, also has become more intentional in 
its

community life in partnership with Highland Avenue Church of the

>Brethren.

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 
celebrated

its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across 
the

United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in

Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

(This release was provided by Dana Cassell, Brethren Volunteer 
Service staff

>for Vocation and Community Living.)

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

>Director of News Services

>Church of the Brethren

>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120

>800-323-8039 ext. 260

>cobnews@brethren.org