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[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      May 20, 1999
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

Newsline                                          May 20, 1999
News
1) Association of Brethren Caregivers' second biennial Caring
     Ministries 2000 conference will be held June 1-4 at
     Elizabethtown (Pa.) College.
2) The General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries will
     begin a massive new joint rebuilding project in Azua,
     Dominican Republic, next week.
3) Three district auctions raise nearly $100,000 for emergency
     disaster response.
4) The Northern Indiana District Women's Fellowship celebrates its
     60th anniversary.
5) Two Manchester College students from Elkhart (Ind.) City Church
     of the Brethren are named Fulbright scholars.
6) Ken Brown receives the Peace Studies Association's 1999
     Peacemaker Award.
7) The June Source resource packet has been mailed.
8) The General Board's New Church Development Advisory Committee
     convenes.
9) Sixty-eight licensed and ordained Church of the Brethren women
     convene for a retreat.
10) Three representatives are currently on assignment with CPT in
     Chiapas, Mexico.
11) People magazine remembers Nathan Leopold and his ties to the
     Brethren.

Personnel
12) Pam Leinauer announces her resignation as executive of
     Mid-Atlantic District.
13) Scott Holland joins Bethany Seminary as professor and director
     of campus ministry.
14) Karen Jenkins is named the new director of Brethren Colleges
     Abroad.
15) Teachers are being sought by the General Board for two schools
     in Nigeria.

Features
16) Judy Mills Reimer asks Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge to "stop
     the killing now."
17) Allen Hansell and Carol Yeazell, just back from the Caribbean,
     report on the nature of ministerial training in Puerto Rico
     and on how two communities with Brethren churches are coping
     following Hurricane Georges.

1) The second biennial Caring Ministries 2000 conference is
scheduled for June 1-4 at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College. This event
is intended for caregivers of all kinds, including health and
caregiving professionals, deacons, counselors and social workers,
mediators, pastors and chaplains, and Christian educators.
Sponsored by Association of Brethren Caregivers, the conference
will give attendees the opportunity for training with caregiving
professionals and lay people, earning continuing education credits,
networking with professional and volunteer care providers, and
spiritual renewal and fellowship.  

Delivering keynote addresses will be --
* Philip Yancy, editor-at-large of Christianity Today.      
* Melva Wilson Costen, professor of worship and music at
     Interdenominational Theological Center.      
* Barbara Lundblad, professor of preaching at Union Theological
     Seminary, New York, N.Y.
* Staccato Powell, deputy general secretary for the National
     Council of Churches.
* Robert Raines, a former pastor and author of 13 books.
* John Shea, religious scholar and author, who serves as research
     professor for the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola
     University, Chicago.  
* Phillip Stone, president of Bridgewater (Va.) College.  
* Ginny Thornburgh, author and director of the Religion and
     Disability Program at the National Organization on Disability.

The conference will also include numerous workshops. A
post-conference seminar with Robert Raines will be held on June 5.
Registrations for both events are still being accepted.

Complete information is online at
http://www.brethren.org/abc/special_events/cm2000.htm. Throughout
the conference daily photo and news updates will also be posted to
this site. For more information, contact ABC at abc@brethren.org or
at 800 323-8039.

2) Next week the General Board's Emergency Response/Service
Ministries will open a massive new rebuilding project in Azua,
Dominican Republic. This cooperative venture will involve the
Church of the Brethren, the Catholic Church, INVI (a government
agency), and the rebuilding of homes for a 33-family village.

The Catholic Church is giving land and materials for concrete
walls. INVI will furnish sand, gravel, wood, roofing materials, and
technical assistance. The Church of the Brethren will furnish
cement for footers and floors and hire local skilled construction
workers to supervise the work. The village families will provide 32
volunteers per day.

Together, this initiative will produce two to three 18' by 21'
houses each week.

3) Several disaster relief auctions have raised nearly $100,000
over the past few weeks. 

Over $63,000 was raised in this year's Mid-Atlantic District
Auction, a record for the annual event that was held May 1 in
Westminster, Md., and was attended by about 1,200 people. Money was
raised from the auction, booth sales, and from the sale of donated
return and seconds products by the Rubbermaid Corporation. Over
$20,000 alone was raised from the auctioning of quilts. 

Middle Pennsylvania District's Third Annual Auction, held May 7-8
in Morrison's Cove Memorial Park, Martinsburg, Pa., raised about
$25,000. West Marva District's fifth annual auction, held May 8 at
the Barbour County Fairgrounds, raised $7,136.51. The district 's
donation of $2,863.49 and an additional $1,000 donation from an
estate will push West Marva's total contribution to the General
Board's Emergency Disaster Fund to $11,000.

