The Council of District Executives (CODE) started off the new year with the first of their two annual meetings. As with so many events in the past 10 months, these meetings were moved to a virtual format.
An allocation of $37,850 from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) supports the coastal North Carolina rebuilding site of Brethren Disaster Ministries. The project in Pamlico County, N.C., is rebuilding and repairing homes affected by Hurricane Florence, which hit the area in September 2018. Partner agency Pamlico County Disaster Relief Coalition reports that around 200 families have not completely recovered, almost two and a half years later.
The Brethren Faith in Action Fund (BFIA) has distributed its first grants for 2021. 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.
The Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) has announced its first two grants for 2021, supporting a pig project of the Church of the Brethren in Rwanda and a community garden of St. Peter Lutheran Church in Southport, N.C.
NEWS
1) New Youth Fellowship Exchange has launched
PERSONNEL
2) Debbie Noffsinger hired as part-time Annual Conference assistant
UPCOMING EVENTS
3) Roundtable regional youth conference goes on the road, in-person and online
RESOURCES
4) Compelling vision Bible study series is now available
5) Brethren bits: A Valentine’s Day social media campaign from the WCC, remembering church leaders in Burundi and Uganda, job opening, webinars, update from Nigerian disaster ministry, more
In this issue: A Valentine’s Day social media campaign from the World Council of Churches, remembering church leaders in Burundi and Uganda, job opening, webinars, update from Nigerian disaster ministry, and much more.
With COVID-19 concerns still looming large, we are not able to meet on the Bridgewater (Va.) College campus as usual for Roundtable 2021–the annual regional youth conference hosted by the Interdistrict Youth Cabinet at Bridgewater College. We have had to pivot to a new idea for Roundtable in order to reach the most youth and still provide a fun, meaningful experience in person and online.
The Youth and Young Adult Ministry has launched a new initiative called the Youth Fellowship Exchange, which aims at providing pandemic-safe fellowship opportunities to youth from all over the country. Free and fun, youth groups can find renewed energy for forming relationships and engaging with “the other.” In a time when opportunities for cross-congregational fellowship are limited, this is a fresh and easy activity.
Debbie Noffsinger begins Feb. 15 in a newly restructured, salaried position of part-time Annual Conference assistant. Since Feb. 22, 2010, she has worked on a seasonal basis as the Annual Conference registration assistant.
The complete 13-session Compelling Vision Bible Study Series is now available in English with a Spanish translation to be available in coming days. The series is a project of the Compelling Vision Working Group and is intended to help church members study the compelling vision statement that will be brought for approval to the 2021 Annual Conference of the Church of the Brethren.
