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Date: May 3, 2002
Contact: Walt Wiltschek
V: 847/742-5100 F: 847/742-6103
E-MAIL: CoBNews@AOL.Com

NEWS
 1) Cross-Cultural Consultation fills Philadelphia with energy.
 2) On Earth Peace board examines Seeking Peace, development.
 3) US moderator Paul Grout addresses Nigerian annual assembly.
 4) Disaster Child Care, CAIR trainers have busy spring.
 5) String of US tornadoes brings quick Brethren action.
 6) General Board special grants aid US, Middle East projects.
 7) New Life Ministries holds meeting for "intensive visioning."
 8) Brethren join ecumenical effort for "expanded Christian
conversation."
 9) Brethren bits: Vieques, Washington Office.

FEATURES
10) Older Adult Cabinet finds Brethren unprepared for "age wave."
 
****************************************************************
 
 1) Energetic music, inspiring stories, and a variety of languages
filled the Germantown Church of the Brethren in Philadelphia April
18-21 as the denomination's annual Cross-Cultural Ministries
Consultation came to town. It was the fifth year for the event,
sponsored by the General Board's Congregational Life Ministries
office.

"I want you to know these are events which feed my soul and give me
hope for the church," said Annual Conference moderator-elect
Harriet Finney, who was attending her third consultation. "These
are times when we catch glimpses of the Holy Spirit." She urged the
group to continue "coming together to listen to each other" and
build understanding.

The event was loosely structured to allow ample time for
conversation and connection one-on-one or in small groups. Two
major evening activities took participants to the Grace Christian
Korean congregation in northeast Philadelphia and to the nearby
Ambler (Pa.) Church of the Brethren for times of dinner,
fellowship, and worship.

Other highlights included stories of thriving new church plants in
various parts of the Eastern US, updates on denominational efforts
in new church development and congregational revitalization,
vibrant music from the Bittersweet Gospel Band, performances by
Germantown musicians and dancers, and a stroll through the historic
Brethren cemetery behind the church.

After one particularly upbeat devotional time, Imperial Heights
(Los Angeles) Church of the Brethren pastor Belita Mitchell said,
"If you wonder why you're feeling so good today, it's because
surely the presence of the Lord is here in our midst. We can
celebrate diversity and yet have unity in the Lord."
 
Host pastor Richard Kyerematen, however, also urged the
denomination to work harder at creating a greater presence for
other cultures in the church. "If we don't build cultures, we will
have no cultures to cross," he said.

The 2003 consultation is tentatively scheduled to take place next
spring in Puerto Rico. Congregational Life Team member Duane Grady
serves as the General Board's liaison to the planning committee.

 2) The On Earth Peace Board of Directors met April 12-13 in New
Windsor, Md. In the midst of colorful clay, paper, and fresh spring
flowers, the theme of "Create and Re-Create" provided a focus as
each session was opened with worship. With the leadership of board
chair Bev Weaver, the board continued to use Formal Consensus as
its discussion and decision-making pattern.

The meeting began with reports about the Seeking Peace project, the
Decade to Overcome Violence partnership with the General Board's
Brethren Witness office, and successful work in the program areas
of Conflict Transformation, Peacemaker Formation, and Peace
Witness. The board and staff moved into a time of discernment about
the future of the Seeking Peace project--affirming the success and
energy of its programs up to now, acknowledging the need to
continue this active response to the war on terrorism, and
brainstorming ideas for future action.  

In other business, the board:
*reviewed the accomplishments of the strategic plan that was
adopted at the October 2000 board meeting. Revisions were suggested
for each of the four goal areas.

*heard a positive financial report from treasurer Charles Kwon that
showed income ahead of expenses and an increase of new individual
and congregational donors.

*heard from various committees, including the presentation of a
revised staff policy manual by the Personnel Committee.

*adopted a comprehensive development plan that highlights basic
tasks of fundraising, the responsibilities of the board, and an
emphasis on individual giving, congregations, and program income.

*committed to a goal of board and staff donating $25,000 before the
end of this fiscal year.

