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

[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      March 26, 1998
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

Newsline                                          March 26, 1998
News
1) Nearly 250 Brethren this week are canning about 20,000 cans of
     beef for Mid-Atlantic and Southern Pennsylvania districts'
     18th annual meat canning project.
2) Association of Brethren Caregivers approves plans for its
     family ministries group.
3) The deadline for junior high students and young adults to sign
     up for a summertime Church of the Brethren workcamp is fast
     approaching.
4) Manuel Diaz is named Southern Plains District executive and
     member of the Church of the Brethren General Board's Area 4
     Congregational Life Team.
5) The search for a full-time executive of Southern Pennsylvania
     District has been reopened.
6) CPT Sunday is scheduled for May 31. Resource materials are
     available.
7) A symposium on disaster child care in the 21st century will be
     held May 29-30 at the New Windsor (Md.) Conference Center,
     located at the Brethren Service Center.
8) Lynn Suter, a Mennonite attorney who recently completed a
     three-year mission assignment in Nepal, joins the
     Bridgewater (Va.) College staff.
9) The General Board's Mission and Ministries Planning Council
     announces its plans for considering denominational mission
     proposals.
10) Two Church of the Brethren members participate in a
     consultation in Geneva between the historic peace churches.
11) "Chaste marriage and spiritual harlotry in the Ephrata
     community," a speech by Jeff Bach, will be this year's
     Durnbaugh lecture focus at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College.
12) Elizabethtown (Pa.) College announces its 1998-1999 fee
     schedule.
13) The Field Afar, a new travel and adventure series that
     explores diverse cultures of the world from a spiritual
     point of view, will begin April 2 on the Odyssey cable
     network.
14) The National Council of Churches and Church World Service
     make myriad announcements.
15) The 1998 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches is now
     available.
16) The 11th annual Network of Biblical Storytellers festival
     will be Aug. 5-8 in Delaware.
17) The Council of District Executive's Advisory group will meet
     on Monday.

Feature
18 Lights! Camera! Yogurt! Harmonyville (Pa.) Church of the
     Brethren and several Brethren star in a national yogurt
     commercial. 

1) An estimated 20,000 cans of beef are being processed this week
in Ephrata, Pa., to help combat hunger in Pennsylvania and
abroad, thanks to nearly 250 Church of the Brethren volunteers
from Mid-Atlantic and Southern Pennsylvania districts. The
volunteers, who are participating in the districts' 18th annual
meat canning project, are expected to process between 40,000 and
50,000 pounds of beef, said Georgia Markey, associate executive
of Southern Pennsylvania District. However, the canners are
finding that this year's effort is not just business as usual.

In the recent past, the beef was cooked and canned at a
processing plant in York. However, because that facility is for
sale, organizers were forced to find another site. They
ultimately selected Christian Aid Ministries (CAM), a
Mennonite-owned state-of-the-art food processing facility in
Ephrata. Because the facility has streamlined the meat canning
process, fewer volunteers have been needed. That is good, as
Ephrata is located in Atlantic Northeast District, which means
the volunteers have a bit of a drive to reach CAM. Between 15 and
20 volunteers are staffing the 6-11:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.
shifts. Work began Monday and will conclude Saturday.

Another change created by the way CAM processes food is that only
beef chunks are being processed. In the past, the meat was cut
and cooked, with the resulting broth canned separately for
distribution to those within the two districts in need. In 1997,
4,523 cans of broth were produced. At CAM the meat is cut, put
into cans and topped off with water. The cans are then sealed and
then the meat is cooked, thus eliminating the production of beef
broth.

The final change will result in the distribution of the canned
beef. In the past, 75 percent of the beef was sent overseas while
the remaining beef and all of the broth were distributed to
shelters and pantries within the two districts. This year 50
percent of the beef will be sent abroad to yet-to-be-determined
locations while the remaining meat will be distributed between
the two districts. Keeping more of the meat locally "will address
some of the concerns we have here in our own area," Markey said.

