wfn.org | Newsline: 300th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE BEGINS IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

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

Church of the Brethren Newsline -- July 13, 2008
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, Director of News Services
cobnews@brethren.org

300th ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE BEGINS IN RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

July 13, 2008 (Richmond, Va.) -- A conference celebrating the 300th  Anniversary of the Church of the Brethren and of the Brethren Church has  begun in Richmond, Va. The Conference began yesterday, July 12, and  continues through Wednesday, July 16. (Go to www.brethren.org for daily  coverage online.)

This marks a historic occasion as the first joint annual meeting of these  two Brethren denominations since a schism of the Brethren movement in the  1880s. The event also is the Church of the Brethren's 222nd recorded  Annual Conference.

A highpoint of the Conference takes place this morning, with a joint  worship service between the Church of the Brethren and the Brethren  Church, where organizers expecting up to 6,000 people. The worship service  will take place at the Richmond Coliseum.

The Church of the Brethren and the Brethren Church both stem from the  Brethren movement that began in 1708 in the village of Schwarzenau,  Germany, when the eight founders of the movement were baptized in the Eder  River. Alexander Mack Sr. was the leader of the first eight Brethren.

During the 1880s, the church then called the German Baptist Brethren  experienced a three-way schism over divisive issues of the time such as  education and church publications. The Old German Baptist Brethren split  off in 1881. The Progressive Brethren were separated out in 1882, and in  1883 adopted the name the Brethren Church. The group that remained adopted  the name Church of the Brethren in 1908.

The cooperative planning for this 300th Anniversary Conference represents  the largest such effort between the Church of the Brethren and the  Brethren Church. The Conference has been planned as a joint effort by the  300th Anniversary committees of the two denominations.

Other major points of cooperation over the years have been joint mission  work in Nigeria, beginning in 1944, when a number of Brethren Church  missionaries worked in conjunction with the Church of the Brethren mission  program. In the 1940s, the two denominations worked together in peace  witness and war-time agencies, along with mission and relief programs. The  Brethren Encyclopedia Board was formed in the 1970s, and in addition to  publishing the "Brethren Encyclopedia" covering all Brethren bodies, has  continued to function as an informal cooperative fellowship among Brethren  today.

Over 300 years the Brethren movement has grown, and the faith descendants  of that first group of eight now number in the hundreds of thousands, and  may be found on most continents. The two largest bodies are the Church of  the Brethren in the US and Puerto Rico, with about 127,500 members in  1,064 congregations, and Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (Church of the  Brethren in Nigeria), which now outnumbers the American church.

The Brethren Church headquartered in Ashland, Ohio, has close to 10,400  members in 119 congregations, and has an emphasis on international  mission.

Other bodies that descend from the Schwarzenau Brethren include the Old  German Baptist Brethren Church, which is a "plain" church with about 6,300  members in 56 congregations; the Fellowship of Grace Brethren Churches  with about 30,400 members in 260 congregations; and other smaller bodies  including the Conservative Grace Brethren Churches International, the  Dunkard Brethren Church, and the Old Brethren. (Membership statistics from  the "Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches 2008.")

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. It is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith  traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches.

># # #

>CONTACTS:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford		Lerry Fogle
>Director of News Services		Executive Director
>Church of the Brethren General Board	Church of the Brethren Annual  Conference
>224-735-9692 (cell)			804-343-6641 or -6642 (onsite  office in Richmond)
>cobnews@brethren.org		lfogle_ac@brethren.org