In this issue: Personnel notes, McPherson College seeks a spiritual life coordinator, Bethany president Jeff Carter to represent the Brethren at World Council of Churches Central Committee, Brethren Disaster Ministries seeks volunteers to go to St. Thomas US Virgin Islands, “Voices of Conscience: Peace Witness in the Great War” exhibit to be at the Brethren Heritage Center, the Global Day of Prayer to End Famine is set for Sunday, June 10, and more.
The Leadership Team of the Church of the Brethren will be seeking Standing Committee affirmation to withdraw the new business item titled “Change in Delegate Representation at Annual Conference” due to an oversight in process.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has sent a new team to Hawaii to continue the response to the volcanic eruption that was begun by local volunteers Petie Brown and Randy Kawate. The American Red Cross had requested a CDS team to respond on the Big Island of Hawaii. The new team arrived at the Pahoa shelter on Wednesday, June 6.
From the early 1980s, I have fond memories of the nice young lady asking for volunteers at a small college in western North Carolina. I raised my hand and volunteered to work for hours beside her, and a big draft horse. Little did I know I’d spend several days hand cutting sorghum cane on the steep slopes of a Virginia mountain farm.
The Centre for Caring, Empowerment, and Peace Initiatives (CCEPI) Humanitarian Analysis project tells many stories. Dr. Rebecca S. Dali started the non-governmental organization (NGO) 29 years ago, in 1989 before Boko Haram violence began to plague northern Nigeria. She started CCEPI because she herself experienced hunger, gender-based violence, and extreme poverty growing up. Her passion for those struggling to live in northeast Nigeria led Dali to provide livelihood, trauma healing, protection monitoring, as well as basic food, clothing, and shelter, and most recently re-integration of abducted women into society.
Devastated church denomination Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) has organized a day-long Interfaith Peace Conference in Yola, the state capital of Adamawa State. President of the denomination, Joel S. Billi, spoke at the occasion urged participants from the major religions, Christians and Muslims, to be ambassadors of peace.
Kathy Fry-Miller is retiring as associate director of Children’s Disaster Services (CDS), effective Sept. 13. She began leading CDS on Feb. 1, 2014, working from her home in North Manchester, Ind., and from the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md.
ANNUAL CONFERENCE PREVIEW
1) Living parables: A preview of Annual Conference 2018
2) Conference business ranges from changes in delegate representation to a new vision for mission to creation care and more
NEWS
3) ‘New and Renew’ conference: Reflections from one participant
4) Children’s Disaster Services volunteers respond to Hawaii eruption
5) Bethany Seminary holds commencement
6) Brethren attend ‘Reclaiming Jesus’ event in nation’s capital
7) Ecumenical delegation visits North Korea
PERSONNEL
8) Todd Bauer ends service with BVS as Latin America coordinator
9) Fellowship of Brethren Homes announces leadership transition
UPCOMING EVENTS
10) Sixth Brethren World Assembly set for August in Indiana
11) Brethren bits
In this issue: Remembering John Crumley, personnel notes, job openings, commissioning materials for Workcampers, prayer requested for tensions between Dominicans and Haitians in the DR, new podcasts from Frederick Church of the Brethren and Dunker Punks, Brethren Woods celebrates 60 years, “Farm to Table Dinners” at Shepherd’s Spring, and more.
On May 17-19, with a pre-conference worship service on May 16, people from across the country met at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind., to worship and renew. The event was “New and Renew: Revitalize, Plant, Grow,” the Church of the Brethren’s church planting and church development conference for 2018. The event was sponsored and organized by the Discipleship Ministries (formerly Congregational Life Ministries) of the Church of the Brethren.
