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

[COBNews@aol.com]

Date: May 25, 2001
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

"And let us not grow weary while doing good . . ." Gal. 6:9a

NEWS
 1) Church partners meet in Nigeria.
 2) Historic Peace Churches will gather for consultation.
 3) Manchester choir gets to be a part of it at Carnegie Hall.
 4) Spring deacon workshops offer assortment of training.
 5) Groups in Iowa, California explore spirituality in youth
ministry.
 6) Mid-Atlantic District disaster auction nets $77,000.
 7) Environmental leaders meet at NCC event in Washington.
 8) European Church and Peace conference looks at Balkans.
 9) Brethren bits: Annual Conference, IMA, college news, NCC, more.

COMING EVENTS
10) Conference to examine "Amish, Old Orders, and the Media."

****************************************************************

 1) A consultation between the Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (Church
of the Brethren in Nigeria), the US Church of the Brethren, and
Mission 21 (formerly Basel Mission) of Switzerland was held May
8-11 in Kwarhi, Adamawa State, Nigeria, in the EYN headquarters
conference hall.

Twenty-eight items of discussion crowded the agenda. The
consultation, scheduled to be held every other year, was to meet in
2000 but was delayed for one year due to scheduling difficulties
among the partners. 

Participating from the Church of the Brethren were Mervin Keeney,
director of Global Mission Partnerships for the General Board, and
Nigeria mission coordinators John and Janet Tubbs.

The meeting featured many reports, updates, and proposals from
EYN-related educational institutions. Participants discussed a plan
and proposal for the integration of the Rural Development Program
Agric Commercial, the Community Based Development Program, and the
Rural Health Program, and it was agreed that this integration would
strengthen the work among the rural communities.

Kulp Bible College will phase out the basic certificate in
Christian religious studies this year, with that course instead
being offered under the EYN Bible schools. The change will allow
Kulp to offer all classes for the diploma in Christian ministry, a
four-year course, every year rather than alternating classes each
year. A Theological Education by Extension program has developed
its own diploma course and will enroll its first diploma students
in August.

Other business included a call for more exchange programs, an
overview of the EYN Vision 2000 strategic plan, an update on
women's programs, and concerns related to Muslim/Christian
relationships in Nigeria as Sharia law is instituted in some
states.

The next consultation is scheduled for 2003 in Switzerland.

 2) Ten Brethren will be among those attending an International
Historic Peace Church Consultation in Bienenberg, Switzerland, June
25-29. 

Bethany Theological Seminary faculty member Scott Holland,
University of La Verne (Calif.) chaplain Deborah Roberts, and
theology professor Lauree Hersch Meyer will be among about two
dozen people presenting papers at the event. Members of the other
two Historic Peace Churches, the Mennonites and Quakers, will also
be attending and making presentations. In all, more than 70 people
from five continents are expected.

Planned in response to the World Council of Churches' call for a
Decade to Overcome Violence--which the Church of the Brethren
joined at last year's Annual Conference--the consultation will also
include evening forums and panel discussions, worship, and a visit
to The Ecumenical Center of the WCC in Geneva.

Two other Bethany staff members, Dan Ulrich and Jeff Bach, are
scheduled to attend. Other Brethren participating are Barb Sayler
of On Earth Peace, Brethren Volunteer Service Europe coordinator
Kristin Flory, former General Board general secretary Don Miller,
and Richmond (Ind.) Church of the Brethren assistant pastor Dean
Johnson. Church of the Brethren member Sara Speicher, who works for
the World Council of Churches, will also be present.

German Mennonite Fernando Enns, who brought the last-minute
proposal for a Decade to Overcome Violence to the WCC Assembly in
1998, was also one of the driving forces in envisioning this
consultation. Enns in February said that "we need theological
debate (on peace issues) with other churches. First we should come
together as Historic Peace Churches and look at the common theology
we can present."

Papers presented at the consultation, to be held at Bienenberg
Theological Seminary, will be posted online. A direct link will be
available from www.brethren.org.

 3) Start spreading the news--the Manchester College A Cappella
Choir will be performing at New York's famed Carnegie Hall on
Monday, May 28.

The choir's 40-plus members plus a group of choir alumni is joining
seven other choruses from North America for a five-day stay. At 8
p.m. Monday, they will participate in a performance of John
Rutter's "Gloria."

