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.
Two people who were on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on April 4 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. reflect on the experience.
The Church of the Brethren was represented at the “A.C.T.–Awaken, Confront, Transform–to End Racism” rally in Washington, D.C., on April 4 by Gimbiya Kettering, director of Intercultural Ministries. Also in attendance were Tori Bateman of the Office of Peacebuilding and Policy and the denomination’s representative to the United Nations, Doris Abdullah, along with other church members from various parts of the country.
In November, the Trump administration rescinded the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) that gave protections against deportation for some 60,000 Haitians who came to the US after a massive earthquake hit their country. Today is the eighth anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010.
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.
The board of Renacer Hispanic Ministry has developed and adapted a new strategy plan to widely reach the denomination. The new strategy plans has three foundational components:
Mission Alive 2018, a conference sponsored by the Global Mission and Service program of the Church of Brethren, will take place April 6-8 at Frederick (Md.) Church of the Brethren. The theme is “A Gathering of God’s People…a Global Church of the Brethren,” seeking inspiration from Revelation 7:9.
Among other business accomplished by Northern Indiana District at its district conference this year was the affirmation of the resolution “We Reaffirm that Racism is a Sin Against God and Our Neighbors.” The conversation was characterized by a unified desire to express the pain felt by the gathered body on the heels of the protests and counter-protests witnessed in Charlottesville, Va., and in other places around this country.
After everything that has happened this summer, it can be hard to believe that just four years ago, we gathered to talk about intercultural ministries as the wider nation was marking the second term of the first Black president and an era often described as “post-racial.”
HURRICANE UPDATE
1) Children’s Disaster Services prepositions team in Florida, in advance of Irma
2) Brethren Disaster Ministries monitoring hurricane situation in US and Caribbean
3) Material Resources ships relief to Texas, seeks urgently needed donations of clean-up buckets
4) How best to help: Advice from Brethren Disaster Ministries
ACTION ALERT
5) Office of Public Witness Action Alert on DACA