4) The Northern Indiana District Women's Fellowship celebrated its
60th anniversary during its Spring Rally, April 13, by returning to
the site of its first rally, Union Center Church of the Brethren
near Nappanee. Alice Archer, pastor of Mount Pleasant Church of the
Brethren, near Bourbon, Ind., was the guest speaker. She delivered
a historical overview of the Women's Fellowship and recalled how
women missionaries paved the way for women to serve in set-apart
ministry and as deacons.

The Women's Fellowship has two service projects for 1999 --
disaster relief and the Global Women's Project. Offerings taken at
their three yearly meetings are divided equally between the two
projects. The Spring Rally offering was $1,314.90.

Prior to the meeting, president Jeannine Klotz proclaimed that she
would cater a meal to individual Women's Fellowship groups that
attended the event with 15 or more members. Six congregations met
the challenge. More than 200 women attended the rally.

5) Two Manchester College students who have been named Fulbright
Scholars for 1999-2000 are members of Elkhart (Ind.) City Church of
the Brethren. Steve Berkebile of Osceola and Monique DePue of
Goshen were two of the four students honored May 14 in a campus
event that celebrated the unprecedented feat of four students from
the North Manchester, Ind., college becoming recipients of the U.S.
government's premier scholarship in the same year. 

During the next school year Berkebile will study physics at
Karl-Franzens University in Austria. DePue will study how English
is taught as a second language at a Lima, Peru, university. Senior
Dustin Brown, a Church of the Brethren member from North
Manchester, has also been named a Fulbright alternate for
1999-2000.

During the celebration the college also recognized Kendall Rogers,
religion professor, for his role in helping students become
Fulbright Scholars. Since 1996, Manchester has produced 10
Fulbright recipients. Established by the U.S. Congress in 1946, the
Fulbright program serves U.S. and international post-baccalaureate
students and artists. 

6) Ken Brown, a philosophy professor and director of Manchester
College's peace studies program, has received the Peace Studies
Association's 1999 Peacemaker Award. The citation reads, "With deep
appreciation to him for living his ideas, for loving his students,
and for creating generations of peacemakers cheered by his wit,
expanded by his knowledge, and inspired by his faith in a more
peaceful world." 

Brown, a member of Manchester Church of the Brethren, North
Manchester, Ind., oversees the nation's oldest peace studies
program, which was established in 1948. The Peace Studies
Association, based at Earlham College, Richmond, Ind., is a
consortium of individuals and programs from nearly 250 colleges and
universities that offer peace studies programs.

7) The General Board's June Source resource packet is in the mail.
It includes --
* a flier on M.G. Brumbaugh, a pioneer Brethren historian.
* a flier on a new study on racism that completes the Covenant
     Bible Study Series.
* an order form for Annual Conference Wrap-up and Audiovisual
     materials. (This form is also posted at
     www.brethren.org/ac/milwauke, under the "Coverage" heading.)
* a flier for 1999-2000 youth curriculum.
* an order form for all 1999-2000 curriculum materials offered by
     Brethren Press.
* a brochure describing New Life Ministries new "Life Process," a
     successor to "Passing on the Promise."
* an informal letter from Brethren Witness director David Radcliff,
     who reflects on being a Christian peacemaker during this time
     of war.
* a flier from Brethren Witness on peace, justice, and stewardship
     of creation resources.
* a brochure for Ecumenical Center for Stewardship Studies' 
     Dec. 1-3 event.
* a brochure on "Religion & Ethics Newsweekly," a weekly PBS
     broadcast.
* a resource brochure on media and violence.
* a flier about more than 100 songs created to empower, comfort,
     and challenge by Brethren songwriter Linda Williams.
* a flier on a servant leadership program, sponsored by the
     Fellowship of Brethren Homes, to be held Aug. 30 at the New
     Windsor (Md.) Conference Center.
* a flier on a ministry-related book titled "Preaching, Planning,
     & Plumbing."
* Bethany Theological Seminary's 1998 annual report.

