A cloth worn by the ZME women’s group of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria
Two Nigerian Brethren groups will be attending the 2015 Annual Conference and touring in the eastern and midwestern districts from June 22-July 16. Lancaster (Pa.) Church of the Brethren is the sponsoring congregation. A 2015 EYN Planning Committee includes members from Lancaster and two other Pennsylvania churches: Elizabethtown Church of the Brethren and Mountville Church of the Brethren. Monroe Good, a former mission worker in Nigeria, is chairing the committee.
The two groups are from Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria): the Brethren Evangelism Support Trust (BEST), a group of businesspeople and professionals; and an EYN Women’s Fellowship Choir. The groups are in the process of getting passports and visas to enter the US this summer.
BEST, which regularly sends groups to visit with the American Brethren, decided this year to invite the EYN Women’s Fellowship Choir to join them. The choir hopes to perform “Appreciation Concerts” in as many Church of the Brethren districts as possible during the three-and-a-half-week visit, according to a letter from the planning committee to the districts. The choir will express EYN’s appreciation for all the support given by the American Brethren during a time of persecution, violence, and hardship in Nigeria.
The women’s choir may number as many as 27 singers if all receive visas, and the two groups together may bring more than 30 Nigerian Brethren to the Annual Conference.
Good reported that the Nigerian groups are looking forward to attending Annual Conference in order to meet many American Brethren and enjoy Christian fellowship together. In addition, the groups hope to visit and share with Church of the Brethren congregations and in homes.
Confirmed dates of the tour are June 22-July 16. The EYN groups will fly in to Washington Dulles Airport on June 22, and begin the tour at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. The tour will proceed west, and will include a visit to the denomination’s General Offices in Elgin, Ill., on June 26. The groups will attend Annual Conference in Tampa, Fla., from July 11-15, and fly back to Nigeria the day after the Conference ends.
The itinerary of the Nigerian groups and dates and locations of concerts will be shared as that information becomes available. For questions contact Monroe Good at 717-391-3614 or ggspinnacle@juno.com .