The Compelling Vision Process Team has written a report on the Compelling Vision conversations that took place at Annual Conference in Greensboro in July. This report is being shared at district conferences and/or through district communication channels. We thought that all of you might be interested in reading it since so much of our time at the past Conference was spent discussing together a compelling vision for the Church of the Brethren.
Elsie Koehn has retired as district executive minister for the Church of the Brethren’s Southern Plains District. She has served in district leadership for more than 10 years. She concluded her service and was recognized during the district conference held in Falfurrias, Texas, on Aug. 8-9. The Southern Plains District board, chaired by Matthew Prejean
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) deployed two Critical Response Care teams at the request of Red Cross in response to two mass shootings in the past month. CDS Critical Response Care teams are specially trained CDS volunteers who work with children after an incident such as terrorism, transportation disasters, or mass casualty events.
Roxanne Gaxiola Aguirre, coordinator of Spanish-language ministry training programs for the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, has resigned her position as of Aug. 30. The academy is a ministry training partnership of the Church of the Brethren and Bethany Theological Seminary.
J. Colleen Michael retired July 31 as district executive minister for Pacific Northwest District, having served for more than seven years since Jan. 1, 2012. The district has appointed a three-member interim team to care for essential functions during a time of discernment regarding organizational structures that will serve the district in the future.
In this issue: Turnover in the Workcamp Ministry and other personnel notes, job openings, Annual Conference meetings, Haiti annual conference, Zoom webinar to prepare for Peace Day, 49th Annual Dunker Church Service, as well as news from congregations, districts, colleges, and more.
The Church of the Brethren director of Ministry, Nancy Sollenberger Heishman, wrote a letter to pastors across the denomination after the shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Her letter followed on that of general secretary David Steele, and encouraged pastors in their work to reduce violence in their own communities.
NEWS
1) In response to the shootings in El Paso and Dayton
2) Director of Ministry writes to pastors following shootings
3) Touched and challenged: Reflections from a trip to Haiti
PERSONNEL
4) Nate Inglis resigns from Bethany Seminary
5) Brethren bits
Twenty members of McPherson (Kan.) Church of the Brethren were among 33 participants in a mission education conference in Mirebalais, Haiti, sponsored by Haiti Medical Project from July 19-23. The five days in Haiti were spent learning about needs of communities served by the Haiti Medical Project. Participants were eager to meet Haitian leaders and members of the communities served.
“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).
