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[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      February 18, 1997
Contact:  Paula Wilding
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

This is Newsline for the week of January 23. In the news today: 
1) Joan Deeter, World Ministries Commission executive, announces
      her retirement. 
2) The ballot for Annual Conference-elected positions is 
      released. 
3) An interim administrative style for the General Board is   
      announced. 
4) Warren Eshbach resigns as Southern Pennsylvania District 
      executive. 
5) The Minister's Association Conference is scheduled for June
      31-July 1. 
6) The Southern Africa study tour, sponsored by Association of 
      Brethren Caregivers and On Earth Peace Assembly and 
      scheduled for Jan. 24 - Feb. 6, has been canceled. 
7) Eleven Christian Peacemaker Team members, some of them 
      Brethren, were arrested Monday during a protest. 
8) Brethren/Mennonite Parents of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual 
      Children will hold a retreat in April.   

1) Joan Deeter, World Ministries Commission executive, announced
this week that she will retire on June 20. Deeter has served the
General Board for over nine years, and as WMC executive since May
1992. Prior to that appointment, Deeter served as Parish
Ministries executive from 19881992. From 19821988, Deeter
pastored West Manchester Church of the Brethren, North
Manchester, Ind.   

2) In related news, Joan Deeter is one of four Brethren nominated
for Annual Conference moderator-elect, the denomination's top
elected position. The ballots for all open positions to be voted
on by Annual Conference delegates at the conference in Long
Beach, Calif., July 1-6, was released Tuesday by the Annual
Conference Office. The ballot will be presented to Standing
Committee members during pre-Conference meetings and narrowed by
half for Annual Conference delegates to vote on as part of their
Conference business.  

Moderator-elect -- Joan Deeter, North Manchester, Ind.; Lowell
Flory, McPherson, Kan.; Joel Kline, Fort Wayne, Ind.; and Craig
Smith, Eaton, Ohio.  

Annual Conference Secretary -- Elaine Gibbel, Lititz, Pa.; Lena
Miller, Westminster, Md.; Cathy Huffman, Rocky Mount, Va.; and
Mary Sue Rosenberger, Greenville, Ohio.  

General Board, at-large -- David Gerber, Hanover, Pa.; Dale
Grosbach, Gladstone, Mo.; Violet Fahnestock Hosler, Penn Run,
Pa.; Donald Parker, West Salem, Ohio; Julianne Stout, Hagerstown,
Ind.; John Thomas, Guthrie, Okla.; Christy Jo Waltersdorff,
Lombard, Ill.; and Myrna Wheeler, San Dimas, Calif.  

General Board, Idaho -- Phyllis Reeves Howard, Nampa, Idaho;
Edward Kerschensteiner,  Boise, Idaho; James Schmidt, Boise,
Idaho; and Ethel Fiedler Schulz, Nampa, Idaho.  

General Board, Shenandoah -- Martha Stover Barlow, Dayton, Va.;
Shirley Bruffey, Clifton Forge, Va.; J.D. Glick, Harrisonburg,
Va.; and Merlin Shull, Bridgewater, Va.  

General Board, Western Plains -- Donald Booz, McPherson, Kan.;
Karen Calderon, Grand Junction, Colo.; Christy Dowdy, Lincoln,
Neb.; and Eugene Lichty, McPherson, Kan.  

Program and Arrangements Committee -- Marla Abe, Akron, Ohio;
Wendi Hutchinson, Goshen, Ind.; Becky Oliver Rhodes, Roanoke,
Va.; and Jane Shepard, Portland, Ore.  

Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee
(representing ministry) -- Scott Duffy, Westminster, Md.; Kevin
Daggett, Tryon, N.C.; Sharon Hutchinson, Mount Joy, Pa.; and
Janet Ober Miller, Redondo Beach, Calif. (Representing district
executives) -- Ron Beachley, Davidsville, Pa.; Gene Hipskind, La
Verne, Calif.; Kenneth Holderread, Elgin, Ill.; and Sidney Olsen
King, Nampa, Idaho.  

Committee on Interchurch Relations  -- Joe Loomis, Furnace, Pa.;
Edward Pugh, Dayton, Ohio; Ken Kline Smeltzer, Modesto, Calif.;
and Sarah Young, Akron, Ohio.  