The choir will also premiere a composition by Debora DeWitt,
associate professor of music and departmental chair at
Manchester--located in North Manchester, Ind.--during a prelude
concert. The piece, titled "Parting," uses text from a poem written
by 1948 Manchester College graduate Ningkun Wu.

Choir director Debra Lynn, an assistant professor of music, began
working on the possibility of a Carnegie Hall performance shortly
after she began teaching at Manchester in 1998. Working through
MidAmerica Productions, she submitted an audition tape that
eventually earned the invitation to do the 20-minute prelude
concert.

Prior to arriving in New York, the choir was scheduled to perform
five other concerts at churches and retirement communities in Ohio
and Pennsylvania.

 4) Deacons were encouraged to go beyond traditional roles and find
their own niche to meet the needs of their church community in a
series of training events led this spring by Robert Blake, staff
for the Denominational Deacon Ministry of the Association of
Brethren Caregivers. Blake served as a hospital chaplain for nearly
20 years prior to joining ABC and is an ordained pastor.

More than 200 deacons attended the events, some of which were open
to other congregations in their areas. The events were held at
Faith Church of the Brethren, Batavia, Ill.; Boulder Hill
Neighborhood Church of the Brethren, Montgomery, Ill.; Williamson
Road Church of the Brethren, Roanoke, Va.; and La Verne (Calif.)
Church of the Brethren at the request of the congregations. The
Northern Indiana District also sponsored a training workshop at the
Bremen (Ind.) Church of the Brethren.

Each training event focused on a different way that deacons could
minister to their church and community. In Illinois, deacons were
trained in ways they could be spiritual enliveners in their
congregations. Deacons in Northern Indiana learned more about
caregiving as a way to deepen their overall caregiving skills. The
training in Roanoke focused on understanding how to give care when
there has been a tragedy, whether of a physical nature or the
trauma surrounding divorce. Deacons in La Verne learned about ways
they can provide authentic Brethren evangelism with a sense of
integrity important to that church community.

"The excitement in all of this is the variety of ways deacons are
attempting to better understand the needs of their church and
broader community, and to respond in ways that are compassionate
and true to their individual deacon group," Blake says. Plans are
under way for additional deacon training workshops for fall 2001
and spring 2002.

 5) Brethren in the Midwest and Pacific Southwest took time
recently to learn more about youth ministry, particularly the
importance of spiritual formation in that age group.

Nearly 50 people attended a May 5 workshop sponsored by the General
Board's Youth/Young Adult Ministries office and hosted by the South
Waterloo (Iowa) Church of the Brethren, while others joined in a
retreat for pastors, advisors, and other youth workers in Lake
Gregory, Calif.

In Iowa, Annual Conference moderator-elect Paul Grout, presented
his own witness to the Church of the Brethren tagline, "Another way
of living."  Using video, art, and personal stories, and drawing on
a deep faith in Jesus, Grout challenged workshop participants to
engage the culture in which they find themselves. The church does
have a message that the world needs to hear, he says, and the
church itself needs to hear again.

Participants came from Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois. The workshop
was open to pastors, youth advisors, and others interested in
youth. Grandparents were urged to attend as a way of connecting to
youth on their level. In addition, a district senior high
overnighter was held prior to the workshop to encourage youth
participation, and Grout stayed an extra day to bring the message
and children's time at South Waterloo's Sunday worship service.

In California, a certified spiritual director worked with
participants to take the group through the practice of several
spiritual disciplines, designed to help them find new energy and a
new understanding of their spiritual gifts. They also looked at
ways they could help to identify and call out gifts in youth.

 6) The Mid-Atlantic District's 2001 Disaster Response Auction,
held May 5 in Westminster, Md., again topped its own income record.
The event raised an estimated $77,000 this year from the
auction--including quilts, and from booth sales and the sale of
Rubbermaid products. 

Of that total, $65,000 has been designated to be sent to the Church
of the Brethren General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund. Organizers
expect to send about $3,000 more once the final financial figures
have been completed.

About 1,200 people attended the annual event, which had child care
available through the Disaster Child Care program of Church of the
Brethren Emergency Response/Service Ministries. Next year's auction
is slated for May 4, 2002, in Westminster.

 7) More than 300 environmental justice leaders from church
denominations and interfaith groups met in Washington, D.C., this
week for a environmental conference sponsored by the National
Council of Churches' Eco-Justice Working Group.

