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

[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      April 2, 1998
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

Newsline                                     April 2, 1998

1) PrimeTime Live airs a show on a cult called "The Brethren"; at
     least a few people confuse the cult with the Church of the
     Brethren.
2) More than 200 people received ministerial training this past
     year through one of Bethany Theological Seminary's training
     opportunities.
3) Carol Bowman joins the General Board's Funding team.
4) Lawrence Hoover joins Brethren Benefit Trust as legal counsel.
5) A new adult curriculum, "Good Ground: Letting the Word take
     root," is available from Brethren Press.
6) A Church of the Brethren couple returns from a 10-day trip as
     international consultants in Bangladesh.
7) National Council of Churches members, including the Church of
     the Brethren, call for an end of violence in Chiapas,
     Mexico.
8) Medical supplies are shipped from the Brethren Service Center
     to the Republic of Congo.
9) A one-day training seminar, presented by Brethren Revival 
     Fellowship, will be held May 30 at the Durbin (W.Va.) Church
     of the Brethren.
10) Time is running out for youth to register for the quadrennial
     National Youth Conference.
11) "Scrambled Egg Run," co-hosted by Florence Church of the
     Brethren Youth Fellowship, Constantine, Mich., is scheduled
     for April 11.
12) Jason Gillespie, a Church of the Brethren student at
     Bridgewater (Va.) College, will present his senior piano
     recital on Sunday.
13) Nearly all churches utilize computers, according to a recent
     survey.
14) "From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians," a Frontline
     special, will air on PBS television stations Monday and
     Tuesday.

1) Not all "Brethren" are the same, or even close. That point was
made quite evident last week on PrimeTime Live, a weekly news
program produced by the ABC television network. Airing on last
week's broadcast was a feature on a cult called "The Brethren."
Although there are differences among the handful of communions
worldwide that trace their roots back to eight men and women who
founded the Brethren movement in Schwarzenau, Germany in 1708,
they are minor when those denominations are compared to The
Brethren cult. Because of the quick response of some PrimeTime
Live viewers, only a few have confused the cult from the
communions.

According to PrimeTime Live, The Brethren cult was formed in the
mid-1970s by Jim Roberts, son of an evangelical minister. Its
members often travel to colleges and universities around the
United States in an attempt to recruit new members. Using the
Bible as its authority, cult leaders persuade members to
disassociate themselves with their families out of the fear that
family members may try to "kidnap" or "deprogram" their
relatives.

Members of this cult follow a near-transient life, routinely
living in low-income housing and garbage-picking their food.

This PrimeTime Live feature, which spanned two segments,
concluded by showing a couple of families trying to reunite with
their children or siblings who currently are members of the
Brethren cult. The reunions seemed to produce empty, unfulfilled
results for the families.

Concerned that viewers would confuse Brethren cult members with
the Church of the Brethren, people knowledgeable about the Church
of the Brethren apparently called PrimeTime Live immediately
stating that the two should not be confused. About 11 minutes
after the Brethren cult focus had concluded, host Diane Sawyer
clarified that the Church of the Brethren is a legitimate,
well-established denomination.

"We want to make sure that you know that Jim Roberts' group,
those Brethren, have nothing to do with that group, the Church of
the Brethren," Sawyer said.

That disclaimer seems to have worked, as few inquiries about the
cult to the Church of the Brethren have been made. However,
several phone calls and e-mails have been made by people assuming
the Church of the Brethren is the Brethren cult. Having just
viewed a videotape of the PrimeTime Live program on Wednesday,
administrators of www.brethren.org today will put a disclaimer on
the denomination's official web site stating that it is not
related to the cult.

2) More than 200 people received some form of ministerial
training over the past year in association with Bethany
Theological Seminary, according to a report given last weekend to
Bethany's board. Meeting March 27-29 at its Richmond, Ind.,
campus for its semi-annual meetings, the board learned that these
students studied at the seminary's main campus, at its
Susquehanna Valley Satellite in Elizabethtown, Pa., and through
two training programs -- Education for a Shared Ministry (EFSM)
and Training in Ministry (TRIM). In related news, Board members
approved the graduation of 18 Richmond-based students during the
seminary's May 9 commencement.