*discussed a document prepared by co-director Bob Gross, "Policies
Regarding Use of Endowment and Funds." This discussion will
continue at the fall board meeting to allow time to gather more
information.

*heard about staff involvement at Annual Conference, National Youth
Conference, National Older Adult Conference, district conferences,
and regional youth conferences.

*discussed various denominational partnerships, particularly with
the General Board, Association of Brethren Caregivers, and Bethany
Theological Seminary, and how to continue building and
strengthening these collaborative efforts.

*received the challenge to use the "Conversation Cards" developed
by staff member Matt Guynn to begin dialog with others about their
views on peace and the war on terrorism (see
www.brethren.org/oepa/seekingpeace/witness-card.html).

*heard plans for future programs: "The Big Picture: What Does Peace
Have To Do With Me?," June 8, New Windsor, Md.
(www.brethren.org/oepa/bigpicture.html; registration deadline is
May 20); "Preaching and Praying for Peace: A Revival of the
Spirit," Oct. 24-27, Camp Swatara, Bethel, Pa.; and "Weaving
Peace," July 9-12, 2003, place TBA.

 3) Annual Conference moderator Paul Grout was the featured speaker
at the 55th "majalisa," or annual assembly, of the Ekklesiyar
Yan'uwa a Nigeria (Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), held April
10-13 at Kulp Bible College near Mubi. The theme was "Justice and
Reconciliation."

Toma Ragnjiya, president of EYN, highlighted several items of
business from the gathering of 300 people. The church eliminated a
level of hierarchy, the Regional Church Councils; elected three
women to the executive committee; and created a new position, that
of spiritual advisor. In addition, Ragnjiya--who will be honored
and featured at two dinners at the US Annual Conference in
Louisville, Ky., this summer--called to action the pastors, church
leaders, nurses and doctors in the Nigerian congregations to make
people aware of the dangers of AIDS.

About the assembly, Grout said, "Usually a church that is growing
adds bureaucracy. What was significant to me was the Nigerian
church's daring to cut excess administration and clearly face
cultural issues of women in leadership and AIDS.

"My personal reason for coming to Nigeria was to see the church
alive," Grout added. "I came to honor people of faith and to listen
to how God might speak to me and the North American church through
the Nigerian church. I think that we can give encouragement and
financial support where helpful, and we can provide a ministry of
presence. But their prayers are more critical to us in the US than
our money is to them. There is a spiritual presence and power in
Nigeria that we no longer understand."

The US visitors and General Board Nigeria mission coordinators John
and Janet Tubbs also traveled to the Badawa preaching point in the
city of Kano. There Grout brought the news that more than $15,000
had been collected from US churches to help rebuild the Kano
church, which has been burned down four times in clashes with
Muslim youth. In the latest riot, in October 2001, six church
members lost their lives.

Until the church can be rebuilt at a safer site, the congregation
is meeting at Badawa, which cannot hold the 1,000 members. The
congregation has dwindled to 600, but pastor Matthew Abdulahi said,
"As soon as we acquire the new site, the members will come back." 

The final total for the love offering to the Kano church topped
$18,000. Merv Keeney, director of Global Mission Partnerships for
the General Board, said Brethren gave "immediately and exceedingly
generously" to the effort. 

 
 4) Over the past four months, the General Board's busy Emergency
Response/Service Ministries office has held seven introductory
Disaster Child Care workshops across the country and one advanced
Child Care in Aviation Incident Response (CAIR) workshop in New
Windsor, Md.

Disaster Child Care trainers traveled to workshops in California,
Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, and Pennsylvania
through all types of weather, including a blizzard. The 16
volunteer trainers, working in groups of two or three, trained 133
individuals to care for children who have survived a disaster.
Participants braved a 27-hour workshop held in a mock Red Cross
shelter to help simulate a disaster environment and let them
experience, for one night, what survivors of disasters often
experience for many nights.

During the workshop, participants learned about disasters, disaster
response organizations, child development, how trauma affects
children and families, and how to set up a child care center. A
final introductory training will be held in New York in July for
the 40 local volunteers who last fall received an abbreviated
training to help with the New York crisis response.

