Nominations sought for denominational offices

From the Annual Conference Office

Please do your part to nominate people for next year’s Annual Conference ballot. You can help shape the future of the Church of the Brethren! As you pray about this, who comes to mind–whom is the Lord prompting you to nominate for leadership in this Body of Christ?

Please share this request with the leaders and members of your congregation and urge them to submit nominations. Nominees are needed from every part of the church!

The offices to which we will elect leaders this coming year are listed below, along with our election procedures.

More detailed information about each office open for nominations is provided at www.brethren.org/nominations in the “Information about Offices Open for Nomination” document. Please note that some nominations must be made according to specific categories and that certain areas of expertise are needed for some offices. If you know persons who work in one of the areas from which nominees need to come this next year, please make a special effort to prayerfully submit the names of persons you know who can make a valuable contribution to the denomination.

Photo by Glenn Riegel.

Please study the “Call to Accountability” charts, which also can be found online at www.brethren.org/accountability. They show how we are working toward a balance of gender, age, ethnic/racial, rural/urban, and professional representation among our leadership. The delegate body decided many years ago–and has reaffirmed several times–that this is crucial. We need to keep working at it!

Please submit nominations online via the “2023 Nominations” link at www.brethren.org/ac.

Note: You must provide the email address of the person you are nominating, so we can send an email to invite your nominees to submit their information online. We cannot consider those who do not respond. Please follow up with those you nominate to make sure they received our email. Please contact us if they did not.

If you do not have access to the Internet, you may request a paper nomination form from the Annual Conference Office at 847-429-4365 or 800-323-8039 ext. 364.

Submit all nominations by Dec. 1. The earlier, the better!

Thank you for your help. The Nominating Committee depends upon your knowledge of the gifts and availability of diverse persons who can serve. We ask you to be diligent in your prayers and in your discernment of those who can lead and inspire us in our efforts to follow Jesus together.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact the Annual Conference Office at annualconference@brethren.org or 847-429-4364 or 800-323-8039 ext. 364 or the Annual Conference Secretary at acsecretary@brethren.org.

Open for nomination for the 2023 ballot

Moderator-elect: 1 person for a 3-year term. The past four moderators are ineligible: Samuel Sarpiya, Donita Keister, Paul Mundey, David Sollenberger

Annual Conference Program and Arrangements Committee: 1 person for a 3-year term. The member completing a term in 2023 is ineligible: Beth Jarrett

Church of the Brethren Mission and Ministry Board:

From Area 2 (the districts of Northern Ohio, Southern Ohio and Kentucky, Northern Indiana,
South Central Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin): 1 person for a 5-year term

From Area 3 (the districts of Puerto Rico, Shenandoah, Southeastern, Virlina, West Marva; Atlantic Southeast is not eligible because it already has two representatives on the board): 1 person for a 5-year term

Bethany Theological Seminary Board of Trustees:

Laity: 1 person for a 5-year term

Clergy: 1 person for a 5-year term

The Bethany board requests nominees who are aware of the dramatic changes taking place in higher education, especially seminary education; or those who are aware of the issues of division in the denomination and changes in the larger church; or persons of color who can help the seminary have conversations about diversity; or persons who have corporate or executive leadership experience.

Eder Financial Board (formerly Brethren Benefit Trust): 1 person for a 4-year term

The Eder board requests nominees who have experience in finance, investments, or actuarial science working within a complex organizational structure.

On Earth Peace Board: 1 person for a 5-year term

The On Earth Peace board requests nominees who can help “develop and walk with leaders and communities who work for justice and peace.” To participate in the board’s “values-based consensus” decision making process, each board member must complete a specialized 2.5-day training program in anti-racism, for which On Earth Peace covers costs.

Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee, laity: 1 person for a 5-year term

The nominee must be a compensation practitioner from the secular world; see “Information about Offices Open 2023.”

Election procedures

  1. From July until Dec. 1 each year, the Nominating Committee gathers nominations from across the denomination, seeking female and male, younger and older nominees from various professional, rural and urban, geographic locations, perspectives, and skill sets.
  2. The Nominating Committee meets in early January to prepare a ballot of four names for each position. That ballot is distributed only to the current Standing Committee members, who keep that ballot confidential. Standing Committee’s vote reduces the ballot to two nominees per position. This is the tentative final ballot that will be presented at Annual Conference. It is announced to the denomination at large in February.
  3. In fairness to all nominees, any nomination from the floor at Conference must be made by name only at the time the ballot is introduced to the delegate body. Biographical information and written consent by the nominee must be submitted to the Conference secretary at that time for publication and distribution.
  4. Each year the Nominating Committee explains the goals, needs, and procedures of our election process to the Standing Committee and the delegate body. Delegates are reminded to work towards a balance of age/gender/ethnic representation; see the Call to Accountability report at www.brethren.org/accountability. Standing Committee’s 1983 “Call to Accountability of Representation on Annual Conference Ballots” also authorized Nominating Committee to use at-large categories in the structure of ballots to correct any imbalances of representation.
  5. Congregations, districts, and agencies are called to do quality leadership development, giving leadership experience to a wide variety of people to prepare them for possible denominational leadership, in particular to identify and call forth ethnic/minority leadership. All nominees for denominational leadership are encouraged to have participated in at least one intercultural experience in the past five years.

For more information go to www.brethren.org/ac/nominations.

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