Today at Annual Conference – Wednesday, July 6, 2011

 

Photo by Glenn Riegel
Matt Guynn of On Earth Peace opens the final morning business session of the Conference on Wednesday, July 6, by holding up a favorite Brethren bumper sticker: “When Jesus said love your enemies, I think he probably meant don’t kill them.”

 

Quotes of the day

“If nothing else, this year in the Church of the Brethren has caused us to pray.” – Moderator Robert E. Alley, giving closing remarks at the end of the business session this morning

“Like Frodo, I look forward to going home to the shire.” – Moderator Alley, in a reference to the main character of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the hobbit Frodo. He went on to say he is looking forward to time for gardening and researching “genealogical mysteries”

“I always love being called the ‘unfinished business.’” – Tara Hornbacker as she came to the podium to present the moderator’s quilt on behalf of the Association for the Arts in the Church of the Brethren. It was the very end of the business session and moderator-elect Tim Harvey had just noted that there was still one item of unfinished business

Ministry of Reconciliation offers post-Conference version of insight session

It is not too late to participate in the “What Have We Learned from the Special Response Process” insight session offered by On Earth Peace and the Ministry of Reconciliation. Because the extra business session called for Tuesday night at 9 p.m. affected attendance for the insight session, MoR program coordinator Leslie Frye is offering a post-Annual Conference version. The purpose will be to give participants an opportunity to share what they would like to carry forward and what they would like to leave behind from the Special Response process we have been engaged in for the past two years. All are invited to share their reflections on the process (not the outcome, just the process) on a form that is available from Frye, and return it in the next few weeks. Results will be compiled and shared. Contact Leslie Frye, program coordinator, On Earth Peace Ministry of Reconciliation, lfrye@onearthpeace.org , 620-755-3940.

Conference by the numbers

— 3,200 is the final registration number for the 2011 Annual Conference. This number includes 861 delegates as well as nondelegates.

— $3,240 raised in a silent auction of district comforters offered during the first evening of the Conference. The original idea was to donate the comforters to Church World Service (CWS), but after seeing their beauty and quality Conference-goers suggested that a silent auction could raise the money to buy many more blankets for CWS. The total raised by the silent auction will buy 648 CWS blankets.


Moderator Robert Alley receives a quilted wall hanging. Photo by Glenn Riegel

The new moderator and moderator-elect are consecrated for 2012: kneeling at right is moderator Tim Harvey, at left is moderator-elect Bob Krouse. Photo by Regina Holmes

The Church of the Brethren brick in the river walk outside Grand Rapids’ DeVos Convention Center. Photo by Joel Brumbaugh-Cayford

Coverage of the 2011 Annual Conference is by the News Team of Jan Fischer-Bachman, Mandy Garcia, Karen Garrett, Amy Heckert, Regina Holmes, Frank Ramirez, Glenn Riegel, Frances Townsend, and editor and news director Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford. Wendy McFadden serves as executive director of Brethren Press. Contact cobnews@brethren.org

 

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