wfn.org | Newsline - Church of the Brethren weekly news update

[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      Jan. 17, 1998
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

Newsline                                          Jan. 17, 1998

News
1) More than 500 attend the dedication of the Butler Chapel
     A.M.E. church.
2) The Church of the Brethren offers to rebuild two additional
     churches.
3) A water heater is determined to be the source of the
     Manchester (Ind.) church fire.
4) WWW.Brethren.Org has additional Butler Chapel and Manchester
     church updates.
5) Five Brethren travel to Sudan on a fact-finding mission.
6) Craig Smith is called to serve as executive of Atlantic
     Northeast District.
7) A full-time job opening is announced by the General Board and
     West Marva District.
8) Rebecca Slough, assistant professor at Bethany Theological
     Seminary, resigns.
9) Brethren Benefit Trust announces the creation of a new
     position: Chief Financial Officer.
10) New Life Ministries has a new name, old phone number.
11) Education for Conflict Resolution is seeking a director of
     Development.
12) The next edition of Newsline will be sent Jan. 29.

Feature
13) Glenn Kinsel, who spent most of 1997 as project director at
     the Butler Chapel A.M.E. church rebuilding project, was
     honored Sunday morning as keynote speaker. 

1) The dedication last weekend of the Butler Chapel A.M.E. church
in Orangeburg, S.C., was simply one of those  "you had to be
there in person " events in order to soak up the emotions, the
sights, the sounds and the presence of God that seemed to radiate
from the congregation. Miller Davis, manager of the Church of the
Brethren General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries,
the sponsoring program of the denomination's Butler Chapel
rebuilding project, said one of the reasons his wife, Connie,
traveled to South Carolina with him was because he would never be
able to adequately relate the experience to her had she stayed at
home. He was right.

The 500 plus people who gathered to attend the three-day event
were surrounded by a confluence of experiences.

The weekend was intended for celebrating, dedicating, honoring
God and reuniting. Throughout most of last year, volunteers
traveled to Orangeburg to assist in the building of the new
structure. Nearly 200 Brethren donated thousands of volunteer
hours worth over $110,000 to work on the project as the Church of
the Brethren coordinated the rebuilding effort. About 300
volunteers from a variety of religious backgrounds also
volunteered -- 10 churches from a Maine community, an A.M.E.
church from Pennsylvania and a congregation from New York, and
all were represented throughout the dedication weekend by
sizeable delegations. 

Worship services that generally featured multiple speakers and
building-rocking music from a variety of choirs were the focal
points of the weekend. Each service leading up to the Sunday
afternoon dedication honored a different group that had
participated in the project. Throughout the services, the word 
"miracle " was often repeated, with many miracles cited. 

After the former one-room church was burned on March 31, 1996,
local authorities were slow to investigate the crime. That is,
until several people with ties to the local media learned of the
details at a restaurant while being waited on by a church
member's granddaughter. Soon Butler Chapel pastor Patrick
Mellerson found himself in Washington, D.C., attending a black
church burnings summit with President Clinton and other national
and state officials. It was then that local authorities began to
take the case seriously. That also led to Butler Chapel's
involvement with the National Council of Churches, which is
spearheading a multimillion dollar rebuilding project of burned
black churches. The NCC eventually brought Butler Chapel and the
Church of the Brethren together. Several miracles in one.

What seemed to be a tragedy in 1996 turned into triumph with the
construction of a new facility that will allow the congregation
to actively seek and accept new members. Another miracle. 

The new, air conditioned building is complete with a sanctuary,
two classrooms and a library, social hall, pastor's study, choir
room and study loft. It has burglar and closed-circuit television
systems. And it sits on 7.5 acres of land heavily covered with
pine trees, 7.5 miles northwest of Orangeburg. These trees,
according to Mellerson, will be slowly harvested for lumber.
Seedlings will then be replanted, thus producing additional,
perpetual income. Another miracle.

And it could be considered a miracle that so many of the
volunteers who gave a week or more of their personal time on the
project felt called to return for the dedication.

