“A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” –Matthew 2:18
A pastoral letter for a time of grief and fear
Uncategorized
Newsline for Feb. 8, 2018
NEWS
1) Paul Mundey and Pam Reist top Annual Conference ballot for 2018
2) Congregational Life Ministries issues invitation to a conversation about white supremacy
3) Church of the Brethren and EYN volunteers intermingle in Nigeria church rebuilding
4) ConocoPhillips resumes in-person annual shareholder meetings with Internet availability
5) UN implementing plan of action for religious leaders to prevent incitement to violence
6) Global Women’s Project helps EYN women attend Bethany extension courses
7) Forty years of the Global Women’s Project
UPCOMING EVENTS
8) Church planting conference has new name, new focus
9) Speakers for National Youth Conference are announced
10) Midwestern districts sponsor conference on biblical authority
REFLECTION
11) Just by our being there: Reflections on a workcamp in Nigeria
12) Brethren bits
Brethren bits for Feb. 8, 2018
In this issue: Remembrance, personnel notes, job openings, goats distributed in Nigeria, prayer for Syria, tell the government your service story, BVS featured in Dunker Punks podcast, Pottstown 100th anniversary, and more news by, for, and about Brethren.
Just by our being there: Reflections on a workcamp in Nigeria
One of the older Nigerian workcampers came up to me in our second week in Michika and said, “You are an inspiration. If you can leave your comfortable lives to come here and work with us, then I too can come out of my home to work on my church.”
Church of the Brethren and EYN volunteers intermingle in Nigeria church rebuilding
In continued work together to rebuild the devastated church denomination in Nigeria, members of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) and the Church of the Brethren in the US converged at the tumble-down church building of EYN’s LCC No. 1, Michika congregation in Adamawa State. This is the place where EYN president Joel Billi pastored until Sept. 7, 2014, when the church was attacked, and some members were killed. Assistant pastor Yahaya Ahmadu was shot to death and the entire church structure including the pastorium, offices, schools, library, stores, church building, and property, was set ablaze by the Islamist Jihadists known as Boko Haram.
Speakers for National Youth Conference are announced
Church of the Brethren Newsline February 8, 2018 Registration opened in mid-January for the 2018 National Youth Conference (NYC) planned for July 21-26 in Fort Collins, Colo. As of Feb. 8, 1,067 youth, advisors, staff, and volunteers have registered–but many more are expected before registration closes on April 30. NYC is offered every four years for youth
Midwestern districts sponsor conference on biblical authority
Six midwestern districts of the Church of the Brethren including Illinois and Wisconsin, Michigan, Northern Indiana, Northern Ohio, South Central Indiana, and Southern Ohio, are sponsoring a conference titled “Conversations about Biblical Authority.”
Church planting conference has new name, new focus
The Church of the Brethren’s every-other-year conference on new church development has a new name and a new focus: “New and Renew: Revitalize Plant Grow.” Sponsored by Congregational Life Ministries and held at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind., the conference is planned for May 16-19. “The Risk and Reward of Embodying Jesus Locally” is the theme.
Paul Mundey and Pam Reist top Annual Conference ballot for 2018
The ballot that will be presented to the 2018 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren has been released. Topping the ballot are two nominees for Annual Conference moderator-elect: Paul Mundey and Pam Reist. Other offices to be filled by election of the delegate body are positions on the Program and Arrangements Committee, Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee, Mission and Ministry Board, and the boards of Bethany Theological Seminary, Brethren Benefit Trust, and On Earth Peace.
Forty years of the Global Women’s Project
In July of 1978, Church of the Brethren women gathered at Manchester College in North Manchester, Ind., to share our stories and our concerns as women to live and serve responsibly in the church and in the world. It was a time when as a nation we had just lived through the Vietnam War and the tensions of the civil rights movement, and now it seemed we were moving precariously closer to a nuclear holocaust.