2) The structure and composition of Association of Brethren
Caregivers' (ABC) new Family Life Steering Committee was approved
last weekend by the ABC board. This new ministry group will
include Carolyn Arthur, Richmond, Ind.; Sharon Burner, Elgin,
Ill.; Carl Graver, Holtwood, Pa.; Deb and John Lahman, Glendale,
Ariz.; Don and Joyce Jordon, Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Judy
Myers-Walls, West Lafayette, Ind. June Adams Gibble will serve as
staff liaison.

During its two days of spring meetings, the ABC board discussed a
recommendation from an ad hoc committee that explored ABC's
continuation as a membership organization. The board is
communicating information about this recommendation to its
members. The board also --
     * agreed to participate on the committee that will determine
          the future location of a central denominational office
          facility.
     * endorsed a new long-term care insurance program that will
          be available to participating Brethren and Mennonite
          retirement communities in 1998. 
     * approved necessary action items for formalizing ABC's
          status as an independent Church of the Brethren
          organization. Proposed bylaw changes will be presented 
          to ABC members at their annual meeting this summer in
          Orlando.

In other business, the board met with the Annual Conference
officers to continue discussions as to how ABC can become an
officially recognized organization of the Annual Conference, the
denomination's top decision-making body. "Hopefully, we will have
taken the appropriate steps for this issue to be presented this
summer to Standing Committee at Annual Conference," said Steve
Mason, ABC executive director.

The board heard a report from staff detailing how three of ABC's
current four newsletters will be combined into one quarterly
publication in January. According to Mary Dulabaum, ABC's
director of Communications, this new publication will be larger
than any of ABC's existing publications. The Brethren Homes
Connection, a quarterly newsletter for retirement communities,
will continue to be published on its own, she added.

The board also heard plans from staff for a special exhibit area
at Annual Conference that will be used to provide health and
wellness programs. This is part of a new partnering relationship
between ABC's Lafiya Ministry and Brethren Benefit Trust (BBT).
The Lafiya Ministry and BBT will also host a special insight
session at Annual Conference.

Other reports from ABC's nine ministry groups were given,
including --
     * the Church and Persons with Disabilities Network, which
          invited the other ministry groups to join it in
          creating a database of Brethren members interested     
          in providing professional expertise or support for
          congregations and individuals coping with issues
          related to disabilities. Once the database is
          developed, it will be available to districts,
          congregations and individuals.
     * VOICE (Valuing Openness, Inclusiveness and Caring for
          Everyone), which told of plans to create a database of
          Church of the Brethren members to provide support      
          regarding HIV/Aids, conditions of children, mental
          health and substance abuse.
     * the Denominational Deacon Cabinet, which is planning an
          introductory tour this fall to help deacons learn about
          the new deacon manual that will be available by July.
     * Family Life Ministries. Staff described Health Promotion
          Sunday packet materials, which will be mailed to
          congregations in April in preparation for the May 17
          event. These materials represent the group's first
          response to Annual Conference's request last summer for
          ABC to provide domestic abuse resources.
     * HEAR (Health Education and Research Ministry), which told
          of work to administer several loans and scholarships
          for Brethren in the health profession. 
     * the Older Adult Ministry group. Staff reported that
          because of the success of the January workcamp to
          Puerto Rico, a second such workcamp to Puerto Rico is  
          being planned for next January.

3) Only two of the seven workcamps being offered this summer to
youth and young adults still have openings, but the deadline for
signing up is fast approaching.

Space is still available for junior high students to attend an
environmental-oriented workcamp July 5-9 in Orlando, Fla.
Projects may include removing exotic plants from waterways and
trail maintenance at Wekiva Springs State Park. Other projects
may include working with Friends of Lake Apopka building trails
and a conservation center on Florida's fourth largest lake.
Workcampers will be housed at Camp Ithiel. Cost is $160.

