Brethren bits for June 4, 2021

— Remembrance: Martha Anne Bowman, 83, of Chester Township near North Manchester, Ind., a former Church of the Brethren mission worker in Nigeria, died May 24. She was born April 2, 1938, to Morgan and Nora June (Blough) Yoder in Somerset County, Pa. She attended Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va. She married Robert C. Bowman on July 24, 1960. She joined her husband as the pastor’s wife in Easton, Md., Pleasant Valley and Barren Ridge in Augusta County, Va., and Ephrata, Pa. For three years, 1966 to 1969, the family lived in northeast Nigeria, where her husband was a Bible and theology teacher in a secondary school and she worked in education at the Waka Schools of the Church of the Brethren Mission in Nigeria. They lived in Scotland for a year after completing their term of service in Nigeria, and then lived for some seven years in Elgin, Ill., where her husband served on the denominational staff of the Church of the Brethren, in the Parish Ministries Commission. After their children were grown, she completed her college education at Bridgewater (Va.) College in 1993 and soon after began teaching in the Manchester Community School system. She was a member and faithful supporter of Manchester Church of the Brethren. She is survived by her husband and their children Christopher (Sherry Clark), Jonathan (Joyce Waggoner), Mary Elizabeth “Molly” (Kenneth Greene), and Joseph-Daniel “Jd” (Rebecca Dilley), grandchildren, and a great-grandchild.

— The Church of the Brethren seeks applicants for the position of assistant coordinator of the FaithX ministry in the Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) office at the denomination’s General Offices in Elgin, Ill. FaithX (formerly the Workcamp Ministry) offers summertime short-term service events for junior and senior high youth and young adults. The assistant coordinator serves as a BVS volunteer with both administrative and practical ministry responsibilities. The first three-quarters of the year is spent preparing for FaithX events including choosing an annual theme, preparing promotional materials, writing and designing a devotional book and leaders’ resources, setting up financial spreadsheets, setting up and maintaining a registration database, sending letters to participants and leaders, making site visits, collecting forms and paperwork, and other administrative work. During the summer, the assistant coordinator travels from location to location, serving as onsite coordinator of FaithX events with responsibility for overall administration including housing, transportation, food, work assignments, and recreation, and also often responsibility for planning and leading devotional, educational, and group activities. As a BVSer, the assistant coordinator lives at the Elgin BVS Community House. Required skills, gifts, and experience include experience in youth ministry, passion for Christian service, an understanding of mutual ministry–both giving and receiving, spiritual and emotional maturity, organizational and office skills, physical stamina and the ability to travel well. Preferred skills and experience include previous FaithX or workcamp experience as a leader or participant, and computer skills including experience with Microsoft Office, Word, Excel, Access, and Publisher. For more information or to request an application, contact BVS director Emily Tyler at etyler@brethren.org or 847-429-4396.

The National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA (NCC) is today, June 4, marking National Gun Violence Awareness Day.

“People are wearing orange to honor the victims and survivors of gun violence and to call attention to this crisis,” said the NCC newsletter. “The facade of the Washington National Cathedral will be lit orange this evening in honor of the over 100,000 Americans killed and injured in the United States every year by gun violence. The cathedral’s Bourdon Bell will ring 120 times at 9 pm ET, once for every American who dies from gunfire on the average day in the United States. This lighting is sponsored by the Cathedral Congregation’s Gun Violence Prevention Ministry and it will not be livestreamed. Survivors of gun violence are honored each year on the first weekend in June because friends of Hadiya Pendleton wore orange and asked everyone to stand up and speak up about gun violence on what would have been her 18th birthday if had she not been shot and killed in Chicago at age 15. For over 50 years, the NCC has called for basic common-sense changes to our gun laws that have not been enacted and they are far beyond overdue. We reaffirm, as we did in our 1967 statement, that the God-given ‘right to life’ is fundamental and sacred and hold that it is not possible to protect life and maintain public order when individuals have unregulated access to firearms.”

Find a link to the Church of the Brethren’s most recent statement on gun violence, “Lukewarm No More: A Call for Repentance and Action on Gun Violence,” adopted by the denomination’s Mission and Ministry Board in 2018, at www.brethren.org/mmb/statements.

The Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) got a “shout out” on Facebook from Martin Hutchison this week. The post thanked the GFI and director Jeff Boshart for a grant providing the initial $3,500 of the $6,000-plus expense for a new community garden project. The GFI grant was given to Community of Joy Church of the Brethren in Salisbury, Md., to build a hoop house on the property of an alternative school. Also thanked were Choices Academy for their volunteer work, and additional funding partners the Opportunity Shop and Together Café and its tip jar. “My heart is full,” Hutchison wrote. “It has been a long trying journey but the day is here and next week we will finish it mostly.”

— Southern Ohio and Kentucky District’s Camping and Retreat Ministries has announced that the virtual camps planned for this summer will not be held due to very low registration numbers. “Many hours of planning and preparation and the hours volunteers had committed to have a successful camping season did not match up positively with the numbers of enrollment of campers,” the announcement said. “Zoom camp has lost its appeal.” The ministry is, however, planning to host two in-person gatherings for everyone in the district on two Sunday evenings–June 27 and July 25–from 4-7 p.m. at Salem Church of the Brethren. The events will include games, a free picnic supper, and evening vespers. Also, an in-person Pieceful Quilting Camp will be held at Bergamo from Aug. 18-21.

— Camp Pine Lake in Northern Plains District was awarded an environmental grant from the Church of the Brethren Outdoor Ministries Association. The funds were used to plant a pollinator garden beneath a set of solar panels.

— Virtual tours of the Holy Land are offered by Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP), of which the Church of the Brethren is a member denomination. Upcoming online tours are offered in partnership with MEJDI tours, including “three virtual tours of Jerusalem, each focused on a different Christian faith tradition: Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and a tour featuring the Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem,” said the announcement. “The tours will feature key voices and highlight sites and locations specific to each communion. This is a great opportunity to support the tourism industry in Israel/Palestine, which has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition, CMEP is able to offer private virtual events and experiences for congregations and community groups, “scheduled for a time that works for your community,” said the announcement. “Whether you want to have a casual evening of experiencing the culture of the Middle East or host an in-depth discussion on the religious history of the land, current theological conversations, and the root causes of the recent war in Israel and Palestine, CMEP is eager and willing to support the work you are doing in your community.”

Find out more about virtual tours and journeys offered through CMEP at https://cmep.salsalabs.org/CMEPJourneys2021/index.html.