Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) to various needs in recent weeks. A main focus has been the needs of Ukrainian refugees, with major grants going to Church World Service (CWS) relief focused on Ukrainian refugees sheltering in Moldova, to aid displaced Ukrainians with disabilities through L’Arche International, and to Child Life Disaster Relief programming for an orphanage in Ukraine.
Category: Church of the Brethren Newsline
BFIA grants go to five churches
The Brethren Faith in Action Fund (BFIA) has distributed grants to five congregations in recent months. The fund gives grants to Church of the Brethren congregations and camps using money generated by the sale of the upper campus of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. Find out more at www.brethren.org/faith-in-action.
Brethren Volunteer Service makes changes to placement process, increases monthly stipend
Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) is changing its orientation and placement process. Beginning with the upcoming summer and fall units, volunteers will engage in a process in which they will be pre-placed prior to the start of orientation. Orientation, in turn, will be shortened from three weeks to one week.
Ecumenical faith letter on the US budget is sent to Congress
On June 7, the NCC signed onto a faith letter to the US Congress regarding US budget priorities. Among our partners in this effort were the Alliance of Baptists; American Friends Service Committee; Church of the Brethren, Office of Peacebuilding and Policy; Friends Committee on National Legislation; Pennsylvania Council of Churches; Presbyterian Church (USA); Presbyterian Peace Fellowship; United Methodist Church–General Board of Church and Society; and United Church of Christ, Justice and Local Church Ministries.
Global Food Initiative grants provide agriculture supports in Nigeria, Ecuador, Burundi, and the US
The Global Food Initiative (GFI), a Church of the Brethren fund, has made several grants in these first months of 2022. Funds are supporting agricultural efforts of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and La Fundación Brethren y Unida (FBU-the United and Brethren Foundation), a training workshop related to THARS (Trauma Healing and Reconciliation Services) in Burundi and Eglise des Freres au Congo (the Church of the Brethren in the Democratic Republic of Congo or DRC), and a number of church-related community gardens.
Brethren bits
In this issue: Remembering Donna Forbes Steiner, personnel note, ULV announces new mural showing “Our Citrus Roots,” Brethren Voices remembers Chuck Boyer, and more.
Zechariah Houser resigns as coordinator of short-term service
Zechariah Houser has resigned as the Church of the Brethren’s coordinator of short-term service, effective Aug. 12. He has worked for the denomination for close to a year, having started on Aug. 9, 2021. He will be entering a chaplaincy internship.
Shipments from Material Resources send relief aid to Europe and the Caribbean
Material Resource staff Scott Senseney and Jeffrey Brown loaded three 40-foot containers with a total of 1,120 bales of Lutheran World Relief Quilts, shipping them to the Republic of Georgia. The two men are on the staff of the Material Resources program based at warehouse facilities at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.
CDS team continues work in Uvalde, has opportunity to meet President and Dr. Biden
Six CRC-trained CDS volunteers have been in Uvalde for the past week and to date have had 157 child contacts during their time in the Family Assistance Center.
Book study to address complex emotional landscape of family systems in churches
Part-Time Pastor; Full-Time Church is hosting a 10-week discussion centered on the book How Your 21st Century Church Family Works by Peter Steinke. Based on Family Systems Theory pioneered by Murray Bowen and further developed and applied in the religious context by Edwin Friedman, Steinke discusses emotional systems, anxiety, generational transfer, and the forces that draw us together and keep us apart.