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

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Date: Oct. 5, 2001
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

NEWS
 1) Recent developments in response to US terrorism.
 2) Annual Conference 2002 worship leadership is announced.
 3) On Earth Peace board launches new initiative, reviews work.
 4) General Board becomes a partner with Evangelism Connections.
 5) Disaster relief projects continue around the country.

****************************************************************
 
 1) The Church of the Brethren Disaster Child Care program
operating in New York continues to grow. As of this week, 43
volunteers had served or were serving at two sites in Manhattan,
making more than 450 child-care contacts. Many were providing care
at the family assistance center on Pier 94 along the Hudson River,
while others were helping at a Federal Emergency Managament Agency
(FEMA) child-care center elsewhere in Manhattan.

Already one of the largest response efforts in the history of the
program--coordinated by the General Board's Emergency
Response/Service Ministries (ER/SM) office--it has also become one
of its most visible.

Numerous visiting dignitaries have come to the center, including
former President Bill Clinton and his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton,
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, the prime minister of
Japan, the princess of Jordan, and players from New York's
professional sports teams. The high-profile guests have taken time
to greet the volunteers, and several have asked about the Church of
the Brethren and its work.

Media coverage has included newspaper interviews and Japanese
public television. NBC's "Today" show filmed a segment with
volunteer Jean Myers, but ER/SM manager Stan Noffsinger said it has
not yet aired to his knowledge.

It has made for a hectic time for ER/SM and other denominational
staff, but Noffsinger says it has also been wonderful to see the
church responding. Other offices and agencies, districts,
congregations, and individuals have all stepped forward to help.

"This is when the whole church is at work together to accomplish
our mission of serving our neighbor and sharing the good news,"
Noffsinger says. "It's for such a time that we exist."

Also this week, the General Board executive committee approved an
ER/SM request to make a $50,000 Emergency Disaster Fund grant
toward a new Church World Service Emergency Response appeal along
the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

Church World Service (CWS) is building efforts to provide shelter
and other assistance to the tens of thousands of Afghan refugees
fleeing their country for Pakistan, adding to a massive internally
displaced population that had already existed in Afghanistan. "A
very serious humanitarian crisis is in the making," said Marvin
Parvez, CWS' Pakistan-Afghanistan director. CWS, whose offices in
the region remain open, plans $1.5 million in aid. It will provide
shelter kits to 15,000 families.

Other recent developments in the response to US terrorism:
 *National Council of Churches general secretary Bob Edgar met with
four prominent US Muslim leaders Sept. 26 to help "build interfaith
understanding and stop the wave of hate crimes" following the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks. The group plans to continue meeting monthly.
Periodic meetings between NCC and Muslim leadership had been held
in the past under the NCC's Interfaith Relations Commission. "Never
has interfaith understanding and cooperation been more important
than it is today," Edgar said.

 *World Council of Churches general secretary Konrad Reiser sent a
letter to United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan, as the UN
began debate on world terrorism. He specifically cited the WCC's
efforts with the Decade to Overcome Violence, saying "Christians
have often contributed to shaping a culture of violence." It calls
for repentance and dialog while also saying terrorism is "abhorrent
to all who believe human life is a gift of God and therefore
infinitely precious." Raiser called the Sept. 11 events "a turning
point for a global reassessment of our collective responsibility to
heal the wounds and offer new perspectives to our world." 

 *Anabaptist-related churches and others in central Pennsylvania
are being invited to a public Christian witness on the steps of the
state capitol in Harrisburg this Sunday, Oct. 7, from 3-4 p.m.,
praying for healing and peace and asking world governments to
"interrupt the cycle of violence." The event is being organized by
the ecumenical Every Church a Peace Church campaign. 

 *New resources continue to be added to the www.brethren.org
website by Brethren Press, On Earth Peace, and others. Brethren
Press has a compilation of resources geared toward worship and
nurture under the heading "The Way of Peace," at
www.brethren.org/genbd/BP. The On Earth Peace site, titled "Seeking
Peace," was launched last week and is available at
www.brethren.org/oepa. A full listing of pages related to the Sept.
11 attacks can be found at www.brethren.org/usresponse. 

 *The World Council of Churches, Action by Churches Together, and
the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance have partnered to set up a
"short-term crisis response mechanism" to share information related
to the attacks with their broad church constituency. Titled "Behind
the news: Visions for Peace - Voices of Faith," the website will
offer a selection of church statements and actions; information on
responses and actions of other religions and interreligious
organizations; updates on humanitarian concerns, particularly on
the refugee situation; analysis and reflection; and study and
worship resources to help churches to respond to the unfolding
situation. The site is at www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/behindthenews. 

 *Information on Arab-American issues is available at
www.adc.org/education/education.html. There is also a link to the
site from the Church of the Brethren Washington Office home page,
at www.brethren.org/genbd/washofc.

 2) The Annual Conference Program and Arrangements Committee has
announced worship leadership for the 2002 Annual Conference, to be
held June 29-July 3 in Louisville, Ky.

Moderator Paul Grout of Putney, Vt., will be the preacher for
Saturday evening's opening worship, with moderator-elect Harriet
Finney serving as worship leader. Bethany Theological Seminary
president Gene Roop will deliver the message for the Sunday morning
service, with worship leader Nancy Hess of Lancaster, Pa.