8) The General Board's newly formed New Church Development Advisory
Committee met for the first time May 11-12 at the General Office in
Elgin, Ill. The appointed committee includes a representative from
each of the five Congregational Life Team areas and from the
Council of District Executives. Committee members are Marianne
Pittman representing Area Three, currently of New Windsor, Md.; Jim
Rhen of Cocalico Church of the Brethren, Denver, Pa., representing
Area One; (second row) Jay Steele of Open Circle Fellowship Church
of the Brethren, Burnsville, Minn., representing Area Four; Eric
Anspaugh of the Cincinnati Church of the Brethren Fellowship,
representing Area Two; Gilbert Romero of Bella Vista Church of the
Brethren, Los Angeles, representing Area Five, Virlina District
executive David Shumate, and Glenn Timmons, director of
Congregational Life Ministries for the General Board. 

The committee examined the history of Church of the Brethren church
planting, then developed lists on what Brethren have to share that
is unique and reasons why new churches should be planted. It also
talked about new church development challenges, particularly
funding and leadership. Members then began drafting a blueprint for
helping congregations and members find a renewed vigor for calling
new pastors and planting new churches.

One tangible activity the group will lead is an insight session
this year Annual Conference, which will be an opportunity for
people "excited about new church planting to share stories,
strategy and vision, and to build a list of interested individuals
for mutual support, ideas, and networking," said Steele. That noon
session will be held on Friday.

The committee will convene again following Annual Conference and it
welcomes denominational input. Contact Steele at
jay.steele@worldnet.att.net or at 612 808-0161.

9) Sixty-eight licensed and ordained Church of the Brethren women
gathered in Warrenville, Ill., April 12-16, for "Spirit Bound --
Spirit Free," a Women in Ministry retreat. Sue Bender, an author
and artist, served as keynote speaker and Wednesday morning
workshop leader.

10) Three Church of the Brethren representatives are currently in
Chiapas, Mexico, as part of a six-person Christian Peacemaker Teams
delegation. They are Rick Polhamus of Pleasant Hill (Ohio) Church
of the Brethren, Matt Gwynn of Manchester Church of the Brethren,
North Manchester, Ind., and Brethren Volunteer Service worker Kryss
Chupp of Chicago. They are also joined by Chupp's eight-year-old
daughter, Kori. Polhamus and Gwynn are part of the nearly
100-member-trained CPT Corps; Chupp serves on the CPT staff.

Recent CPT work in Chiapas has focused on three refugee camps full
of indigenous families that have been forced to flee their homes.
Joint efforts between CPT and the Abejas, a local nonviolent
Christian group, worked at decreasing the Mexican military pressure
in an Easter-week campaign of fasting, prayer, and nonviolent
action.

This peacemaking work has slowed since May 16, when Polhamus
received emergency stomach ulcer surgery. "Your prayers are
requested for Rick in his critical recovery period and for the
ongoing CPT work in Chiapas," said Cliff Kindy of CPT and member of
Manchester Church of the Brethren, North Manchester, Ind. CPT is an
independent organization of Church of the Brethren and Mennonite
members, churches, and organizations.

11) An article on Nathan Leopold and his work with Brethren in
Castaner, Puerto Rico, has been compiled by People magazine. The
three-page feature is tentatively scheduled to appear in the June
7 issue, due on newstands by May 28. People correspondent Don Sider
interviewed Leopold's former co-workers in Florida and Puerto Rico,
visited San Juan and Castaner, and drew on resources from the
General Board's Brethren Historical Library and Archives and
Communications Team at the General Offices in Elgin, Ill.

When released in 1958 from Statesville Penitentiary, where he had
served 33 years for the murder of a young man in Chicago, Leopold
was paroled to the Brethren Service Commission. He became a lab
technician at Castaner Hospital, later headed a research project on
parasites for the Puerto Rico Department of Health, and was an
instructor at the University of Puerto Rico at the time of his
death in 1971.

12) Pam Leinauer has announced her retirement as executive of the
Mid-Atlantic District, effective Aug. 15. She will be moving to
Stuttgart, Germany, where her husband is being transferred.
Leinauer began serving as associate executive of Mid-Atlantic
District in 1985, and was called as executive in July 1997. She
served as chair of the Council of District Executives from 1992 to
1995.

13) Scott Holland has been appointed by Bethany Theological
Seminary of Richmond, Ind., to serve as assistant professor of
peace studies and cross-cultural studies and director of campus
ministry, beginning Aug. 15. 

An ordained Church of the Brethren minister, Holland currently
serves as pastor of Monroeville (Pa.) Church of the Brethren and as
vice president of United Campus Ministries of Pittsburgh. He
previously served as pastor of several Mennonite congregations. He
also has taught as adjunct or part-time faculty in religion and
peace studies at Westminster College, Carlow College, Duquesne
University, and Ashland Theological Seminary. 

