Photo by Ken Wenger Karen Garrett takes notes during an evening hearing.

Hearing focuses questions on recommendation for merged ‘Church of the Brethren, USA’
Conference attendees got the chance to dialogue with and question members of the Review and Evaluation Committee at a hearing on Saturday night. The committee, which was mandated by the 2005 Annual Conference to expand its review of the existing denominational organization structure to include the agencies reporting to Annual Conference, has presented a 10-page report which includes 10 recommended actions to be taken.

The longest recommendation, and the one that garnered the most response, is item one, which suggests “the merger of the General Board and the Association of Brethren Caregivers into one incorporated legal entity entitled ‘The Church of the Brethren, U.S.A.’”

Fielding questions at the session were three of the five members of the committee and Stan Noffsinger, general secretary of the General Board, who was in the audience.

Several people voiced concern over the proposed name of the merged entity, saying the name “U.S.A.” was a “red flag” for congregations, especially considering that the Brethren formed in opposition to state churches, and in light of the peace position in a time of war. One attendee observed that, “Our God is not a national god and our church should not be a national church.”

--Sarah Leatherman Young

Photo by Regina Roberts Members of the Brethren Medical Plan Study Committee listen closely to concerns expressed at a hearing.

Photo by Regina Roberts A hearing on the Brethren Medical Plan received many emotional speeches from pastors who fear loss of health insurance.

Brethren Medical Plan study committee fields tough questions
The Brethren Medical Plan Study Committee faced impassioned and emotional speeches from pastors who may lose health insurance if recommendations regarding the plan are approved by the delegate body, at its hearing Saturday evening.

Fielding questions such as why the committee did not consider a way to include all Church of the Brethren members in the plan, why the ministers’ group is being considered separately from the groups of agency employees, why it is being recommended that the plan continue for agencies and not pastors, and what will pastors who are considered uninsurable do for coverage. A repeated foundational question was why the denomination--along with many congregations and pastors, and Brethren organizations such as colleges who already have left the plan--have lost a sense of accountability to mutuality in caring for each other.

Committee members and staff of Brethren Benefit Trust, which manages the plan, explained that participation in the plan by pastors, congregations, and Brethren organizations has declined to the point where it is no longer viable. A member of the BBT board added that to cover pastors who may prove uninsurable, the denomination will need to consider support of health coverage as a ministry and assign funding to it. “A solution requires the agreement of everyone to fund this issue,” he said. BBT does understand and cares about the fact that there are those who will be unable to obtain coverage if the plan is ended, he said. “Don’t think that we had our heads in the sand, because we certainly did not.”

Committee members responded to some questions by explaining that the scope of the work was very contained, and repeatedly referred to the basic financial situation and participation requirements for a health insurance plan to succeed. One committee member said that at the beginning of their work, which covered two years, the group felt enthusiastic about prospects and had a view of the larger picture of needs in the denomination; however as the work progressed, they realized that their mandate was much more constrictive.

At the hearing, some attendees made repeated calls for the denomination to care for its pastors. “We as pastors are really getting the short end of the stick,” said one person, who added a call for prayer for a strong denominational leader along the lines of Dan West to come up with a creative solution to the problem.

The committee also received suggestions for its recommendations to include a call for a national health care plan. “Perhaps as we look into the fear of not having health care,” said a pastor, “maybe we’ll open our pulpits to this issue that our population faces.”

--Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford

We know it’s only rock and roll...but we like it!
Judging by the dozens of Brethren in line for admission Saturday morning at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum, there must be a little boogie hidden under our bonnets.

Photo by Becky Young Hoatland Vickie Samland, General Board member from Colorado, heads off to visit the "Rock Hall."

The “Rock Hall,” as locals call it, is just two blocks from the Cleveland Convention Center--where Annual Conference is meeting--and hard to miss with its glass pyramid building rising on the shore of Lake Erie.

Those who plan to visit, especially with children or teens, should take seriously the warning of the museum that it contains “PG-rated” content in some displays. After all, it seeks to archive the music of protest, revolution, the “Summer of Love,” in all of its outrageousness.

That having been said, there are religious and spiritual influences to be found in the Rock Hall, too. Chief curator Jim Henke recommends that Brethren look for the following “religious artifacts”:

• The Early Influences wall audio display
• James Brown’s obituary
• The Gospel, Soul, and Rhythm & Blues cases
• The Santana material in the San Francisco case
• The “Concert for Bangladesh” film
• The Rave On case display on Little Richard, Les Paul, Dion and Sam Cooke
• The Elvis wall
• The Jungle Gym/U2 display

--Sarah Leatherman Young

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