Brueggemann to Preach for 2012 Annual Conference

Preachers, worship leaders, and music leadership for the daily worship services at the 2012 Annual Conference have been announced by the Conference Office. The 2012 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren takes place in St. Louis, Mo., on July 7-11 next year.

Renowned Lutheran scholar, preacher, and writer Walter Brueggemann will speak for the opening worship service of the Conference on Saturday evening, July 7. Manchester College campus minister and former “Messenger” editor Walt Wiltschek will be worship leader for the service. Brueggemann is a leading interpreter of the Old Testament, currently William Marcellus McPheeters Professor of Old Testament Emeritus at Columbia Theological Seminary. Among his numerous books are “Journey to the Common Good,” “The Prophetic Imagination,” and “Disruptive Grace: Reflections on God, Scripture, and the Church.”

Annual Conference moderator Timothy P. Harvey, pastor of Central Church of the Brethren in Roanoke, Va., will preach on Sunday morning July 8, with moderator-elect Bob Krouse as worship leader.

 
Tim Harvey, moderator of the 2012 Annual Conference, will preach for the Sunday morning worship service next year in St. Louis. Photo by Glenn Riegel

Becky Ball-Miller, an ordained minister and businesswoman from Goshen, Ind., and a member of the denomination’s Mission and Ministry Board, preaches Monday evening July 9. David A. Steele, district executive minister of Middle Pennsylvania District, will lead worship that evening.

On Tuesday evening, July 10, Jennifer Leath of New Haven, Conn., will preach. Katie and Parker Shaw Thompson of Richmond, Ind., will lead worship. Leath is an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in the USA and an ecumenical leader in the field of ethics. Earlier this year she was one of the speakers at a World Council of Churches Central Committee meeting where she shared a strong testimony on issues related to youth and the ecumenical movement.

The closing worship of the Conference on Wednesday morning July 11 will hear a message from Daniel D’Oleo, a leader in the Renacer movement that is planting Spanish-speaking congregations of Brethren in the Virginia area. Angie Lahman Yoder of Peoria, Ariz., will lead worship for the closing service.

Music leadership for the Conference will be provided by music coordinator Dean Sensenig of Ephrata, Pa., along with Conference Choir director Raechel Sittig-Esser of Waterloo, Iowa, and organist Loren Rhodes and pianist Donna Rhodes of Huntingdon, Pa. A children’s choir director is yet to be named.

In other Annual Conference news, the Program and Arrangements Committee has voted to increase by $10 the registration fee for delegates and non-delegates for the 2012 Conference. Districts are mailing the information to their congregations. For more about the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference go to www.brethren.org/ac .

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