The CAIR workshop trained 19 active Disaster Child Care volunteers
to be ready for the challenge of transportation disasters with
heavy casualties. In this three-day training, volunteers learned
about responding in cooperation with the American Red Cross and the
National Transportation Safety Board. Extra attention is given to
working with grieving children and taking care of oneself during
such high-stress situations. A second CAIR training is scheduled
for July. It is already full, with 30 participants planning to
attend.

 5) A late April tornado outbreak in five states sent the General
Board's Emergency Response/Service Ministries staff into quick
action this week.

An F5 tornado, the highest classification on the Fujita scale with
winds over 260 mph, ripped through the southern Maryland town of La
Plata. Almost immediately, Roy Winter, manager of the Disaster
Child Care program, offered the services of child-care teams; it
appears this service will not be needed. David Braune, Mid-Atlantic
District Disaster Coordinator, also offered the services of
volunteers to do immediate response. Jane Yount, disaster response
coordinator, has been in touch with the Emergency Operations Center
in La Plata to determine the most appropriate time to send in
clean-up crews into areas which, for now, are closed off to
outsiders. ER/SM will monitor the need for long-term repair and
reconstruction.

The wide scope of the recent storms also touched communities in
Virginia, Ohio, Illinois, and Missouri. Brethren volunteers in each
of these states responded to calls to assess the affected areas and
give firsthand reports.

The Trinity Church of the Brethren in Northern Ohio District had
significant tree damage, and volunteers went to help in the
cleanup. In Virlina District, the PleasantDale Church in rural
Botetourt County, Va., was damaged by high winds; a number of
window panes were broken and the siding was stripped from one side
of the church. 

 6) Another pair of grants has been made from the General Board's
special funds, one each from the Emergency Disaster Fund and Global
Food Crisis Fund.

The Emergency Disaster Fund allocation is for $6,000 and will
support a Church World Service (CWS) initiative in the wake of a
wave of spring storms. CWS is assisting interfaith organizations
that are helping in the aftermath of various natural disasters in
Missouri, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Virginia.

The funds will supply "seed grants" through CWS and cover the costs
and expenses of one of these, a Church of the Brethren Emergency
Response/Service Ministries project in southeastern Kentucky and
western Virginia.

The Global Food Crisis Fund grant will send $10,000 in support of
another CWS project in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The project is
providing emergency food parcels to families in the region and aims
to assist approximately 60,000 people.

 7) Twenty-five people representing all partners of New Life
Ministries met at The Sandberg Leadership Center on the Ashland
(Ohio) University campus April 23-26 for an intensive time of
visioning for the evangelism-focused ecumenical organization. The
group was led in the process by two consultants, Dr. Richard L.
Parrott and J. David Schmidt, Jr. 

Those participating included denominational executives from groups
that have had a relationship with New Life Ministries (Church of
the Brethren, Mennonite Church USA, Mennonite Church Canada, The
Brethren Church, Christian Community, and Shalom Foundation),
pastors, and New Life management team members and board members.
The process included working at vision and mission statements,
clarifying objectives, and naming specific goals. 

A reality the group worked with is the changing financial
situations that partner denominations/agencies are experiencing.
The group was encouraged to think beyond the Anabaptist markets to
the wider possibilities of resourcing the Christian community.
Parrott indicated that the market is "huge," and that people are
hungering for the Anabaptist/Pietist witness. 

As a result of these meetings, a committee was assigned to finalize
the wording of new vision and mission statements. Several board
members will meet with New Life director S. Joan Hershey to
fine-tune the objectives and goals, with intentional time given to
long-term goals. In addition, immediate action will be given to
finding "bridge" monies for this year's budget.

 8) More than 30 American church leaders, including Church of the
Brethren General Board general secretary Judy Mills Reimer, met in
Chicago in April to work at ways of walking more closely together
and having "an expanded Christian conversation in our nation."

The network--from Orthodox, Roman Catholic, mainline Protestant,
Evangelical, Pentecostal, and other Christian traditions--is
tentatively calling itself "Christian Churches Together in the
USA." The endeavor began in Baltimore last fall and continued in
Chicago April 4-6, resulting in the production of a document titled
"An Invitation to a Journey."