Most poignant, however, is what brought the Butler Chapel
volunteers together in the first place. Prior to 1997, none of
the groups that worked on the project knew of each other. And yet
a denomination, a coalition of churches, and two other
congregations -- which have no ties to each other -- spent time
and money to help rebuild a church hundreds of miles away. Butler
Chapel members, who could have easily given up in the midst of
the struggles of regrouping and rebuilding, did not. Instead, for
months they worked with and fed their guests. What was the thread
that tied these people of different religious affiliations and
different color together? It was their love for Christ and their
desire to help sisters and brothers of God, both testimonies of
faith. Miracles, indeed.

In the midst of all of the celebrating, the celebrants were
informed of the burning of the Manchester (Ind.) Church of the
Brethren. It was evident that Mellerson was touched by this news,
as he had been touched by Manchester pastor Susan Boyer's two
visits to Orangeburg in 1997. He also was touched by Manchester
member Torin Eikenberry, who for seven months last year served as
a Brethren Volunteer Service worker at Butler Chapel. Despite
their loss, Eikenberry and two other Manchester members attended
the Butler Chapel dedication.

Saturday night Mellerson announced that the service's offering
would be given to the Manchester church. He asked for the
congregation to raise $1,000 to help those who helped Butler
Chapel when it was in need. At the close of the service,
Mellerson announced that $2,700 was raised. After a moment, the
sound technician -- a man with no ties to Butler Chapel -- said
he didn't like odd numbers.  "Let's make it an even $3,000, " he
said. Such was the power of the Spirit.

Other memorable moments included retired Brethren pastor Glenn
Kinsel, site coordinator for the project, calling the coming
together of people of different colors and religious backgrounds
to glorify their God a fulfillment of Martin Luther King Jr.'s 
"I have a dream " speech, which he heard in person nearly 30
years ago.

Samuel Jenkins, pastor of Bristol (Pa.) A.M.E. church, honored
Eikenberry, with whom he had worked a week last March. He gave
the BVSer a Jerusalem Cross, calling Eikenberry  "a crusader for
Christ. "

John Hurst Adams, presiding A.M.E. bishop, presented Mellerson
with a $50,000 check to add to the $25,000 he had given earlier
to assist with the rebuilding project, fulfilling the A.M.E.
denomination's commitment of $75,000 in assistance.

At the conclusion of Sunday morning's worship, the service that
honored the Church of the Brethren, Miller Davis presented
several gifts to the Butler Chapel congregation -- a Brethren
hymnal, accompanying compact discs, and a quilt complete with the
names of all of the volunteers who worked on the project. The
quilt was hand-woven by Louise Hartzler of Hagerstown, Md., who
also served as a volunteer laborer last year.

Other groups also gave gifts during their respective services,
including pictures and choir robes.

When three vandals decided Butler Chapel was too much of a
nuisance 22 months ago, they burned the unassuming one-room
building set one-tenth of a mile off the main highway and known
by few outside of Orangeburg. Today the church's building is a
huge, brick structure located adjacent to the highway with a tall
steeple that serves as a beacon calling people in, including the
church's 500 new friends. If destruction was their goal, surely
the vandals didn't know what they were doing, for something much
more mighty now towers above that hatred.

2) Although Butler Chapel and many black churches in the south
have been rebuilt, others remain charred and in disrepair. Thus,
the Church of the Brethren has informed the National Council of
Churches that it is willing to supervise the rebuilding of a
second black church.

According to Miller Davis, manager of the General Board's
Emergency Response/Service Ministries, one potential site is in
Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., where Glenn Kinsel will be spending his
winter. Kinsel would be an obvious choice to coordinate the
project, Davis said.

Meanwhile, Davis also said he will be contacting the Manchester
(Ind.) Church of the Brethren to offer the assistance in
rebuilding that church as well. He added that the denomination's
work on the Butler Chapel project, and possibly on these two
other churches, is important, because it is a way of putting
faith into action.  "I think it's basic to what the Brethren are
all about in terms of our service ministry, " he said.  "It's our
Good Samaritan work. " 

3) Dry bones was what Pastor Susan Boyer saw as dawn finally
broke upon the still-smoldering rubble of the fire that gutted
the Manchester Church of the Brethren early Jan. 7.