Young adults can travel to Los Talpetates, El Salvador, from June
12 to 21, to build a child care facility in conjunction with
Iglesia Bautista Emmanuel, the sister church of the Manchester
Church of the Brethren, North Manchester, Ind. This
bare-essentials experience will include two days of learning
about El Salvador's culture and history. Cost is $350, not
including air fare.

Registration deadline for these workcamps is April 20. For more
information or to register, contact Emily Shonk at
CoBYouth_GB@Brethren.Org or (800) 323-8039.

4) Manuel Diaz has been called to serve as one-quarter-time
executive of Southern Plains District, beginning July 1. He also
has been called by the Church of the Brethren General Board to
serve as a half-time Area 4 Congregational Life Team member. Diaz
has been serving as senior pastor of the new Lake Charles, La.,
Church of the Brethren congregation. He also has been serving as
an adjunct faculty member at Sowela Technical College and as a
graduate assistant at McNeese State University.

Diaz earned his undergraduate degree from University of the State
of New York. He has a master's degree from McNeese State
University and a B.B.E. from Graham College in Bristol, Tenn.

5) The search for a full-time executive of Southern Pennsylvania
District has been reopened. The position is available
immediately. Responsibilities include facilitating the pastoral
placement process; providing pastoral support to pastors;
providing leadership that empowers other district personnel;
giving oversight to planning; implementing and evaluating
district ministries; providing collegial support to the various
mission agencies within the district; and cultivating a healthy
relationship between congregations and the district board.

Qualifications include being committed to Brethren values as
understood through the New Testament, having experience within
the Church of the Brethren, having strong management skills and
administrative experience, and having strong interpersonal and
communication skills. Pastoral experience and ordination is
preferred.

For more information, contact Nancy Knepper at
NKnepper_GB@Brethren.Org or at 407 294-8886.

6) "CPT Sunday," a day that Christian Peacemaker Teams hopes
congregations will focus on CPT's mission and ministries, is
scheduled for May 31, which also is Pentecost Sunday. CPT has
produced a packet of materials for congregations to use,
including worship resources, sermon ideas and peacemaking
stories, which integrate a focus on the power of Pentecost with
the vision for faith-based, nonviolent peacemaking.

CPT this summer will celebrate its 10th year since beginning its
staff work. In 1990, it began sending short-term peacemaker
delegations to Iraq, Haiti, Israel/Palestine and several North
American locations. According to a CPT release, the organization
by 1993 determined that people trained in nonviolence and
peacemaking skills need to be available for longer periods of
time. Today CPT has 12 full-time members and 51 part-time
reservists prepared to enter emergency situations of violent
conflict at the invitation of local peacemakers.

CPT is an independent organization whose membership consists of
Church of the Brethren  and Mennonite individuals and
congregations. For more information on CPT Sunday, write to
cpt@igc.apc.org. The entire resource packet is also available at
http://www.prairienet.org/cpt/sunday.html.

7) "Disaster Child Care in the 21st Century: A Look to the
Future," will be held May 29-30 at the New Windsor (Md.)
Conference Center, located on the Brethren Service Center campus.
This symposium, sponsored by the Church of the Brethren General
Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries, will be a working
conference for staff of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
and the American Red Cross, and for denominational leaders and
ER/SM's disaster child care leaders.

For more information, contact ER/SM at ERSM_GB@Brethren.Org or at
410 635-8730.

8) Lynn Suter, an attorney from Harrisonburg, Va., has been named
executive assistant to the president at Bridgewater (Va.)
College. Suter's appointment is part of a reorganization of the
college's administrative staff. She succeeds James Benson, who
has been named vice president for Administration, one of four
vice president positions established in the restructuring.

Charles Scott, who had served as director of Development, has
been named vice president for Institutional Advancement. On July
1, Anne Keeler, currently Bridgewater's financial analyst, will
assume the new position of treasurer/vice president for Finance.
She will succeed Melvin Wampler, who has served as the college's
treasurer and business manager. Wampler will join Benson in the
Administration office as assistant vice president for Facilities
and Support Services.

