The eastern plains of Colorado are a wide and windswept expanse with few people and fewer churches. As the nation expanded westward in the early 1900s, a number of new church plants were undertaken. Bethel Church of the Brethren, 9 miles north of Arriba, is one of those still in existence today.
Beginning on Sept. 26 and concluding on Oct. 22, members of the Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee will offer an introductory workshop on five different occasions to introduce the new pastoral compensation tools recently approved by the Annual Conference. The workshop is open to all and will be particularly helpful to church board chairs, pastors, and treasurers.
At the opening business session, Stan Dueck, co-coordinator of Discipleship Ministries, introduced church groups accepted into the denomination. Twelve groups are being recognized in 2022. Also, four groups were reintroduced that were formally recognized at the 2021 virtual Annual Conference.
The Brethren Faith in Action Fund (BFIA) has distributed grants to five congregations in recent months. The fund gives grants to Church of the Brethren congregations and camps using money generated by the sale of the upper campus of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. Find out more at www.brethren.org/faith-in-action.
Here is a listing of Church of the Brethren congregations that are offering online worship services during the time when COVID-19 is preventing the church from gathering in-person for worship.
Restoration Los Angeles, a Church of the Brethren congregation, is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2022 and also 100 years of ministry in East Los Angeles.
Church of the Brethren membership in the United States and Puerto Rico is more than 91,000, according to the most recent statistical report in the 2021 Church of the Brethren Yearbook from Brethren Press. The 2021 Yearbook–published last fall–includes the 2020 statistical report and the 2021 directory for the denomination.
The following letter was shared with all of the pastoral leaders in Pacific Southwest District by district executive minister Russ Matteson. The Church of the Brethren’s Office of Ministry provided it for use in Newsline
Midland (Va.) Church of the Brethren was one of two locations opening their doors as warming facilities after a blizzard brought as much as 14 inches of snow to parts of Fauquier County, Va.
Oasis of Hope Fellowship (Iglesia Berith, Oasis De Esperanza) located in Lebanon, Pa., was recently able to make a difference in the life of a family in their church. This family found themselves in a difficult situation this summer. The roof of their home was damaged and water would come through the roof whenever there was rain.