Brethren pastor Valentina Satvedi of Redondo Beach, Calif., will
speak Monday evening, and well-known Christian author Dr. Tex
Sample of Goodyear, Ariz., will be the guest speaker on Tuesday.
Southeastern District co-executives Pete and Martha Roudebush are
Monday's worship leaders, and Todd Wenger of Kokoma, Ind., will
fill that role Tuesday.

On Wednesday, a worship team including Grout and Emily Shonk
Edwards of Cloverdale, Va., will lead the service.

Marla Bieber Abe, senior elected member of Program and
Arrangements, is serving as worship coordinator. Tony Leach of
State College, Pa., will coordinate music at the Conference. Others
serving in music will be organist Lillian Long of Philippi, W.Va.;
pianist Diana Bucher of North Manchester, Ind.; and choir director
Michelle Grimm of Onekama, Mich.

 3) The On Earth Peace board of directors met Sept. 19-20 in North
Manchester, Ind. The meeting began with a sense of sorrow and
apprehension about the tragic events of Sept. 11 and the talk of
war that is prevalent in the nation, but also with a sense of
calling to respond as a peace church and a determination to follow
as God leads.

Through prayer, discernment, and discussion, the decision was made
to begin a major effort in peace education and witness "to
encourage and equip the Church of the Brethren to witness in a new
and living way to its peace testimony." More information on the
effort, called "Seeking Peace," is available at
www.brethren.org/oepa, or by calling 410-635-8704.  

The board continued to use Formal Consensus as its discussion and
decision-making pattern, as initiated in the spring board meeting.

New officers for 2001-2002 were called: Bev Weaver, Anderson, Ind.,
chair; David Jehnsen, Galena, Ohio, vice-chair; Lauree Hersch
Meyer, Rushville, N.Y., secretary; Charles Kwon, Evanston, Ill.,
treasurer; and Ken Frantz, Fleming, Colo., executive committee
at-large. Appreciation and gratitude were expressed to outgoing
members Illana Naylor and Jan Kulp Long.  

In other business, the board:
*heard reports of program work in all areas, including the Weaving
Peace event held immediately after Annual Conference in Maryland
and the Decade to Overcome Violence, a long-term project in
partnership with the General Boardbs Brethren Witness office;

*reviewed progress on current goals in the organization's strategic
plan;

*adopted an organizational budget of $338,000 for the 2001-2002
fiscal year, and a new salary structure for staff;

*received a report of the performance review of the executive
directors conducted by the executive committee, in which both the
work of the directors and the co-director model were strongly
affirmed; and

*received work-in-progress reports on a review of the purposes and
use of the organization's endowment funds, a response to concerns
regarding fairness in ministry decisions, and a comprehensive
development plan.

 4) The Church of the Brethren General Board, through its
Congregational Life Ministries office, has become a partner with
Evangelism Connections. Evangelism Connections is made up of seven
planning partners: the Christian Church (Disciples), Episcopal
Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church
USA, Reformed Church in America, and now the Church of the
Brethren.

The partners contract with Net Results, which carries out all the
logistics for regional evangelism training and leadership
development events held every other year. In 1998 and 2000,
Evangelism Connections held several regional events, each with top
keynote speakers. In 2002, two events are planned, each identical:
Louisville Ky., Apr. 12-13; and Philadelphia, Nov. 15-16.

In addition to the keynote addresses, there will be a dozen
practical workshops focused on sharing of the good news. Pastors
and congregational leaders will be receiving fliers and brochures
this fall to assist with planning for the 2002 events.

 5) While the response to the Sept. 11 East Coast terrorist attacks
has been foremost in the headlines, the work of the Church of the
Brethren General Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries is
occurring elsewhere, as well.

*Projects continue in both Wilson, N.C., and Siren, Wis., where
volunteers are assisting rebuilding and recovery efforts in the
wake of a hurricane and a tornado, respectively. Both projects are
expected to continue at least through the fall. Ken and LouElla
Imhoff are serving as disaster project directors in Siren through
Nov. 1. Larry and Alice Petry and Jimmy and Mary Ellen Spencer are
filling that role in Wilson in October.

*Volunteers are being gathered for assistance in Arizona, where two
towns were struck by a flood last year and continue to recover.
Pacific Southwest District disaster coordinators are overseeing
this effort.

*ER/SM is monitoring response needs in Florida, where Hurricane
Gabrielle caused flooding and destruction of homes Sept. 14. It is
also putting out a call for "Brethren builders" to help Camp Ithiel
complete its Kramer Dining Center this fall. ER/SM disaster project
directors held their training conference at Camp Ithiel in February
and worked on the dining hall then.

*Several congregations and districts have also been aiding disaster
relief efforts in other parts of the country. Brethren in Maryland
aided cleanup efforts following a tornado in College Park and
Laurel. . . . The same storm system produced a tornado in Hanover,
Pa., where the Hanover Church of the Brethren assisted two Hispanic
immigrant families whose apartments were destroyed. . . . The
Southeastern District has raised nearly $3,000 toward flood
recovery in eastern Tennessee, and many volunteers have helped
rebuild several homes, with more than 500 hours of donated labor.
. . . The Virlina District has raised more than $30,000 toward
flood damage in West Virginia, with 65 congregations contributing;
$12,000 of that went to the West Virginia Council of Churches to
help support a staff person who could coordinate interfaith
recovery work.

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, with other editions as needed.
Newsline stories may be reprinted provided that Newsline is cited
as the source. David Hiebert/CPTnet, Julie Garber, and Marie
Willoughby contributed to this report.

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