 "All I could see was dry bones, " she told some 500 worshippers
Sunday at the Manchester High School Performing Arts Center. 
"The building is dead, I thought. So dead it is beyond life. "
But that same night, as over 200 members and friends of the
congregation huddled under umbrellas -- illuminated by the glare
of television lights -- she had another thought.

 "As we were gathered there to sing and pray, I could hear those
bones rustling. " By Sunday those bones were rustling in full
force, she reported, as the gratitude and blessings of hundreds
of people and congregations around the globe began to pour in.

^From the North Manchester, Ind., congregation's sister church in
El Salvador, Iglesia Bautista Immanuel, came the comforting
words:  "We'd like to suggest, that in this irreparable loss, may
each of you find God's presence in you own lives, and in between
one and another. "

Boyer announced that the Butler Chapel A.M.E. congregation in
Orangeburg, S.C., the night before had used its evening service
offering to raise $3,000 for Manchester's rebuilding project. 

Other stunning examples of God's grace abounded during and after
the fire. In addition to giving thanks that none of the 100 or
more firefighters who fought the blaze were injured, it was
reported that the church's valuable collection of choir bells
escaped unscathed.

These kinds of things, plus many offers and responses from people
and other organizations alike, have created a positive mood, said
Boyer.  "I have seen the heart begin to pump in the body that was
recently just dry bones, " she said in her sermon.  "And I thank
God for the spirit who whispered in my ear that dark morning --
breathe, breathe, see the life and live. "

The source of the fire was quickly traced to the kitchen by
firefighters, and eventually pinpointed to the hot water heater
of the church's industrial dish washer. Arson was never
considered.

The executive committee was scheduled to meet this week to
outline a plan for the future.  "We will be asking the entire
congregation to participate in visioning, " Boyer said.

(This report was edited from a story written by Manchester
congregation member Worth Weller, publisher of the Manchester
News-Journal. This story was published on the paper's web site.)

4) Additions to WWW.Brethren.Org over the past week include
complete coverage of the Butler Chapel dedication weekend and
several new pictures from the Manchester Church of the Brethren.
In addition to these two items, Bethany Theological Seminary and
National Youth Conference 1998 are also on the site. 

5) Five Brethren -- four from the Church of the Brethren in the
United States and one from Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (the
Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) left Friday on a fact-finding
trip to Sudan. According to David Radcliff, delegation leader and
director of the General Board's Brethren Witness office, the
purpose of the trip  "is to gain new insight into the current
situation in Sudan while considering joint humanitarian and
peace-building initiatives with the New Sudan Council of
Churches. "

Joining Radcliff from the General Board are Marty Barlow, Board
member; Fletcher Farrar, Messenger editor; and Heather Nolen,
Washington Office coordinator. Joining the group from EYN is
James Zoaka. Zoaka's presence is notable in that the Church of
the Brethren has long had a presence in Sudan and Nigeria, but
this is the first time a representative from EYN has become
involved with the Sudan mission.

 "We see James' participation in this peace trip as a good way
for the Nigerian church to connect more fully with the church's
Sudan ministries, " said Merv Keeney, director of the General
Board's Global Mission Partnerships, a joint sponsor of this
delegation with Brethren Witness. According to Keeney, the only
other connection between the Church of the Brethren missions in
Sudan and Nigeria also occurred recently when Sudanese pastor
Daniel Deng studied at Kulp Bible College near Mubi, Nigeria. 

6) Craig Smith, senior pastor of Eaton (Ohio) Church of the
Brethren, has been called to serve as executive of Atlantic
Northeast District, beginning by April 1. Smith has served the
Eaton congregation since 1989.

Smith is a Manchester (Ind.) College graduate. He earned his
master's in Counselor Education at Long Island University and his
master's of divinity at Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
Smith has served 19 years in the ministry, also pastoring
Community Church of the Brethren, Orlando, Fla.; and Eagle Creek
Church of the Brethren, Forest, Ohio.

