wfn.org | Newsline: Peace witness is scheduled at Church of the Brethren Annual Conference

["COBNews Newsline" <cobnews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service -- July 3, 2008
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, News Director
800-323-8039 ext. 260 -- cobnews@brethren.org

>PEACE WITNESS IS SCHEDULED AT CHURCH OF THE
>BRETHREN ANNUAL CONFERENCE

(July 3, 2008) Elgin, IL -- The Brethren Witness/Washington Office will
lead a public rally for nonviolence at the Church of the Brethren Annual
Conference in Richmond, Va., on the afternoon of July 15.

In partnership with the Richmond Peace Education Center and other
peace groups in the area, the Tuesday afternoon event will call for an end
to the violence of current wars and focus on the need for direct
conversation and mediation with Iran.

The event will begin with a march from the Greater Richmond
Convention Center, stepping off at 4:45 p.m. Participants will begin with
prayer, and then walk to the Richmond City Plaza where they will be
greeted by speakers, music, prayer, and drama. Organizers are Phil
Jones, director of the Brethren Witness/Washington Office, and Adria
Scharf, director of the Richmond Peace Center.

Conference participants are encouraged to join in support of the Church
of the Brethren's 2004 and 2006 resolutions against the Iraq war, and to
witness to 300 years of Brethren heritage as peacemakers. Organizers
hope that Brethren can once again give faithful witness to being a peace
church, and work in faithful partnership with area peacemakers toward a
common goal.

In addition, plans are being made to exhibit the Virginia state "Eyes
Wide Open" display as part of the peace witness. The national display
was featured at Annual Conference in Charleston, W.Va., some years
ago, and included a symbolic display of the boots representing the
American soldiers who had been killed in the Iraq war.

Since then the number of casualties in Iraq has grown to over 4,000, and
the display can no longer be shown in its entirety. Individual states have
developed their own displays. It is planned for the Virginia display to be
at the Conference as a visual memorial to the more than 100 Virginian
men and women who have been killed in Iraq,  as well as the thousands
of Iraqi and ally casualties.

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 more than 125,000
members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and
sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and
India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren General Board
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org

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