Brethren Press has released the “Church of the Brethren Yearbook 2017” in a new format. Previously, the Yearbook was published as a searchable pdf file on a CD. The 2017 Yearbook is a searchable pdf on a USB flash drive that looks like and is the size of a credit card.
On Dec. 5 and 6, Greg Davidson Laszakovits, pastor of Elizabethtown (Pa.) Church of the Brethren, and constituent of Senator Pat Toomey, Senator Bob Casey, and Congressman Lloyd Smucker (PA-16), traveled to Washington, D.C., to meet with policy staff in each of these offices to push support for a clean Dream Act. The legislation serves as a means to prevent deportation of 800,000 undocumented youth who came to the United States as children.
NEWS
1) Children’s Disaster Services responds to fires in southern California
2) EYN disaster team coordinates housing repairs in remote areas
3) Action alert from Office of Public Witness calls for action on drone warfare
4) National Trust for Historic Preservation offers tour of denominational offices
5) Pacific Southwest District celebrates a weekend of witness and ‘withness’
6) Atlantic Northeast District delivers 455 clean-up buckets to New Windsor
7) Elizabethtown pastor stands in support of ‘Dreamers’
8) Unique quilt supports ongoing needs in Nigeria
PERSONNEL
9) Mark Hartwig retires as IT director for the Church of the Brethren
10) Patrice Nightingale retires as Brethren Benefit Trust manager of production
UPCOMING EVENTS
11) National Youth Conference registration opens in January
12) January Ventures course to focus on ‘Congregation in Mission’
13) Brethren bits
In this issue: personnel announcements, job openings, volunteer opportunities, send Christmas cards to BVSers, Bethany Day at Seminaries that Change the World, the next Clergy Tax Seminar, “Brethren Voices” features Brethren Disaster Ministries, and more news from congregations, districts, colleges, and ecumenical partners.
National Youth Conference (NYC) registration opens in a little over a month. Sample registrations are available online at www.brethren.org/nyc . NYC is a Church of the Brethren conference held every four years for youth who have completed grade 9 through the first year of college or age equivalent, and their adult advisors.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) is responding to the fires in southern California, at the end of a week in which wildfires stoked by strong Santa Ana winds started northwest of Los Angeles and now have begun in the San Diego area as well. CDS will be deploying a team of eight volunteers to serve affected children and families in southern California beginning this weekend.
What a wonderful God we serve! In August, Church World Service (CWS) announced the need for more disaster relief clean-up buckets in the warehouse at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. This request was prompted by Hurricane Harvey’s devastation of Houston, Texas. Little did they know Irma, Jose, and Maria were on their way, as well as a devastating earthquake in Mexico.
Patrice Nightingale has announced her retirement as manager of production for Brethren Benefit Trust (BBT), as of Dec. 31. She joined the BBT communications staff on May 5, 2008. On Oct. 20 of the same year, she succeeded Nevin Dulabaum as director of communications. In late 2011, BBT went through an organizational change due to economic factors, and she was transitioned to her current position.
Mark Hartwig is retiring as director of Information Technology for the Church of the Brethren, effective Dec. 22. He has worked at the denomination’s General Offices in Elgin, Ill., for more than 12 years.
Gathering together with a worship focus on the Beatitudes, the 54th annual Pacific Southwest District Conference brought together folk from 23 of our congregations for time in worship, study, business, and fellowship. Friday evening’s sermon was brought by author and public theologian Brian McLaren, who invited the district into an examination of the Beatitudes.
