— Job opening: Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) is hiring an event coordinator to manage the administrative logistics and planning of major annual events including the Joint Advocacy Summit. This is a hybrid position with some time required in the Washington, D.C., office. CMEP is a partner organization for the Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuilding and Policy. Find the full job description and how to apply.
— The Shine curriculum from Brethren Press and MennoMedia is inviting Sunday school leaders to register to join a Shine Everywhere Circle for the Winter season. These Zoom groups help teachers focus on how to help parents adopt the new materials available from Shine this year, and circles will be offered every quarter for Fall, Winter and Spring. “Circle participants say they gained inspiration and ideas for Shine Curriculum in their Circle gathering,” said the announcement. “It’s wonderful to meet with folks and hear their enthusiasm for sharing faith with children with Shine! We meet for just an hour, but you’ll leave with so much value.” Participation is free. The only requirement is to be a user of Shine: Living in God’s Light curriculum. Register by Oct. 26.
— A new issue of On Earth Peace’s Agape magazine for children is now available. “Our 11th issue explores the topic of disability and how to support belonging in our communities!” said an announcement. “The magazine includes articles, activities, and book suggestions…. Helping those around you feel safe and welcomed is a daily choice, especially when some of us are regularly pushed to the sidelines. People with disabilities often miss out on fun activities or cool opportunities because their needs aren’t recognized. This is called inaccessibility. Together we’ll learn to recognize when someone is being excluded due to disability and how to help in ways that prioritize the person’s wants and respect their needs. Remember, everyone deserves to belong—including you! That’s why this issue also includes a letter of encouragement, tools for processing big feelings, and helpful ways to express personal boundaries.”
— Also from On Earth Peace is an announcement of the agency’s first collectable Christmas ornaments. “A fundraising initiative of the On Earth Peace Board of Directors, proceeds will support On Earth Peace in honoring the birth of Jesus as the organization lives out its value of Jesus-centered spirituality by following Jesus into the work of justice and peace,” said the announcement. “We hope that this ornament serves as a reminder for you that in this world, despite the despair and hopelessness, let’s choose courage. Let’s choose love. Let’s choose to honor and follow the teachings of Jesus to better ourselves and the world around us.” The ornament commemorates On Earth Peace’s 2026 Annual Poster Report titled “My Voice Is my Superpower,” with an illustration by an On Earth Peace intern.
Save the date! The dates for the 2027 National Older Adult Conference (NOAC) have been announced. The next NOAC will take place on Sept. 6-10, 2027.
Religion News Service (RNS) has started an online tracker for immigration court cases involving religious groups. “The Religion and Immigration Litigation Tracker follows federal lawsuits involving religious groups, individual faith leaders and the second Trump administration over the administration’s immigration policies,” said a description. Tracker includes the court case in which the Church of the Brethren is a plaintiff, Mennonite Church USA v. DHS, among many others. RNS partnered with the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Union Theological Seminary in New York to build the tracker. If the tracker has missed any cases or needs updates, please email tips@religionnews.com. Find the tracker
— York Center Church of the Brethren in Lombard, Ill., is planning a 75th anniversary celebration on Oct. 18 during and after worship. According to the Illinois and Wisconsin District newsletter, “pictures and mementos from past years are being collected, and the congregation has been sharing photos and memories from past directories as far back as 1970 in anticipation of the event.”
— Manassas (Va.) Church of the Brethren and the Forgetful Friends Chorus has been featured on the AARP website. The article titled “Helping People with Dementia Reconnect through Music” interviews Connie Young and Susan Dommer under the subtitle, “How two women created a choral community for caregivers and their loved ones, providing comfort and joy in song. The interview by Nora Rappaport was published on Sept. 16. Young “is a retired virologist who lives in Gainesville, Virginia,” the article report, and Susan Dommer “is musical director at the Manassas Church of the Brethren and leads the Greater Manassas Children’s Choir.” Dommer told the interviewer that “there’s extensive research about music and the brain. We know that in dementia patients, response to music is one of the last things to leave. People’s speech may be gone, but when they hear the right music, they can sing.” Young told about how, after her mother died, she was inspired by the Giving Voice Chorus in St. Paul, Minn., in which people with dementia and their caregivers sing together. She shared that with Dommer, who responded, “I’m in!” They started the Forgetful Friends Chorus in 2016, and now perform several times a year at senior centers and memory care units.