Holland holds an undergraduate degree in religion and philosophy
from Malone College and a master's degree from Ashland Theological
Seminary. He is currently completing a Ph.D. program in
constructive theology at Duquesne University.

14) Karen Jenkins, who has been serving as associate dean and
director of International Education at Dickinson College in
Carlisle, Pa., has been named president of Brethren Colleges
Abroad. She succeeds Allen Deeter, who is retiring after 24 years
of service. 

Jenkins, who has been published in a number of journals and who has
extensive international experience, is a graduate of Fisk
University. She earned her master's degree in International
Relations from Yale University and a law degree from Rutgers
University

"We are confident that in Karen we have found one of the country's
foremost experts in international study experiences, said Theodore
Long, chair of the BCA board of directors and president of
Elizabethtown (Pa.) College. "She brings with her extraordinary
talent and passion for international education and the kind of
personal and professional experiences that few people can match."

BCA was founded in 1962 and currently includes programs in England,
France, Spain, Germany, Greece, Mexico, Ecuador, Japan, China, and
India. It serves the students of the six Brethren colleges and
university and those from about 75 other higher education
institutions. Jenkins' picture is posted at
www.brethren.org/picthis.

15) Teachers are being sought by the Church of the Brethren General
Board's Global Mission Partnerships office for Hillcrest School in
Jos, Nigeria, and at Kulp Bible College, near Mubi, Nigera.
Hillcrest, a kindergarten-through-12th-grade international
Christian school, has immediate openings in music, science, math,
Bible and in other areas. Meanwhile, Kulp is seeking a
seminary-trained instructor. Starting time for this assignment is
flexible. 

For more information about these General Board staff positions,
contact Merv Keeney at mission_gb@brethren.org or at 800 323-8039.

16) "Please stop the killing now" was the plea made by Judy Mills
Reimer, executive director of the General Board, in a May 17 letter
to Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge. The letter -- 

Governor Ridge,

The Church of the Brethren has a long history of connecting our
faith with events in the wider community. One particular area where
these two come together in today's society is the death penalty.
Based on our faith, we find ourselves strongly opposed to capital
punishment. As a denomination committed to peace and
reconciliation, we cannot see how either are advanced in the taking
of a human life. To the contrary, capital punishment does not lend
itself to healing, but further perpetuates the myth of redemptive
violence.  As Christians we strive to find healing in the midst of
pain, and believe in the possibility of transformation for all
individuals and systems.

As a matter of faith we are against the death penalty. However, we
also find it practically unjustifiable. Our legal system is flawed.
We do kill innocent people. Furthermore, those we do execute,
innocent or guilty, are much more likely the poor and people of
color—the death penalty is not rendering justice with equality.

You recently signed a handful of death warrants. One of those was
for Brad Martin, a young man who grew up in the Spring Creek Church
of the Brethren in Hershey. In Brad’s case, we have seen the flaws
in the justice system first hand. We witnessed inadequate
representation and uninformed juries. We are experiencing the
psychological torture death row imposes not only on the accused,
but the on the person’s family and community.

We are making an appeal for not only Brad’s life, but for all
lives, and the sanctity of human life. There are justice-filled
alternatives to redemptive violence.

There are currently 244 Church of the Brethren congregations, and
thousands of members in Pennsylvania. The first Brethren found
Pennsylvania in the early 1700s as a land free of religious
persecution and murder. We were among the first settlers, farming
the land, establishing businesses and communities that have grown
the state to what it is today.  

The Church of the Brethren will be supporting the two-year
moratorium proposed by the Pennsylvania Abolitionists with action,
study, and prayer. But you, Governor Ridge, have the ability to
halt the killing more quickly and for the length of your term. End
the signing of death warrants.  As a matter of faith and
conscience, please stop the killing now.

(The Church of the Brethren has long been a vocal opponent of the
death penalty. For more information on the Martin case or how
Brethren can be involved in contacting Governor Ridge, contact Greg
Laszakovits of the General Board's Brethren Witness office at 
glaszakovits_gb@brethren.org or at 800 323-8039.)