In other news, the Bethany board --
     * granted these changes: Nadine Pence Frantz, associate
          professor of Theology was given tenure; Rick Gardner,
          academic dean and associate professor of New Testament,
          was given full professor status; Donald Miller was
          given emeritus status.
     * chose the following officers for the coming year: Earle
          Fike Jr., chair; Guy Wampler Jr., vice chair; Brenda
          Reish, secretary; Mark Baeverstad, chair of Finance and
          Business Affairs Committee; John Gingrich, chair of
          Academic and Student Affairs Committee; Gene Fahs,
          chair of Institutional Advancement Committee.
     * participated in a presentation by Carl Bowman and John
          Gingrich about the use of technology in teaching, such
          as the use of computers and the world wide web by
          students and instructors.
     * approved a plan for faculty reconfiguration in academic
          programs, effective beginning the 1999-2000 academic
          year. This plan includes a new half-time faculty
          position in music and worship.
     * learned that the Institutional Advancement Committee will
          begin plans for Bethany's centennial celebration in
          2005. 
     * approved the appointment of Larry Ewald to the board to
          fulfill Roger Smith's unexpired term.
     * celebrated the pending sale of its former seminary
          property in Illinois. Certificates and gifts of
          appreciation were given to Dennis Stine of the Shaw
          company, Thomas Karaba, legal counsel, and Bethany
          president Gene Roop. Wil Nolen, president of 
          the Church of the Brethren Benefit Trust, spoke about
          the partnership between the seminary and BBT that was
          forged relating to the property. BBT loaned Bethany 
          funds that enabled the seminary to move to Indiana in
          the summer of 1994 and subsequently recover its
          financial strength -- a loan that provided a good
          return on investment for BBT.

3) Carol Bowman of Wenatchee, Wash., has been appointed half-time
area financial resource counselor, Western States, for the Church
of the Brethren General Board's Funding office. She will assume
those responsibilities on Monday, in addition to continuing her
service as half-time Congregational Life Team member. 

Bowman, who was born and raised on the Nigerian mission field,
later returned and taught there. She has subsequently served on
the General Board and on many district boards and committees.
Bowman received a bachelor's degree from the University of La
Verne (Calif.).

4) Lawrence Hoover of Harrisonburg, Va., has been retained by
Brethren Benefit Trust's Brethren Foundation to serve the
foundation and its clients. Hoover, who has worked for the U.S.
State Department, is senior partner at Hoover, Penrod, Davenport
and Crist in Harrisonburg. He is a member of Harrisonburg First
Church of the Brethren.

In his BBT role, Hoover will assist James Replogle by working on
estate planning issues with Church of the Brethren agency
clients. According to Replogle, Hoover has many years of estate
planning experience. Hoover and Replogle will both present estate
planning seminars -- on May 24 they will present a joint seminar
at Bridgewater (Va.) College. They also will help coordinate a
special presentation this fall at National Older Adult Conference
at Lake Junaluska, N.C. 

In related news, the Brethren Foundation has announced the
opening of a satellite office in Harrisonburg, Va. Staff can be
reached at 888 311-6530.

A portion of this office is being rented to the General Board's
office of Funding. Both Faye Miller, resource coordinator for
field staff, and Ray Glick, financial resource counselor (East
and Southeast), are based there. Miller and Glick can be reached
at 540 434-7874.

5) "Good Ground: Letting the Word take root" is the name of a new
adult curriculum co-published by Brethren Press and Faith & Life
Press. The two publishers are the creators of the "Generation
Why" youth curriculum.

According to Julie Garber, Brethren Press editor, Good Ground is
a unique approach to Bible study. "It lets the Bible ask most of
the questions and lets participants struggle with the answers,"
Garber said. "When we ask, 'How can I be saved?' the Bible asks,
'Whom will you serve?' When we ask, 'What will happen to me when
I die?' the Bible asks, 'What does the Lord require of you?' When
we ask, 'Whom does God loves best?' the Bible asks, 'Who is your
neighbor?' Good Ground goes to the Scriptures for questions, not
just answers."

Known for producing children and youth materials geared toward
"active learners," the publishers of Good Ground saw a need for
an interactive Sunday school curriculum for adults, said Wendy
McFadden, Brethren Press publisher. "Good Ground is created for a
broad audience age-wise, but targets those who enjoy using a
range of learning styles," she added. 

Participants make connections between the Word and the world
through a variety of activities. Beginning with the premise that
everyone has equal access to the Bible's truth, all participants,
including the leader, use the same book. "These are sessions in
which learning happens, rather than sessions in which teaching
happens," says Ken Hawkley, an education staff member for the
General Conference Mennonite Church, for which Faith & Life Press
is the publisher.

The Good Ground name is inspired by the parable of the sower, in
which some seed falls on good ground and brings forth grain,
McFadden said.