The fourth vice president position -- vice president and dean for
Academic Affairs -- is being filled on an interim basis by a
faculty member; the position is expected to be filled by July 1.

In his announcement of these changes to the Bridgewater faculty,
President Phillip Stone said the reorganization is expected to
clarify lines of responsibility and communication as well as
reduce the number of administrators who formerly reported
directly to him.

Suter, who recently completed a three-year mission assignment in
Nepal for the Mennonite Board of Missions, formerly practiced law
with Stone at a Harrisonburg firm for eight years prior to Stone
joining the college in 1994 as president.

9) The Church of the Brethren General Board's Mission and
Ministries Planning Council (MMPC), a channel through which
congregations, districts and Standing Committee may be directly
involved "in the initiating, planning, funding of and working
with new mission and ministry projects, has released a timeline
for how it will conduct business this year, its first year of
existence.

The council will receive ideas and proposals; will review each
idea or proposal openly and prayerfully while assisting and
counseling those who bring proposals; will seek to discern God's
will; and will recommend to the General Board whether the new
idea or proposal should be undertaken.

MMPC will next meet May 20-21. After that meeting, a packet of
materials will be available to help congregations, districts and
Standing Committee present their ideas or proposals. The council
will convene again Aug. 27-28, during which time it will consider
ideas or proposals submitted to it by early August.

For more information, contact Joseph Mason, interim executive
director of the Church of the Brethren General Board, at
GB_GB@Brethren.Org or at 800 323-8039.

10) For the fifth time, representatives of the Church of the
Brethren have taken an active role in consultations featuring
interaction between the historic peace churches, their European
counterparts and Lutheran and Reformed theologians. 

This fifth meeting, held in Geneva in February, continued a
series of consultations held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in 1986,
1987 and 1989, and in Geneva in 1994. The conference, designated
“Prague V,” included interpretations of “justification” and
“sanctification” by the participating churches. 

Brethren participants were Lauree Hersch Meyer, director of the
Doctor of Ministry program at Colgate Rochester Divinity School,
and Don Durnbaugh, retired, a fellow of the Young Center for the
Study of Anabaptism and Pietism at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College.

11) Jeff Bach, assistant professor of Brethren Studies at Bethany
Theological Seminary, Richmond, Ind., will deliver the annual
Durnbaugh Lecture at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College on April 2 at
7:30 p.m. This lecture, hosted by the Young Center for the Study
of Anabaptist and Pietist Groups, will be titled "Chaste Marriage
and Spiritual Harlotry in the Ephrata Community."

The Ephrata Community, founded in 1732 by Conrad Beissel, is
deeply rooted in the Anabaptist and Pietist movements. Located in
Lancaster, Pa., the monastic cloister flourished until the late
18th century.

Bach will also lead a seminar -- "Ephrata and Research Trends in
Anabaptist Pietism" -- April 3 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost, which
includes lunch, is $7; preregistration is required. For more
information, call 717 361-1410.

The Durnbaugh Lectures, which began in 1993, are named for Donald
Durnbaugh, noted Brethren historian and author, who served as the
chair of Religion and History at Elizabethtown College from
1989-1993.

12) Elizabethtown (Pa.) College, one of five colleges and
university affiliated with the Church of the Brethren, has
announced its fees for 1998-1999. The comprehensive fee of
$22,700 includes tuition ($17,050), base residence hall charge
($2,600), 21-meal plan ($2,600) and student services fee ($450).

"All of us at Elizabethtown have renewed our commitment to
provide a first-class educational experience at a reasonable
cost," said President Theodore Long. "Our comprehensive fee
remains one of the lowest among similar private colleges." Long
added that Elizabethtown College uses $10 million of its budget
to assist 85 percent of its student body with financial and
scholarship aid, thus ensuring "that an Elizabethtown education
is available to students from all economic backgrounds." 