7) The Church of the Brethren General Board and West Marva
District have announced a joint  position opening. The full-time
position consists of half-time Area 3 Congregational Life Team
member and half-time executive of West Marva District. This job
is similar to the previous CLT/district executive positions
announced. Applications are due March 8. For more information,
contact Elsie Holderread at EHolderread_GB@Brethren.Org or 800
323-8039.

8) Rebecca Slough, assistant professor of Ministry Studies and
director of Congregational and Field Education at Bethany
Theological Seminary, has accepted a call by Associated Mennonite
Biblical Seminary of Elkhart, Ind., to serve as assistant
professor of Church Music. 

Slough joined the Bethany faculty in 1994 when the seminary
relocated to Richmond, Ind. During her tenure she redesigned the
Ministry Formation program, integrating the congregational
context dimension of that program fully into the academic
curriculum of the seminary, said Marcia Shetler of Bethany's
Institutional Advancement office. Slough also developed new
connections in southern Ohio and east-central Indiana for
Bethany's congregational component. Her tenure at Bethany will
conclude June 30.

9) Brethren Benefit Trust has announced a new administrative
staff position -- chief financial officer. This position will
supervise financial operations and management, including BBT's
treasurer; the Brethren Foundation management staff; computer
operations; and investments. The CFO will also supervise
financial services planning and program development. For
application information, contact Sandy Pryde at 800 746-1505.

Darryl Deardorff, who for the past year has supervised BBT's
investment program, computer operations and planning for expanded
financial services, has agreed to serve as interim CFO, effective
immediately. Prior to serving BBT, Deardorff served as the
General Board's treasurer.

10) New Life Ministries, the Anabaptist evangelism ministry that
succeeded the Church of the Brethren General Board's Andrew
Center on Jan. 1, now has its own toll free phone number. The
number, previously the Andrew Center's, is 800 774-3360.

Joan Hershey, director, said the Anabaptist Evangelism Council
and NLM's board will meet Jan. 21-22 at the Church of the
Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill. The 40-50 participants
are expected to discuss  "Life, " the successor to the Andrew
Center's  "Passing on the Promise, " a process that deals with
congregational vitality, outreach and growth. NLM is planning to
offer Life in four modules later this year. The NLM board will
meet Jan. 23.

11) Education for Conflict Resolution, a mediation and training
center that offers mediation services in three Northern Indiana
counties and provides conflict resolution training in schools and
communities throughout most of Indiana, is seeking a director of
Development. This person's responsibilities will include
coordinating and leading ECR's fundraising and organizational
development, assisting current staff with financial management
and working collaboratively with a team-oriented staff and board.
The intended start date is Sept. 1. For a list of qualifications
or for more information, contact Bob Gross at bgross@igc.org or
at (219) 982-4621.

12) The next edition of Newsline will be sent Jan. 29.

13) Glenn Kinsel, who spent most of 1997 as the Church of the
Brethren project director at Butler Chapel A.M.E. church, was
honored on Sunday as keynote speaker at Butler Chapel's Sunday
morning service. The following was edited from Kinsel's prepared
text --

A phrase that Pastor Mellerson likes to use is  "This is Awesome!
" Indeed, it is awesome to be at this place at this time. It is
more awesome still to consider the ramifications of this whole
experience of the building of this building for the Butler Chapel
congregation.

It seems to be a verity of the Christian faith that  "out of evil
situations comes good. " Out of darkness comes light, out of pain
and suffering comes healing and health, out of tragedy comes
triumph. Yet, beneath all is the foundation truth from which all
else springs, the cross of Jesus Christ -- the mark of the worst
kind of suffering and the tragedy of death by such torture -
producing the greatest of all miracles, redemption --
resurrection for the whole world.

