Annual Conference by the Numbers

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  2,439 — the registration total for the 2016 Annual Conference, including 704 delegates and 1,735 nondelegates

• $68,516 — the total received in offerings taken onsite during the Conference worship services. More offerings may have been made online during the webcasts of worship, and those gifts are not included in this total. Of this amount, $23,043.59 was given to the Nigeria Crisis Fund for use in the joint Nigeria Crisis Response of the Church of the Brethren and Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria); close to $26,000 was given to the denomination’s Core Ministries; and about $19,500 was given to fund the ministry of Annual Conference.

• 8,753 — the total number of people attending Conference worship services in person in Greensb oro, from Wednesday through Sunday. A final estimate of the number of people who participated in Conference worship as a “virtual” congregation via log-ins to the webcasts of worship is not yet available.

• 161 — the number of people who participated in the Conference blood drive, donating an estimated total of 160 pints of blood. The American Red Cross reported that these donations will impact some 466 people, because about 3 people are impacted per pint. The Red Cross had issued a bulletin for the Greensboro area that the need for blood donations reached a crucial point, and elective surgeries were beginning to be delayed as a result.

• $2,793.24 — cash donations to the Backpack Beginnings program that aids schoolchildren in need in Greensboro, which was part of the Annual Conference “Witness to the Host City” this year. Also given was $815 in cash donations to the Encore Boutique, a thrift store that aids participants in a job training program.

• $10,050 — the amount raised by the AACB Quilt Auction for world hunger relief. The annual quilt auction sponsored by the Association for the Arts in the Church of the Brethren also raised $877 in a silent auction of Nigerian dresses, and $2,000 given toward “Gifts of the Heart.”

• $7,300-plus — the amount raised for Heifer International during the Ted & Co. production of “12 Baskets and a Goat,” which was one of the activities available to Conference-goers during Friday’s “Jubilee Afternoon.” As of last report, donations continued to be received online to this effort.

The 2016 Annual Conference News Team includes: writers Frank Ramirez, Frances Townsend, Karen Garrett, Tyler Roebuck, Monica McFadden; photographers Glenn Riegel, Regina Holmes, Keith Hollenberg, Donna Parcell, Laura Brown; Conference Journal editor Eddie Edmonds; web manager Jan Fischer Bachman; web staff Russ Otto; editor Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.