Brethren Benefit Trust -- Wayne Fralin, Fremont, Calif.; Gregory
Geisert, Harrisonburg, Va.; Rosalyn Mishler Neuenschwander,
Decatur, Ind.; and Philip Stover, Quinter, Kan.  

Bethany Theological Seminary electors (representing the colleges)
-- Eric Bishop, Upland, Calif.; Carl Bowman, Verona, Va.; Stephen
Olin Mason, McPherson, Kan.; and Ron Wyrick, Huntingdon, Pa.
(Representing the ministry) -- Debra Eisenbise, Kalamazoo, Mich.;
Carroll Petry, North Manchester, Ind.; Guy Wampler, Lancaster,
Pa.; and Bev Weaver, Indianapolis, Ind.   

3) Katherine Hess, General Board chair, on Wednesday, released a
statement announcing an interim administrative style for the
General Board until the Board's new design is completed.  Hess
stated that the General Board's Executive Committee, acting on
the behalf of the General Board, has authorized an interim
management style for Karen Peterson Miller, interim general
secretary. On Friday, Miller was instructed to work directly with
the program directors already named for the new organization --
which goes into effect in July -- in developing a vision for
their respective area of responsibility. Those people are Wendy
McFadden, Brethren Press; Dan McFadden, Brethren Volunteer
Services; and Merv Keeney, Global Mission Partnerships. A
director for the fourth program already announced -- Mission
Funding -- has yet to be named. When it is appropriate, Hess
stated, the interim general secretary and the newly appointed
directors will work in a consultative manner with the General
Board's Administrative Council to phase in the leadership team
approach for General Board staff. 

"The Redesign Steering Committee and the Transition Team are
forwarding a recommendation to the March meeting of the General
Board, calling for the general secretary or the interim general
secretary to work directly with a leadership team," Hess wrote.
This administrative style fits the character of the proposed new
design of the General Board."  

This leadership team approach was shown in Hess' release in the
form of a diagram, a diagram that showed the general secretary
evenly surrounded by seven directors. With four positions already
identified, three have yet to be announced. Last summer the Board
announced that the Administrative Council would be downsized from
five members to four, with the new portfolios consisting of the
general secretary and administrators of finance, leadership and
program. However, Kathy Hess could not be reached to comment
whether the finance, leadership and program portfolios will be
included in the proposed leadership team.   

4) Warren Eshbach, Southern Pennsylvania District executive,
resigned from the position, effective April 30. He has held the
position for 13 years. Eshbach has accepted positions as pastoral
care director of The Brethren Home, New Oxford, Pa., and as dean
of Graduate Studies at Bethany Theological Seminary's Susquehanna
Valley Satellite, Elizabethtown, Pa.   

5) The Ministers' Association Conference is scheduled for June
31-July 1 in Long Beach, Calif, just prior to Annual Conference.
The conference will feature Tim Timmons as its keynote speaker.
He will focus on relationships within the church. For more
information on the conference, contact Esther Norris, 316
276-7391.   

6) The Southern Africa study tour, sponsored by Association of
Brethren Caregivers and On Earth Peace Assembly and scheduled for
Jan. 24 - Feb. 6, has been canceled. According to Jay Gibble, ABC
executive director, not enough participants signed up to
participate on the tour.   

7) Eleven Christian Peacemaker Teams members were arrested on
Monday for protesting with over 50 others at the U.S. Navy's
Project ELF (extremely low frequency) facility in Ashland County,
Wis., a government radio facility that communicates with
submarines that are at sea. The protesters held a mock trial,
charging ELF with "crimes against humanity and the environment,"
according to Gene Stoltzfus of CPT. After the group collectively
stated that ELF should be "shut down," CPT members symbolically
closed" the station for the day by hanging closure signs on the
outer fence of the facility, while others attempted to climb the
fence to place more signs within the facility. The arrested
protesters included Brethren Cheryl Cayford, Elgin, Ill.; Kryss
Chupp, Chicago, Ill.; Mark Frey, North Newton, Kan.; and Cliff
Kindy, North Manchester, Ind.   

8) Brethren/Mennonite Parents of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual
Children are sponsoring the Eighth Annual Connecting Families
Weekend Retreat, April 11-13, at Laurelville (Pa.) Mennonite
Church Center. The event will be held to "provide a context and
setting for connections, worship, support and understanding for
families with gay and lesbian members," reads the release. For
more information, contact BMC at 612 305-0315 or at
BMCouncil@AOL.Com.  

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