The May 20-23 event included presentations on significant
environmental justice issues, briefings on environmental issues
before the US Congress, meetings with senators and representatives,
and working sessions on starting and growing environmental
ministries in congregations and judicatories.

On Tuesday, the NCC scheduled an Interfaith Rally for Energy
Conservation and Climate Justice on the East Lawn of the US
Capitol. Hundreds of activists, joined by some members of Congress,
formed a human bar graph to illustrate the disproportionate amount
of greenhouse gases produced by the United States.

An open letter to President George W. Bush, signed by heads of many
faith groups--including Church of the Brethren General Board
executive director Judy Mills Reimer, was also presented. The
letter expressed concerns with the recently unveiled US energy
policy and said "We have a moral obligation to choose the safest,
cleanest and most sustainable sources of energy to protect and
preserve God's creation. Energy conservation is faithful
stewardship."

 8) Brethren Volunteer Service Europe coordinator Kristin Flory was
among those attending a conference of Church and Peace, a European
ecumenical network, April 27-29 in Elspeet, the Netherlands.

Under the theme, "Repairers of the Breach and Restorers of the
Streets to Dwell in," from Isaiah 58:12, participants explored
overcoming violence in interreligious and inter-ethnic conflicts.
The conference particularly looked at the recent experience of
churches and Christian peace groups in the Balkans and considered
proposals for Christian peacemaking there and elsewhere.

Main speakers were Reinhard Voss of the German section of Pax
Christi, Aleksandar Birvis of the Yugoslav Association for
Religious Freedom, German Protestant Anthea Bethge, and Dutch
Mennonite pastor Janna Postma. Afternoon working group activities
included a proposal from the German and Austrian Quaker Peace
Committee for a peace church contribution to the World Council of
Churches' Decade to Overcome Violence.

 9) Brethren bits: Other brief news notes from around the
denomination and elsewhere.
 *This Sunday, May 27, has been designated a day of prayer and
fasting in preparation for Annual Conference, which will take place
June 30-July 4 in Baltimore.

 *The 2002 Nigeria workcamp is scheduled for Jan. 13-Feb. 10. The
cost is $2,002. Applications are available from Mary Munson in the
General Board's Global Mission Partnerships office; call
800-323-8039. For more information and photos, see the Nigeria
workcamp website, www.brethren.org/genbd/global_mission/workcamp.

 *Interchurch Medical Assistance, based at the Brethren Service
Center in New Windsor, Md., has received a 5-year, $25 million
grant from USAID to work with primary care health system needs in
the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. IMA will be working
with the SANRU rural health program of the Protestant Church of
Congo. Church World Service has issued an appeal to support IMA's
work there. More details will follow in a future Newsline.

 *The National Council of Churches Executive Board meets May 30-31
in Washington, D.C. Agenda items include launching a new
partnership with Habitat for Humanity, celebrating the 1,700th
anniversary of Christianity in Armenia, and receiving updates on
the NCC's Mobilization to Overcome Poverty.

 *Brethren Benefit Trust is holding sessions about rising medical
costs and insurance premiums at three locations in Mid-Atlantic
District next week: June 1 at the Manassas (Va.) Church of the
Brethren; June 2 at Frederick (Md.); and June 3 at Easton (Md.).
Jeff Garber, director of insurance plans, is leading the sessions.

 10) The Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at
Elizabethtown (Pa.) College will host a three-day conference on
"Amish, Old Orders, and the Media" June 14-16. Scholars, writers,
reporters, tourism representatives, and others will gather to
discuss how these groups are portrayed in the media.

Keynote speakers will be Donald Kraybill, dean of scholarship at
Messiah College, Grantham, Pa., and Gustav Neibuhr, reporter and
religion writer for the New York Times. More than 50 other
panelists and presenters will also be on hand. Young Center
director David Eller says the conference will aim for "frank and
insightful discussion."

A full conference schedule is online at
www.etown.edu/youngctr/events.html.

Newsline is produced by Walt Wiltschek, manager of news services
for the Church of the Brethren General Board, on the first, third,
and fifth Friday of each month. Newsline stories may be reprinted
provided that Newsline is cited as the source. Janet Tubbs, Shawn
Flory Replogle, Mary Dulabaum, and Janice Glass Kensinger
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 available at www.brethren.org
and is archived with an index at http://www.wfn.org. Also see Photo
Journal at www.brethren.org/pjournal/index.htm for photo coverage
of recent events.