17) What is the nature of Church of the Brethren ministerial
training in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and how are two
communities with Brethren churches coping to life after Hurricane
Georges? From April 25 to May 1, Allen Hansell, director of
ministry for the General Board; Ron and Harriet Finney,
coordinators of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership;
and Carol Yeazell, executive of Atlantic Southeast District,
visited both islands to find out. Hansell and Yeazell this week
filed these reports, Hansell on the status of ministry training,
Yeazell on life after Georges:

Allen Hansell --

Our Puerto Rican brothers and sisters initiated the visit by
requesting a review and evaluation of their ministerial training
program. To accomplish the review, we met with Jorge Rivera,
associate executive of Atlantic Southeast District; Elba Velez,
director of Instituto Teologico Iglesia de los Hermanos, region de
Puerto Rico (Theological Institute of the Church of the Brethren in
Puerto Rico); and with Instituto Teologico's board. We were
impressed with the ministry training program, including the
required courses, student work, and the teaching staff. The
teachers are seminary-trained pastors and university-trained
educators. We suggested that the curriculum would be enhanced if it
included ministry formation opportunities. The formation piece
might include an orientation for new students, modeled after the
Training in Ministry and Education for a Shared Ministry programs,
formation groups for discussion, and a mentoring program for people
entering ministry. There was a great deal of openness to the
ministry formation idea.

In an effort to demonstrate the quality of the training program,
the Finneys, representing the Brethren Academy for Ministerial
Leadership, were asked to certify the training and to develop a
Certificate of Completion for those who satisfactorily complete the
program of Instituto Teologico. They agreed to the request; the
Certificate of Completion will include my signature, the Instituto
Teologico director's, and those of representatives from the
Brethren Academy/Bethany Theological Seminary. 

The same questions about ministerial training were addressed in the
Dominican Republic. There were meetings with Jerry and Becky Baile
Crouse, General Board staff in the Dominican Republic, with
Guillermo Ecarnacion, General Board staff assigned to work with El
Programa de Educacion Teologica de la Iglesia de la Hermandad en la
Republica Dominicana (The Program of Theological Education in the
Church of the Brethren in the Dominican Republic), and with the
executive board of the Church of the Brethren in the Dominican
Republic.  

As in Puerto Rico, we were impressed with the ministry training
program, which was developed a few years ago by Marcos Inhauser.
This curriculum, designed to be completed in four years, currently
has 32 students. Fourteen people are expected to complete the
program in December. The Finneys were asked to return at that time
to teach “Making Peace in the Church of the Brethren.” The
executive board in the Dominican Republic is also interested in
having its ministerial training program certified by the Brethren
Academy, with a Certificate of Completion signed by the appropriate
individuals.

With 14 people soon to graduate from the ministry training program,
it became important for everyone to clarify the relationship
between my office and Dominican Republic Brethren. Everyone
affirmed the 1998 Annual Conference World Mission Philosophy paper
that connected ministerial training, licensing, and ordination to
the Ministry office. I was asked to appoint a committee of people
to interview those who will become candidates for ordination when
they complete the training program in December. The interview
committee will then make recommendations to me for ordination. I
plan to attend the Annual General Assembly in February to conduct
the service of ordination, a service that promises to be a high
moment in the life of these pastors and for the Church of the
Brethren in the Dominican Republic.

Our visit made it clear that Brethren on both islands need Spanish
translations of denominational ministry materials. I committed the
General Board to making sure that the needed translations and
printing are done as soon as possible.

It is a joy and privilege to witness first hand how our sisters and
brothers in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic are continuing
the work of Jesus peacefully, simply, together.

Carol Yeazell --

A trip to the San Luis and San Jose churches provided first-hand
knowledge of the benefits that were received by many families as a
result of a $10,000.00 Emergency Disaster Fund food grant from the
General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries office. The
composition of people in these communities is 30 percent Haitian
and 70 percent Dominican. As a consequence of Hurricane Georges,
the sugar cane fields that normally provide employment for these
families were destroyed. A sugar processing plant was closed and
now there are virtually no employment possibilities.

Hunger is an ever increasing problem as people are often without
food for several days. The food grant provided basic staples of
rice, beans, and cooking oil for families, as well as some
additional items.

Food for 10 days to a month was distributed first through all the
churches in these areas, then through leaders of community groups,
and finally to about 300 families that had no connection to the
church or the community groups. These donations have opened doors
for evangelism that previously were closed, and both of the
churches are seeing an increase in attendance since this effort was
launched.

Both Pastor Isaias and Pastor Sanson expressed their gratitude for
this help from the General Board. It meant so much to them and
their people that they were not forgotten in this critical time of
need. They emphasized that knowing they do not stand alone in
ministry is one of the reasons why they are glad to be a part of
the Church of the Brethren.  

Newsline is produced by Nevin Dulabaum, manager of the Church of
the Brethren General Board's News Services. Howard Royer
contributed to this report. To receive Newsline by e-mail or fax,
call 800 323-8039, ext. 263, or write CoBNews@AOL.Com. Newsline is
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