— Reading (Pa.) Church of the Brethren was one of the churches participating in Alliance Area Habitat for Humanity, which dedicated an Apostle Build home in August and plans to finish another in November. According to an article in the Canton Repository, the first home went to the Huber Family, which includes Joe Huber and Kayla Vogelsong-Huber and their children. Find the full story
The Illinois and Wisconsin District office in Lombard, Ill., has a new phone number: 630-576-0276, ext. 800. Callers also can still contact district executive minister Walt Wiltschek on his cell phone as before.
— Shenandoah District has announced final results from its 2026 Disaster Auction. “Director of Finance, Gary Higgs, has reported that the 2026 Disaster Auction net profit was $183,250.40. The funds will be used for the support of Disaster Relief Trips and supplies for Disaster Response.”
— The 2026 retreat of the Church of the Brethren Outdoor Ministries Association (OMA) will take place Nov.15-19 at Camp Harmony near Hooversville, Pa. The retreat brings together Brethren camping leaders of all levels to gather for professional growth, faith formation, and outdoor ministry community development. The theme, “Torchbearers,” is inspired by Matthew 5:14-16. The keynote speaker will be Jolene Regetta, a licensed professional counselor, former public school teacher, and life-long camp servant. The retreat includes workshops, Bible study, meditations, games, meals, and more. Cost is $215 for OMA camp members, $240 for non-members. Learn more and register
— The Brethren Heritage Center in Brookville, Ohio, is sponsoring a presentation on “Brethren Life in 1776” on Oct. 10 at the Ridge Church in Brookville. “Brother Sam Funkhouser will share some of the struggles and successes of Brethren families in eastern Pennsylvania in their early years in the freedoms America offered,” said an announcement. For more information
— Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT), which got its start as an initiative of the peace churches including the Church of the Brethren, is marking its 40th anniversary this year. To celebrate this milestone, CPT is hosting a special online gathering on Saturday, Sept. 26, at 11 a.m. (central time) that will bring together stories spanning four decades of peacemaking, solidarity, and transforming violence and oppression. The theme is “Rooted in community, rising in resistance” with keynote speaker Judy Da Silva, Anishinaabe Elder and Water Protector from Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation. Register here
— Church World Service’s “State of Play” newsletter on immigration concerns this week reported that ICE arrests continue to soar. Citing a Reuters report, the newsletter said that ICE arrests “jumped to almost 51,000 in August, setting a record for the third month in a row.” The newsletter this week also reported a sharp increase in deportation removal flights from the US. “In August, Human Rights First’s ICE Flight Monitor tracked 325 removal flights to 40 countries, a 35 percent increase from a year ago. Forced third country transfers reached a record high: 16 flights to 13 countries, including removal flights carrying third country nationals to Liberia, Burundi, and Saint Lucia for the first time. Nearly 40 percent of all removal flights were to Mexico, and about a third to Guatemala and Honduras. Flights to Haiti are now occurring weekly rather than monthly, even as the State Department maintains a ‘Level 4 – Do Not Travel’ advisory due to crime, terrorism, kidnapping, unrest, and limited health care.” Find State of Play
— Church at the Crossroads, an annual conference focused on the experience of the indigenous Palestinian Christian community in Israel and Palestine, takes place on Nov. 5-7 in Atlanta, Ga. Churches for Middle East Peace (CMEP) partners with the Bethlehem Institute for Peace and Justice to hold the event. CMEP is a partner organization for the Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuilding and Policy. “Rooted in Scripture and kingdom-focused theology, this conference invites participants to wrestle honestly with biblical questions, hear directly from the indigenous Church in the Holy Land, and discover faithful discipleship in a violent world,” said an announcement. Find out more and register
— A webinar from Creation Justice Ministries launched the Season of Creation earlier this month, and is now available on YouTube. “Our special guest, Queen Quet, is the Chieftess and Head-of-State of the Gullah/Geechee Nation,” said an announcement from Creation Justice Ministries, which is a partner organization for the Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuilding and Policy. “The Gullah/Geechee Nation exists from Jacksonville, NC to Jacksonville, FL. It encompasses all of the Sea Islands and thirty to thirty-five miles inland to the St. John’s River. Queen Quet was elected by the Gullah/Geechee Nation as the first ever Chieftess and Head-Of-State in 2000 and is presently serving her third term. We were honored to have her share about the Gullah/Geechee’s spiritual and cultural connection to water. Watch the webinar
— Creation Justice Courses also are being offered now by Creation Justice Ministries. “This is a new online learning platform for anyone wrestling with what faith asks of us in a warming world, what the church’s role is in this moment, and what it truly means to be called to steward creation,” said an announcement. “Rooted in the wisdom of Black, Indigenous, and other often marginalized traditions, we are building a home to explore perspectives, deepen understanding, and help contextualize the road ahead.” The first featured course in the series, titled “Is a River Sacred?” uses the book “Is a River Alive?” by Robert Macfarlane and will be led by Derrick Weston, director of Theological Education and Formation, and Father Pete Nunnally, of Water and Wilderness Church. The online course is offered on Sept. 21 and 28 at 7 p.m. (Eastern time) with an Oct. 5 screening of the documentary Riverkeepers, on the fight for environmental justice for Atlanta’s South River. Participants choose the pricing level most comfortable for them. Learn more and register
— “This week we added more than 240 names to the Lives Honored page on our website,” announced Heeding God’s Call to End Gun Violence, an organization based in Pennsylvania that got its start with help from the three historic peace churches including the Church of the Brethren. Under the title, “Every name. Every age. Every date,” the announcement reported that the new online listing includes “every known victim of gun murder in Bucks, Chester, and Montgomery Counties [of Pennsylvania], listed with their ages and the dates they were taken from us. Some entries simply read ‘Minor’s Name Withheld.’ They were children. They are counted too.” The organization invites visits to the page, and requests, “Pray over these names. Every one of them was somebody’s whole world.”
