A worship service on Sunday afternoon, April 30, closed the upper campus of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. Some 125 people gathered on the lawn in front of the Old Main building on a warm, sunny afternoon to remember and celebrate the ministries that have taken place at the campus.
NEWS
1) Group receives training in ‘Farming God’s Way’ in Africa
2) New scholarship program is offered by Bethany Seminary
3) On Earth Peace board continues its anti-racism emphasis
PERSONNEL
4) Bob Chase retires from leadership of SERRV, Loreen Epp named president and CEO
UPCOMING EVENTS
5) Celebrate the generations during Older Adult Month, National Youth Sunday
6) Bethany Seminary commencement is scheduled
REFLECTION
7) ‘Feetwashing’ in the garden: The most meaningful love feast ever!
8) Brethren bits
In this issue: Correction, remembering Marie Flory, personnel, job openings, congregational news, “Becoming a Leader in Memory Care” webinar, the 2017 Brethren Bible Institute, an Easter hope message from South Sudan, and more news by, for, and about Brethren.
In my 27 years of pastoral ministry tonight was the most meaningful Maundy Thursday love feast experience ever for me! Any other church I have been part of would have fired me on the spot for messing with the “Holy Ground,” but not Community of Joy.
Each May congregations are encouraged to celebrate the contributions of members of all generations to our life together. The first Sunday in May (May 7) is National Youth Sunday, a day when youth are engaged in planning, organizing, and leading worship. The entire month is designated as Older Adult Month, an opportunity for congregations to celebrate God’s gift of aging and the contributions of elders in our midst.
Bob Chase has announced his retirement from his long-term leadership of SERRV International, Inc., as of the end of April. SERRV is a fair trade organization that had its start as a Church of the Brethren program. Chase is retiring as president and CEO, and has been part of the SERRV team and part of the global fair trade community for more than 27 years.
The On Earth Peace Board met April 6-8 in Harrisburg, Pa. The meetings were hosted by First Church of the Brethren, a Christ centered, multi-ethnic community in the inner city. This was in keeping with an ongoing board commitment to meet in people of color majority spaces. First Church included the board in its regular Friday morning bilingual Spanish and English worship service. This service is jointly led by First Church and its partner congregation, Living Waters, for community people arriving for a weekly food distribution.
Brethren Disaster Ministries and the Global Food Initiative recently worked together to send representatives from Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), representatives from South Sudan, and a Church of the Brethren representative from the United States to Kenya to receive training in a program called Farming God’s Way with an organization called Care of Creation, Kenya.
1) Action Alert for the third anniversary of the Chibok kidnappings
2) Global Mission and Service executive visits Chibok during recent trip to Nigeria
3) Church of the Brethren gives grants to rebuild Nigerian churches
4) Remembering Chibok at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University
5) Carrying the cross without fear: How the Coptic Church in Egypt deals with the constant threat
6) Love feast at Princeton
For the third year in a row, Kristie Hammond of Olivet Church of the Brethren in Ohio–now a senior at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU)–arranged for a social justice speaker to commemorate each passing year of the Chibok abductions. She says she was personally affected by this horrific event because the girls were her age, or younger, and were kidnapped for trying to get a post-secondary education just as she is doing.
