The Church of the Brethren 2019 Christian Citizenship Seminar will be held April 27-May 2 in New York and Washington, D.C., with the theme “Creative Solutions to Violent Conflict Worldwide.”
Dates for the next workcamp in Nigeria are Nov. 2-19, sponsored by the Church of the Brethren Global Mission and Service. American Brethren and others who are interested in joining in a workcamp with members of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) are invited to consider this opportunity.
All they could take was one suitcase and what they could wear. That is what President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 told Japanese and Japanese-Americans who were living on the west coast after the attack on Pearl Harbor, in 1942. They reported to relocation camps with only one week’s notice.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) over this past weekend sent a team of volunteers to work at the Catholic Charities Rio Grande Valley Humanitarian Respite Center in McAllen, Texas. In the first two days, the team served more than 150 children.
In downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, there is a museum dedicated to the Underground Railroad and slavery in the United States. As soon as I began viewing the first part of the exhibit, I was overcome with emotion, seeing the portrayals of men bound in chains staring down the barrel of a gun. My eyes filled with tears.
In 2016, a Creation Care study committee was authorized in response to a query on continuing the study of our Christian responsibility to care for God’s creation. Their report, titled “Creation Care: Faith into Action,” includes a list of recommendations that have been adopted by the 2018 Annual Conference.
The 2018 Conference approved “Vision of Ecumenism for the 21st Century,” and in doing so reaffirmed the historical identity of the Church of the Brethren as a denomination active in ecumenical work and in relationship with other Christian bodies. The paper also calls the church to build and nurture positive interfaith relationships.
A “Families Belong Together” candlelight vigil sponsored by the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy gathered outside the main doors of the convention center in Cincinnati, where Annual Conference is taking place this week.
Church World Service (CWS) has put together an extensive online resource titled “Interfaith Toolkit to End Family Separation and Keep Families Together.” The Church of the Brethren is a member denomination of Church World Service, and partners with CWS through Brethren Disaster Ministries. CWS has worked for decades with refugee resettlement and support for migrants.
Church of the Brethren general secretary David Steele is recommending to the Church of the Brethren a blogpost from Office of Peacebuilding and Policy associate Victoria Bateman. The post, dated Friday, June 15, reaffirms the longstanding stance of the Church of the Brethren on immigration, outlined in 1982 Annual Conference statement on “Undocumented Persons and Refugees in the United States” ( www.brethren.org/ac/statements/1982refugees.html), and the biblical basis for extending welcome to refugees and immigrants.
