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Date: June 2, 2005
Contact: Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
V: 847/742-5100 F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL: _CoBNews@AOL.Com_ (mailto:CoBNews@AOL.Com) 
 

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN NEWSLINE
June 2, 2005
 
CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN LEADERS TO TAKE PART IN DELEGATION TO SUDAN
 
June 2, 2005 (Elgin, IL) -- A small interfaith delegation of spiritual	
leaders from the United States will visit the Darfur region of Sudan, where
many  
thousands of black Sudanese have been killed or forced into refugee camps by 

what many are calling a genocide. The delegation is being sponsored by
leaders  
of the National Black Leadership Roundtable and the Muslim American Society  
Freedom Foundation.
 
Two Church of the Brethren leaders have been invited to join the  delegation:

Jim Hardenbrook, Moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual  Conference; 
and Phil Jones, Director of the
Brethren Witness/Washington  Office of the Church of the Brethren General 
Board. The delegation also includes  Jewish, Muslim, and Roman Catholic 
participants, and will be led by the Hon.  Walter E. Fauntroy, President of
the 
National Black Leadership Roundtable.
 
The trip is planned for June 6-15. In addition to Darfur, the delegation  
also will visit officials of the Sudan government in Khartoum, and attend the
 
first few days of an African Union peace
meeting on Sudan, to be held in  Lagos, Nigeria.
 
Hardenbrook, who is pastor of Nampa (Idaho) Church of the Brethren, said he  
hopes the trip will allow him to "be a real advocate for the people of 
Darfur."  Facing people who are responsible for the deaths of thousands is
going to a 
 spiritual battle for him, he shared. "We need boldness in speaking to power,

but  also ears ready to listen. We need to learn, and learn a lot, I hope," 
he said.  Hardenbrook visited southern Sudan in 2002 on a Faith Expedition
trip 
sponsored  by the Church of the Brethren General Board. His congregation 
financially  supports a school in southern Sudan.
 
Jones has been an advocate and activist for the people of Sudan over recent  
years. He traveled to southern Sudan in the fall of 2003 and has hosted 
leaders  from the south for numerous State Department, governmental, and 
nongovernmental  meetings. In the summer of 2004, Jones participated in an
organized 
four-month  campaign designed to bring attention to the genocide in Darfur.
This 
action	included nonviolent witness and his arrest in July 2004.
 
"In a small way, we hope this interfaith delegation will offer support and  
encouragement to the suffering people of Darfur, allowing them to see that 
there  are those who recognize the evils
of this genocide," Jones said. "In  embracing their pain and hearing their 
stories, we hope to renew our strength	and deepen our passion to be a
stronger 
voice here in the US."
 
Goals for the June delegation include supporting an opportunity for an	
African solution to the crisis in Sudan and addressing the genocidal campaign
 that 
continues to be waged in Darfur, according to the National Black Leadership  
Roundtable. The delegation also will support the peace accord signed between 

leaders of the Sudan Peoples' Liberation Army of southern Sudan, and the  
Khartoum government of the north of Sudan. In addition, the trip is made to  
support Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, chairman of the African Union,
who  
is holding a peace meeting with all of the warring parties in Sudan. The  
three-week long meeting in Lagos is called "unprecedented" by the National
Black  
Leadership Roundtable, and will include those working out the north-south
Sudan 
 accord as well as the warring parties in Darfur.
 
"Leaders on both sides believe that the presence...of an interfaith  
delegation of respected spiritual leaders such as we are putting together
will  be 
very helpful to the deliberations," said Fauntroy in his invitation to	
delegation members.
 
In Darfur, the delegation will be hosted by a Muslim nongovernmental  agency,

Islamic Relief USA, which is administering two refugee camps in Darfur	for 
the United Nations.
 
On Friday, June 3, before leaving for Sudan, delegation members including  
Hardenbrook and Jones plan to meet in New York with members of the Darfur  
Justice Movement and United Nations officials. Other members of the
delegation  
plan a brief meeting with the US Department of State and members of Secretary
 
Condoleezza Rice's staff.
 
The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to  
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith  in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith  
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrates its
 300th 
anniversary in 2008. It counts about 130,000 members across the United	
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Brazil, the  
Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nigeria.
 
# # #
 
For more information contact:
 
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the  Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave.
Elgin, IL 60120
847-742-5100  ext. 260
_cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org_ 
(mailto:cbrumbaugh-cayford_gb@brethren.org) 
 
*****************************************************************
 
The Church of the Brethren Newsline is produced by Cheryl  Brumbaugh-Cayford,

director of news services for the Church of the Brethren  General Board. 
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