The two fall units of Good Ground will be available in June. Two
winter units will be off the press in July, so that users will be
able to start the Sunday school year with four titles to choose
from. Over the four-year cycle, nearly all books of the Bible
will be covered. Each study is six sessions long, with two
studies offered each quarter.

Brethren Press and Faith & Life Press are denominational
publishers for the Church of the Brethren and the General
Conference Mennonite Church. In addition to Generation Why, they
are also cooperative publishers -- with Herald Press and Evangel
Press -- of Jubilee: God's Good News, a children's Sunday school
curriculum.

For more information, contact Wendy McFadden at
WMcFadden_GB@Brethren.Org or at 847 742-5100.

6) Assessing the training resources and emergency response
preparedness of various disaster response programs within
Bangladesh was the task undertaken Feb. 16-26 by Jan and Roma Jo
Thompson, members of Community Church of the Brethren, Mesa,
Ariz. The Thompsons and several other consultants were sent by
Donna Derr, former director of the General Board's
Refugee/Disaster Services, who now works for Church World Service
(CWS). CWS' involvement in Bangladesh is in cooperation with
Actions by Churches Together (ACT), an organization formed
several years ago by World Council of Churches, Lutheran World
Relief and others to try to get all response agencies working in
a cooperative manner.    

The Thompson's filed this report to Newsline on Monday --

"We were impressed to see how well organized the various groups
were. There appeared to be a strong commitment to cooperation
among them. We saw a much better prepared country than other
countries where we have worked.

"We did return with the priorities given to us by the
organizations (which we agreed should be the priority). The
recommendation we returned with was to have a course taught to
teach mid-level trainers how to educate local community leaders
in disaster mitigation/response. These community leaders would in
turn train people on the local level. We were surprised to locate
a person within the region who had the expertise to conduct this
course.

"We were able to spend one day "down bush" visiting community
development projects. We were very impressed to meet with two
Peoples Managed Credit groups, a type of credit union formed by
local groups. Both groups, composed primarily of women, have a
100% repayment history. They used their loans to buy a pedal
sewing machine to open a seamstress business, several goats for
selling milk, a cow, and tools to assist a son to go into the
carpentry business. One woman had opened a weaving business and
was employing 8-10 people from her community. Both of these
groups are located in a flood plain -- all the people of this
region have been flooded at least once, some five times or more. 

"We were surprised at the self confidence of the women and the
joy they had to tell us of their struggles and successes. We were
hosted by very gracious people and felt much at home even though
we were there for such a short period of time. We likely will not
return to Bangladesh, but there is a possibility that we will
have another assignment this fall; South Africa has been
mentioned as a possibility." 

7) David Radcliff, director of the Church of the Brethren General
Board's Brethren Witness office, has joined over 300 religious
leaders from throughout the United States in calling for the
United States and Mexico to end the escalating violence against
indigenous communities in Chiapas, Mexico.

The statement, which was also signed by the top leadership of the
National Council of Churches, calls on the two governments to
address the "pattern of tolerance" for paramilitary groups like
the one responsible for the massacre of 45 Tzotzil Indians in
Acteal on Dec. 22.

Since that massacre, the military has reportedly stationed an
additional 5,000 troops in indigenous communities in the Chiapas
highlands, increasing the current number of soldiers there to
40,000. According to an NCC release, between 300 and 600 people
have been killed there as a direct result of the military and
paramilitary since a 1994 cease-fire. An estimated 10,000 people
from the area have been displaced.

"We, the undersigned religious leaders, call on the governments
of Mexico and the United States to examine official policies that
have resulted in stalled peace talks and repeated explosions of
violence in Chiapas," reads the letters sent to presidents
Zedillo and Clinton. "Resolute action is urgently needed to
de-militarize the conflict and achieve a negotiated resolution.
Any attempt at a military solution in Chiapas will only lead to
more bloodshed and unrest, a loss of credibility for the Mexican
government and strained U.S.-Mexico relations."

8) A 20-foot container filled with medical supplies was sent this
past week from the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.,
to the Republic of Congo. This shipment was made under the
auspices of Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and Interchurch Medical
Assistance.

Meanwhile, Emergency Response/Disaster Services volunteers
continue to work on projects in Tennessee and North Dakota, both
the result of flooding.

