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.”
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.
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
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.”
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.
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.
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.
The Global Women’s Project (GWP) provided financial help to women members of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) participate in courses at the new Bethany Seminary technology center in Jos, Nigeria. The GWP is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. It is a Church of the Brethren-related nonprofit working for women’s empowerment and economic justice and provides grants to a variety of projects for economic empowerment of women all around the world.
NEWS
1) Brethren from Dominican Republic and Spain start house churches in Europe
2) EDF gives grants to Brethren Disaster Ministries projects
3) GFI grants support gardens and gardeners, aquaponics, feeding program
PERSONNEL
4) Amy Gall Ritchie to resign from Bethany Seminary
UPCOMING EVENTS
5) Children’s Disaster Services offers spring training workshops
6) SVMC celebrates 25 years, offers continuing education events
7) Ventures in Christian Discipleship offers courses to empower small churches
REFLECTION
8) Emergency alert! Being in Hawaii on Jan. 13
9) Brethren bits
In this issue: Remembering Roger Forry, Owen Stultz, and Claude Hess; QSEHRA extended to February; prayers of thanksgiving for the rescue of a Chibok girl; Mission Alive 2018; a Seminar on Christian Minority Communities; Lindsay (New Harvest) Church of the Brethren closes; and more news by, for, and about Brethren.