During this past year at Butler Chapel all kinds of triumphal
miracles came to light to all of us who in any way are part of
this bitter-sweet history. Consider some of these miracles --

The sacred blending of two very distinct Christian traditions
into one work force, pictured by the beautiful mix of workers and
parishioners with two different colors of skin, making one new
hue consisting of white Northern immersionist Germanic peoples
and black Southern African-Americans all worshiping Jesus, a Jew!
A new creation, all one blood! Pastor Mellerson expressed thanks
for the privilege of learning to know the Brethren. I don't know
what all our volunteers may have told him about us. Let me
briefly describe a bit of our background. The Brethren came to
this new land nearly three centuries ago seeking freedom from the
hardships of severe persecution. We came from Europe essentially
as refugees. While the Butler Chapel congregation has a
background of a beloved ancestry who were forced to leave their
homelands and be sold in this new land as slaves destined to
endure humiliating hardships for which all of us here today must
express remorse and sorrow. Has God seen to it that we should
join hands now in this critical period of human history?

Over 300 pairs of hands worked together to fashion -- from ten
thousands of nails, thousands of slate, thousands of board feet
of lumber, 70 thousand bricks, tons and many cubic yards of
concrete, buckets and buckets of drywall compound, gallons and
gallons of perspiration, bottles and bottles of liniment to
soothe hurting backs -- this beautiful edifice, all for the glory
of God and Jesus Christ, God's Son.

The discovery of our capacity to communicate with more than
words. For by the labors of our hands we began to sense intense
feelings of love and compassion, of shared struggle and shared
glory. Many are the great lessons taught and learned from each
other, the lessons of forgiveness, service, caring and sharing
all in the compassionate person of Jesus Christ.

Another miracle - Impatience died in a grand birthing of
patience. We waited on permits, we waited on inspections, we
waited for bricklayers, we waited upon the Lord! And we learned
patience.

So in all this we responded in unashamed worship. Using the words
of a grand old hymn,  "Before Jehovah's Awe-ful Throne, Ye
nations bow with sacred joy. Know that the Lord is God alone, He
can create and He destroy. " And you can rightly add another
dimension, He can create when others destroy. So, through us, we
have been building and we rightly ask,  "What have we built? " A
building to be sure, a good solid structure with a 200-year roof
that will endure all kinds of elements, a good concrete floor
that will hold up every sort of heavy doctrine as well as those
who come here with heavy hearts. A sanctuary that brings the
beauty of the sun shining through art glass, a meeting place that
will resound with wonderful music, prophetic preaching, and sound
teaching, a building that will help to hold and mold a
congregation together into a wonderful witness of the Body of
Christ.

We have also built a bridge between the past and the future, a
bridge between races, a bridge between male and female, old and
young, between God and the human family.

I also declare (cautiously) that we have built a monument, not to
any one person who was involved in the building, but a monument
to the spirit of the perseverance of the members and the
volunteers who believed in the future, and the great conviction
that the future belongs to God.

And have we not also built a community, a communion? We have
already worked at building up the Body of Christ. St. Peter words
this idea in very stimulating language,  "Like living stones, let
yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy
priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God
through Jesus Christ. " (I Peter 2:5)

It appears to me that we have worked at creating more than a
building, we have witnessed the formation of an island, an island
of reconciliation in a sea of still persisting prejudice and
bigotry. Butler Chapel is called upon to extend a hand of
forgiveness, a message of genuine care and love. A reconciling
message to those who seem to care so little for the sacred
memories and meanings of the burned out building - a scene that
still creates an unerasable ache in every heart here. So this is
a great call to the Butler Chapel congregation (and all of us
here who want to be included in their witness) to work diligently
at building an island of right relationships that heal and bring
wholeness.

 I see here an island of reconciliation well interpreted by a few
of the teaching symbols of the Church of the Brethren. What I
describe here is certainly a reason for our involvement in
building this building. We are a feet-washing Christian
communion. We picked this practice right out of the New Testament
(John 13) where at the Last Supper, Jesus laid aside his
garments, girded himself with a towel and washed the disciple's
feet. So we, in our highest moments of worship, kneel to wash
each other's feet. The teaching symbol simply declares that
service is one or our basic and highest aspects of Christian
commitment. Stooping to serve, whoever is in need of a lift. A
hands-on kind of a living faith.