9) A one-day intensive Bible study will be presented by Brethren
Revival Fellowship and Durbin (W.Va.) Church of the Brethren May
30 at the Durbin congregation. Two sessions of workshops will be
held. Following devotions, the choices for morning sessions are
"A Look at New Testament Baptism" by Harold Martin, minister of
Pleasant Hill Church of the Brethren, Spring Grove, Pa.; and
"Maintaining Hope During Trials" by Priscilla Martin, member of
the Pleasant Hill congregation.

Scheduled activities will resume in the afternoon with an
introduction to BRF activities. Two sessions will then be offered
--"Studies in I Peter" by Eric Brubaker, minister of Middle Creek
Church of the Brethren, Lititz, Pa.; and "A Study of the
Beatitudes" by Ken Leininger, minister of Cocalico Church of the
Brethren, Denver, Pa.

According to Harold Martin, BRF staff, BRF coordinates one-day
seminars free-of-charge in churches throughout the United States
upon request from congregations. For more information, contact
Donald Curry at 304 456-4764 or David Rittenhouse at 304
799-4726.

10) Time is running out for youth to register for National Youth
Conference '98 -- the deadline for sending in the $315
registration fee and all registration forms is May 1. As of
Wednesday, 3,815 registrations had been processed. NYC
coordinators hope to have 5,012 participants at the quadrennial
event, scheduled for July 28-Aug. 2 in Fort Collins, Colo.

For more information, contact the NYC office at
CobYouth_gb@brethren.org, (800) 323-8039, or at the NYC web page
at http://www.brethren.org.

11) The Florence (Mich.) Church of the Brethren Youth Fellowship
will raise money to help pay for its trip to National Youth
Conference April 11 when it co-sponsors the"Scrambled Egg Run."

Sponsored with the Community Action Agency of South Central
Michigan, the run will also raise money for an area homeless
shelter.

According to a release, the run "will be a simple but uniquely
challenging event." What makes this run different from others is
that the runners will not know the route they will run, nor the
total distance, before the run begins. Two events will take place
concurrently -- a "short scramble" (3-5 km) and a "long scramble"
(7-10 km).

"We are promoting this unique form of running in the belief that
all people need some adventure and excitement in their lives, and
an occasional respite from routine," the release reads.

Registration will begin at 9 a.m.; the run at 10 a.m. Fee is $10
(pre-registration); $15 (day of race). For more information,
contact Kurt Ritchie at amy.kurtritchie@juno.com or at 616
435-7732.

12) Jason Gillespie of Manassas (Va.) Church of the Brethren will
present his senior piano recital at Bridgewater (Va.) College at
3 p.m. Sunday. For his recital, Gillespie will play five
selections composed by Beethoven, Messiaen, Debussy, Schumann and
Scirabin. Following his graduation, Gillespie plans on attending
graduate school.

The recital is open to the public at no charge. For more
information, call Ellen Layman at 540 828-5452.

13) A recent survey of computer technology in the local church
shows a very high level of computer usage, with more than half of
those users reporting Internet access now or in the near-future.

The survey was conducted by the Protestant Church-owned
Publishers Association, of which Brethren Press is a member.
Congregations surveyed were from 11 denominations, including the
Church of the Brethren.

Among congregations of 200 or more members, 98 percent have at
least one computer in their church office. Forty-two percent have
Internet access, and 19 percent expect to have Internet access in
the near-future.

Seventeen percent of the congregations have their own home page
on the world wide web, and 13 percent expect to create one in the
near-future.

According to the survey's respondents, the Internet is used for
e-mail (41 percent), research (22 percent) ordering supplies and
resources (12 percent) and receiving denominational information
(12 percent).

Brethren survey participants listed the following benefits of
having a web site and Internet connection -- ability to connect
directly with vendors, access to other members, receiving
information from the denomination, personal responses for the
pastor, e-mail with college students and sermon information.

According to the Publishers Association, access to the Internet
by its publishing membership increased from 81 percent to 100
percent from 1996 to 1997. During that timespan, voice mail use
increased from 66 to 78 percent and web site presence increased
from 47 to 81 percent.

14) "From Jesus to Christ: The First Christians," a historical
documentary series "that tells the epic story of the rise of
Christianity," will air nationwide Monday and Tuesday on PBS
stations as a presentation of the highly acclaimed program,
Frontline. 

The programs, divided into four sections, will -- examine how
Judaism and Roman rule shaped Jesus' life, explore the period
after Jesus' crucifixion, follow the first attempts to write
about the life of Jesus in the Gospels, and examine the Christian
movement following its separation from Judaism.

For more information regarding this program, go to
http://www.pbs.org/frontline.

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.