New Pastor’s Manual in Haitian Creole and French to be used in Haiti and Africa

By Sharon Brugger Norton

What a pleasant surprise, just five minutes before I was planning on leaving my office in Elgin, Ill., to head home to Indiana, to have Heidi Gross knock on the door and hand me copies of the new Pastor’s Manual in French and Haitian Creole. Fresh off the press!

The Pastor’s Manual—titled Manyèl pou Pastè in Haitian Creole and Manuel du Pasteur in French—is composed of excerpts from For All Who Minister, and the timing of these publications from Brethren Press was perfect. I was leaving for a trip to Haiti just four weeks later and I could take a whole box of manuals with me in my baggage for free! Which Brethren doesn’t love saving money?

In Haiti, these manuals will be used by the leaders of the 30 congregations and preaching points of l’Eglise des Freres d’Haiti (the Church of the Brethren in Haiti) or Legliz Frè Yo, as the church is known in Haitian Creole.

In addition to the manuals, I discovered some older print copies of two Galen Hackman books in Creole on Beliefs and Practices of the Church of the Brethren and the History of the Church of the Brethren. These found their way into my suitcase as well.

For related resources:
–The Pastor’s Manual in Spanish also is available from Brethren Press.
— English-language resources are available for free online while print copies of For All Who Minister, a ministers’ manual from Brethren Press, is temporarily out of print. Sections related to key ordinances in the Church of the Brethren are available.

Also pressed into my hands was the French edition of the Pastor’s Manual. These had been long requested by l’Église des Frères in the Democratic Republic of Congo, numbering 34 churches and more than 10,000 members. Although many languages are spoken there, French is the “linga franca,” so to speak. The church plans to use the manuals especially for its newer congregations in Kinshasa as part of training in Brethren identity, practices, and beliefs. The established churches in the eastern part of the country also will use them. These manuals will go in the checked bags of Christian Elliott, retired pastor of Knobsville Church of Brethren in southern Pennsylvania, who will travel to the region in November and deliver them.

A hearty thank you to Brethren Press and the denomination for prioritizing these resources for our global churches.

— Sharon Brugger Norton is executive director of Global Mission for the Church of the Brethren.

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