About nine years ago, Helen and I had the privilege of
participating in a work camp in Nigeria. We were guests of the
Shaffa Congregation on a Saturday and Sunday. We slept in a round
guest house with a thatched roof, in a shaded area of the church
compound. On Sunday morning we attended the services at the
church, two services each with overflowing crowds. After the
second service we were outside mingling with the people when an
older woman member of the church came to me with hands
outstretched. She wanted me to see her hands. I held them in
mine, hers were callused and cracked, showing signs of much hard
work. But they were beautiful hands, hands of honest Christian
service. That small scene in the northern Nigeria village in the
church yard has etched an impression on my soul that will not go
away. Look at your hands, all of you. Hands of service are they!
Hands that wash feet and care for the sick and prepare a meal and
build a church building. They are the hands of Jesus.

Then in our highest moment of worship we also have a Love Feast.
An Agape meal - really quite often rather symbolic in our
churches where we eat a bit of bread and broth, a bit of meat and
perhaps a little rice. This practice for us is none other than
the acknowledgment that breaking bread together is part of the
life blood of the community. Our volunteers experienced another
kind of love feast -- every noon -- around that large table in
the construction trailer. The ladies of the Butler Chapel church
would bring food, much good food, lovingly prepared in their
homes, at great effort and cost. And our volunteers did eat! And
there were prayers, songs and much good fellowship where bodies
were refreshed as well as souls and the daily presence of Jesus
Christ at the head of the table was known with certainty.

In our high moment of worship we also, as you do, take the Bread
and the Cup declaring that we have taken into our lives the Body
and the Blood of Christ. Thus the covenant is renewed as the Body
of Christ is built up and the congregation becomes an island of
Christlikeness in a culture that so often is just the opposite.

We today celebrate a building that is finished, but not finished.
Actually the building that I am describing is just in the
beginning stages. We are talking of a building that is always
being built. The very being of Christ on earth today. St. Paul,
in his letter to the Ephesians (Chapter 4:11ff) provides the
major blueprints and working plans for this continuous building.
We shall use this biblical base for this morning's challenge --
The calling forth of the gifts.

In this particular passage Paul mentions certain gifts given
especially to the leadership of the church - apostles, prophets,
evangelists, pastors, teachers. Elsewhere in Paul's letters other
gifts are mentioned such as the gifts of compassion and
generosity in giving, the gift of faith, of healing, miracle
workers, and the gift of tongues. The Good News being written by
the Butler Chapel experience would include a host of equally
important gifts, workers in concrete, in wood, in bricks, in art
glass, in slate roof, in hospitality, in tile laying, drywall
hanging, painting, sweeping, supervision. Then there were other
gifts given for this project -- office workers 600 miles away,
people at home praying, and the list goes on....

Paul concludes after one of the listings of gifts,  "If you have
such gifts, use them! " All for what purpose? To equip the saints
for the work of ministry. In this instance, this edifice becomes
a tool, among all others, in the equipping of the congregation.

And the result? This is the crowning goal and glory of it all --
Building up the body of Christ until all of us come to the unity
of the faith, a unity well seeded in the fertile soil of the work
of the congregation. Is this too much of a dream for us?

Two major privileges in my life come welling up in my soul today.
First - 35 years ago I marched in the grand procession in
Washington D.C. to stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and
hear Martin Luther King Jr. proclaim  "I have a dream." And I
have continued to live with that dream until the second great
experience - being asked to be involved with the Butler Chapel
project. Is this not, at least for those here and now today, a
fulfilling of that dream? Of course it is, and we shout
hallelujah!!

Newsline is produced by Nevin Dulabaum, manager of the General
Board's News and Information Services. To receive Newsline by
e-mail or fax, call 800 323-8039, ext. 263, or write
CoBNews@AOL.Com.

Newsline is archived with an index at
http://www.cob-net.org/news.htm and at http://www.wfn.org.