13) The Field Afar, a new 13-part travel and adventure series
that will explore diverse cultures from around the world from a
spiritual perspective, begins April 2 on the Odyssey cable
network. According to a release, each episode will take viewers
to a different country in southeast Asia, Latin America or Africa
"to explore the culture of the people through their customs,
music, food and dress, as well as their hardships, hopes and
spirituality."

The series "also breaks through misconceptions about mission work
to illustrate the contemporary viewpoint of Maryknoll
missionaries, who see their calling primarily as that of witness
and service, not proselytizers of western culture." Maryknoll
missionaries reportedly work in 30 countries worldwide.

Steve Allen, a well-known veteran comedian, will narrate the
series.

Odyssey is accessible to 30 million subscribers of 1,500 cable
television systems, through the Primestar direct-to-home
satellite service and to C-Band dish owners.

14) The National Council of Churches (NCC) and Church World
Service (CWS), the NCC's           humanitarian assistance
ministry, has released myriad press releases over the past
fortnight --
     * Joan Brown Campbell, NCC general secretary, on Wednesday
          joined President Clinton for four days as he tours Cape
          Town and Johannesburg, South Africa.
     * CWS has stated its support for "The Time Has Come," a
          campaign of 170 U.S. grass-roots organizations that is
          promoting a full range of human rights, including      
          freedom from poverty and hunger.
     * The NCC has launched an urgent, sharply worded protest of
          a proposal expected to go before the U.S. House of
          Representatives next week that would severely limit
          churches' public advocacy for the common good.
     * CWS expressed delight in the easing of restrictions of
          direct aid flights to Cuba by the Clinton
          administration.
     * CWS endorsed Jubilee 2000, a growing grass-roots effort to
          cancel the "growing, unsustainable Third World debt."
          This movement recalls the biblical concept of          
          Jubilee -- "a time when slaves were set free, debts
          were cancelled, land returned to landless families and
          a new beginning was created for people whose lives had
          been degraded by indebtedness."
     * The NCC announced that its 10-city "Church and Government
          Program" will be implemented by city and state
          ecumenical agencies now that the cities have been 
          selected and a Bible study has been completed. One
          hundred fifty churches are expected to participate in
          this initiative, 15 in each of the selected cities.
          Each church will arrange for an adult class to conduct
          a five-session Bible study called "Christians and
          Government" and will arrange for the class to hear at
          least one sermon preached on the need for confidence in
          government and criticism of particular practices and
          policies of government. The project is part of         
          the larger "Partnership for Trust in Government"
          supported by the Ford Foundation in partnership with
          the Council for Excellence in Government. The 10 cities
          selected are Albuquerque, N.M.; Decatur, Ga.; Fresno,
          Calif.; Milwaukee; Oklahoma City; Orlando; Portland,
          Maine; Seattle; Washington, D.C.; and                  
          Wichita, Kan. 

15) The 1998 Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches, produced
by the National Council of Churches, is now available. This
resource is "the most up-to-date, comprehensive source of
statistics from North America's churches," according to an NCC
release.

This year's edition includes documentation of American
seminaries' increasingly diverse student body; data on the
continuing "flattening out" or "mainline" membership losses and
"nonmainline" gains; evidence that giving to churches continues
to increase -- both in real dollars and when corrected for
inflation -- as does the proportion of that income retained by
the congregation for its local church life and mission. This
year's edition also includes e-mail and website information and
resources.

Cost is $35 (paperback), $45 (CD-Rom). Call 212 870-2496. 

16) The 11th annual gathering of the Network of Biblical
Storytellers (NOBS) will be held Aug. 5-8 in Wilmington, Del.
Focusing on the theme "Call, Career and Charisma: Telling the
Stories of Vocation," this ecumenical event will bring together
clergy and laity from the United States and abroad for
storytelling, workshops and keynote addresses.

For more information, contact NOBS at nobsint@nobs.org or 800
355-6627.

