Newsline: Bob Gross moves into new role at On Earth Peace

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl 
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Bob Gross moves into new role at On Earth Peace

(Jan. 12, 2012) Elgin, IL -- On Earth Peace, a Church of the Brethren agency 
focused on peacemaking and peace education, is launching a search for a new 
executive director. Bob Gross, who has served as director of On Earth Peace 
since October 2000, will be moving to another role in the organization.

"We have been planning for this transition for the past two years," said Gross, 
"and we look forward to strengthening our staff team with the addition of a new 
organizational leader. As our ministries grow in scope and depth, it is time 
for fresh leadership, and I look forward to a new set of responsibilities."

Gross has served in leadership of On Earth Peace for more than a decade, for a 
number of years serving as a co-executive director alongside former 
co-executive Barbara Sayler. His tenure with On Earth Peace has included 
notable service in the area of mediation work and training, including mediation 
work in India during conflict over former mission properties there, and most 
recently facilitating a special session of the Church of the Brethren's Mission 
and Ministry Board as a part of denomination-wide conversations on sexuality, 
as the Church of the Brethren was preparing for its 2011 Annual Conference.

He also has led several delegations to Israel and Palestine in cooperation with 
Christian Peacemaker Teams, but during the last delegation in January 2010 was 
detained by Israeli airport security and refused entry to the country, 
presumably because of his peacemaking work with Palestinian partners.

Gross has engaged in peacemaking work in a number of areas throughout his life, 
starting with his witness as a conscientious objector and draft resister. He 
and his family are part of a longstanding simple living community and farm near 
North Manchester, Ind., where his wife, Rachel Gross, leads the Death Row 
Support Project originally formed by concerned Church of the Brethren members 
in 1978.

On Earth Peace plans to have a new director on board this spring, and to 
introduce the new staff leader at the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference 
in St. Louis in July. 

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.

># # #

>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