— “Peace cannot be built on an economy that runs on war,” said a release from the World Council of Churches (WCC) on a late August consultation in Panama City with NIFEA, the churches’ campaign for a New International Financial and Economic Architecture. At the consultation, “churches set out an economy of peace for a militarized world” with the release of a theological communique that “asks governments to redirect military spending toward poverty and climate, and it asks the churches to move their own money first.” The communique addresses “what the churches see, what they affirm, and what they commit to do.” The release reported, in part, that the churches “see first that the war economy is not an accident. ‘The economy we inherit was designed to extract, and it does so with precision, producing profits for the already-powerful and losses for the already-vulnerable.’” The report cited staggering statistics including that military expenditure reached $2.887 trillion in 2025, the 11th consecutive year of growth and the highest on record, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. And military activity accounts for up to 6 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Scientists for Global Responsibility and the Conflict and Environment Observatory. The communique also asserts that “fossil fuelled, financialised capitalism is not a neutral economic arrangement but an ethical, moral, and theological problem.” The communique also affirms that what churches want “is a just peace ‘built from the ground up rather than imposed from above.’” Churches are asked to move their money out of the war economy and into renewable energy and community-rooted vehicles such as local currencies, community banks, and debt-for-social-investment swaps, and to press for a global 2 percent tax on billionaires, a 25 percent minimum corporate tax, debt cancellation, and living or peace wages. Read the communique
— Also new from the WCC are a liturgy, reflection, and prayers for the World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel 2026, which runs from Sept. 20-26. With a focus on protecting children, the theme this year is from Psalms 127:3, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord.” The resources are adaptable to diverse church contexts. The WCC is encouraging church organizations, congregations, and people of faith to bear a common witness by participating in prayer services, educational events, and acts of support for children lost in the war, left without parents, traumatized, and afraid. Find links to the worship resources
— A historical review of the former Walhalla Civilian Public Service (CPS) Camp has been published by the Ludington (Mich.) Daily News and Shoreline Media, written by Shanna Avery. Originally built in 1934 as a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) Camp for young men planting trees in the Manistee National Forest, during World War II it was turned into CPS Camp 30 to house conscientious objectors, and eventually German prisoners of war, Avery reported. “The camp was operated by the Brethren Service Committee (created by the Church of the Brethren, which emphasised peace, simplicity and involvement in humanitarian relief.) By 1942, it was one of 12 camps operated by the Brethren Service Committee…one of 42 camps operated by the Selective Service Board at Washington. CPS camps were a joint operation between Church of the Brethren, the Mennonites and Society of Friends (each traditionally peace churches) fulfilling the Selective Service and Training act of the 1940s requiring those rejecting military service to complete other national service.” Read the full article
— Canton (Ill.) Church of the Brethren member and professional storm chaser Colin Davis will present “Storm Chasing: Or Why I Am the Way I Am” on Sept. 22 at 6 p.m. at the Farmington Area Public Library. The announcement in the Illinois and Wisconsin District newsletter reported that “he will look at the history of storm chasing, what it’s actually like to spend days on the road following storms, and share about some of the best (and craziest) storms he’s had the chance to witness and document over the years, ‘from Tornado Alley to right here at home.’”
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