17) The Council of District Executives (CODE) Advisory Group to
the General Board's Congregational Life Ministries will meet
Monday at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin,
Ill. Appointed by CODE, this group of five district executives
will join Glenn Timmons, director of Congregational Life
Ministries, and Nancy Knepper, coordinator of District
Ministries, in drafting a statement of guidelines for the
relationship between the General Board and the districts with
regards to the Congregational Life Team members who are now
employed throughout five regions of the United States. This
statement will update an earlier General Board/CODE agreement
that was reached in 1972. During the next month, General Board
and district staff in each of the five areas will develop a
shared understanding of their working relationships.

The five district executives and associate executives called by
CODE to serve on the Advisory Group are Jim Miller, Shenandoah
District, Area 3; Georgia Markey, Southern Pennsylvania District,
Area 1; Ken Holderread, Illinois/Wisconsin District, Area 2;
Connie Burkholder, Northern Plains District, Area 4; Gene
Hipskind, Pacific Southwest District, Area 5.

18) If you're watching television sometime this year and a
Columbo Yogurt commercial comes in, take a quick look -- a quick
look is all you'll get to see three Church of the Brethren
members singing praises for the foodstuff in front of
Harmonyville Church of the Brethren, which is located in
southeastern Pennsylvania.

How did this country church with about 50 weekly attendees draw
the attention of a Chicago advertising agency that was hired to
produce the Columbo commercial? It was all in the name.

DDNeedham was looking for three examples of rural America,
examples with unique names. In addition to Harmonyville, it
settled on Hurricane, Utah, and Grapevine, Texas.

Pastor John Kolle received a call out of the blue on Feb. 25 from
a representative of Crash Films out of California, the company
hired to produce the commercial. Three days later 76 people
auditioned for the eight spots. Eighteen people from the local
area auditioned, including Kolle. "I tried out but I bombed," he
said. 

Auditioners were told to face the camera and state their name.
They then turned to give right and left profiles. Next they had
to take a spoonful of imaginary yogurt and pretend to enjoy it.
After that auditioners were placed into groups of four to form
imaginary choruses that sang,"Oh Columbo, Oh Columbo," to the
tune of Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. At first they were supposed
to sing in a stately, serious manner. Then they were told to sing
in a state of utter joy. (Which begs the question for the other
two sites -- taking the country by the storm in Hurricane? Heard
it through the grapevine in Texas?)

Although some professional actors from the Philadelphia area
auditioned for the eight chorus roles, Kolle said Crash staff
initially stated they were looking for amateurs and that's who
they ultimately selected. After reducing the 76 to 16 and holding
callbacks a day later, eight area residents were selected. Three
Church of the Brethren members were among those chosen -- Dorothy
Pusey and Deana Deichert, who attend the Harmonyville
congregation, and Robert Bedi, member of Coventry Church of the
Brethren in Pottstown.

Technicians began arriving at the Harmonyville church on March 4
at 5:30 a.m. The singing took place just outside the front door.
Because only a small parcel of land spans between the church and
the road, one of the two lanes of traffic was also blocked off
for the filming. 

An hour lunch break was taken, and the filming was finished by 3
p.m. However, the church received a few refinements in the
process -- a quick paint job to its front facade; a new cross
that was placed above the vestibule; a church sign that was
placed across the road; and magnolia blossoms and shrubbery to
make it look more like spring. The blossoms and the shrubs were
removed once the filming had concluded.

According to a local paper, Crash shot over four hours of film
among the three sites, footage that will be edited down into a
15-second commercial. But Kolle said it was a great experience.
Not only did the church receive a $500 site fee (which it will
use in its upcoming kitchen and rest room expansion and
renovation project), but it kept the cross and the paint job. 

"The people were very polite and courteous," Kolle said. "We'd
have them back in a minute if they'd want to come. They seemed to
respect the fact that it was a church."

Newsline is produced by Nevin Dulabaum, manager of the General
Board's News and Information Services. Newsline stories may be
reprinted in newsletters and other publications, including web
sites, provided that Newsline is cited as the source and the
publication date is included.

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.