The paper expresses a desire for greater unity in Christ, and
expresses several laments. "We lament that we are divided and that
our divisions too often result in distrust, misunderstandings,
fear, and even hostility between us," one point reads. "We long for
the broken body of Christ made whole, where unity can be celebrated
in the midst of our diversity."

It calls for a more unified church voice in the US that can be a
prophetic message in society. It also seeks a "common witness" that
would include engaging in common prayer, fostering faithful
evangelism, and seeking reconciliation around a larger ecumenical
table.

Further conversation and goals will be part of the group's
continuing work, with another meeting planned for January 2003.

 9) Brethren bits: Other brief news notes from around the
denomination and elsewhere.
 *The US Navy resumed bombing exercises on the Puerto Rican island
of Vieques last month despite ongoing protests in the region. The
Church of the Brethren has been among those calling for an end to
exercises on the island, where residents live between Navy base
areas. The General Board in March passed a motion expressing
"solidarity with the people of Vieques and the Puerto Rico
Brethren" and called for "advocacy on their behalf" by General
Board staff.  

 *The Church of the Brethren Washington Office last week put out an
action alert to oppose further military aid to Colombia in FY02
Defense Supplemental Appropriations Bill. Details are available at
www.brethren.org/genbd/washofc/alert/MoreMilitaryAidColombia.htm.

 10) Preparing congregations for the coming "social tsunami" was
the primary concern of the six-member Older Adult Ministry Cabinet
of the Association of Brethren Caregivers as it met April 12-14 in
Elgin, Ill. 
     
The cabinet met at the General Offices to chart the course for the
denomination's Older Adult Ministry for the next two to three
years. During its meetings, the group absorbed statistical
information and reviewed data it collected through a survey of 70
Church of the Brethren congregations about services they provide
older adults.

What the cabinet discovered is that the church, like much of
American society, is unprepared for the Baby Boomer generation
becoming older adults.   

"Social tsunami" is how Ken Dychtwald, an expert on aging in
America and author of "Age Power," describes the unprecedented
demographic reality facing American society. According to
Dychtwald, the first Boomer turned 50 on Jan. 1, 1996, and by 2020
the US Census Bureau projects a 50-percent increase in the number
of older adults--115 million compared with the current 78 million.
Dychtwald likens the movement of the Boomer generation through
history to a "pig through a python."

"The Older Adult Ministry Cabinet is keenly aware of and concerned
about the 'demographic bottleneck' of which Dr. Dychtwald speaks,"
says Scott Douglas, ABC's staff representative for Older Adult
Ministry. "The cabinet's primary objective now is to raise our
denomination's consciousness to the serious consequences of being
unprepared for the needs of an older adult Boomer generation. It's
time for the church to make thoughtful and appropriate preparations
to meet the challenges of the coming age wave."

The Cabinet surveyed 70 churches in an effort to get a sense of the
older adult ministry needs felt at the congregational level. Few
respondents indicated intentional older adult programming in their
churches. In fact, most surveys expressed one of two responses. The
first can be summarized as, "Our church does not have any
intentional older adult programming. The second essentially said,
"Everything we do is older adult ministry since the majority of the
congregation is over 55."

However, as the cabinet reviewed the programs offered by each of
the churches surveyed, there were no distinguishing differences
between those who offer no intentional programming and those who,
by virtue of their aging membership, perceive that they do.
Further, almost all respondents indicated that they did not tap
local social services offered to older adults in their geographic
area. These responses and others led the cabinet to conclude there
is not much of a perceived need, on the part of congregations, to
pursue an intentional ministry for, by, and with older adults.

To help Church of the Brethren congregations with the issue of
aging populations, the cabinet outlined several critical issues
that it believes need to be addressed immediately. These issues
include: getting the word out, re-visioning the way we think about
"aging" and being an older adult, recommending appropriate
responses for churches to make in light of the "age wave," and
developing leadership to assist the cabinet in its 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. Barb Sayler, Janis Pyle, Glenn Kinsel, and Scott
Douglas contributed to this report.

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