On Earth Peace has announced that Lamar Gibson, development director for the agency, has resigned as of May 25. Gibson began work for On Earth Peace in September 2016, coming out of a background of almost a decade of experience in both private business and the nonprofit sector as a fundraiser and a consultant on business operations and development.
From May 13-14 in Flint, Mich., 23 board members of Creation Justice Ministries, an ecumenical eco-justice organization, gathered to pray, learn, and act for water justice. The Church of the Brethren Office of Peacebuilding and Policy is an active member, and membership affords opportunities to network with other Christian communions, denominations, and fellowships with active commitments to protect, restore, and more rightly share God’s creation.
About 80 people gathered at Camp Mardela in Denton, Md., on May 19 to mark the 150th anniversary of the first Brethren arriving on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. In 1869, Jacob Kline and his family settled in Caroline County, near where the camp is now located. Brethren built their first meeting house about a decade later, in 1880, near Easton. Seven Mid-Atlantic District congregations are located on the Eastern Shore today.
In this issue: Remembering Monroe Good, personnel notes, job openings, Pentecost Offering, workcamp in China, Candlelight Vigil on Family Separation, African Dialogue Series at the UN, continued prayer for Nigeria, action alert on civilian casualty reporting, letter on Cuba, more.
About 150 people from peace churches, peace organizations, communities, friends, and guests–from 10 denominations and Christian traditions and 14 countries–met to mark the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the European ecumenical network Church and Peace. They gathered on May 18 for a ceremony in the Reformation Church of Moabit in Berlin to celebrate the network’s past, present, and future with the theme, “‘I will give you future and hope’ (Jeremiah 29:11): 70 years of living nonviolence and resisting militarization.”
NEWS 1) Children’s Disaster Services responds to Missouri and Iowa tornadoes2) Southern Ohio and Kentucky Brethren begin tornado response3) Eastern Shore Brethren celebrate sesquicentennial4) Faith leaders gather in Flint for environmental justice tour, plan for ecumenical water justice action5) Church and Peace celebrates 70 years of active peace work in Europe PERSONNEL 6) Lamar Gibson
Members of the Church of the Brethren’s Southern Ohio and Kentucky District have begun responding to those affected by the tornadoes that hit west-central Ohio, in and around the city of Dayton, on Monday, May 27.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has begun a response to the tornadoes that devastated areas of Missouri and Iowa in recent days. CDS is a program of Brethren Disaster Ministries that since 1980 has been meeting the needs of children and families by setting up child care centers in shelters and disaster assistance centers. CDS volunteers are specially trained to respond to traumatized children by providing a calm, safe, and reassuring presence in the midst of the chaos created by disasters.
— Remembrance: Dr. Paul Petcher, former medical mission worker in Nigeria, passed away on Sunday, May 12, at the age of 96. He was a medical missionary with the Church of the Brethren mission in Nigeria from 1951-1960, serving in both Garkida and Lassa. Memorial services include visitation on Saturday, May 18, from 5-8 p.m. at
New resources of note from Brethren Press include new quarterly materials from the Shine curriculum, which is jointly produced by Brethren Press and MennoMedia; new quarterly materials for A Guide for Biblical Studies; new Covenant Bible Studies titles; a Spanish-language version of “Another Way of Believing” by Dale W. Brown titled “Otra Manera de Creer”; Living Word Bulletins for the next church year; and the Advent devotional for 2019 titled “Ready” by Frank Ramirez.
