In this issue: Remembering Charles Lunkley, personnel notes, job openings, Messenger Online offers “So many changes! How the new tax code affects you” by Deb Oskin, Office of Peacebuilding and Policy recommends “Faith Over Fear” training, “Look at Life” conference at Bethany Seminary, and more news by, for, and about Brethren.
Messenger, the Church of the Brethren magazine, has received two awards from the Associated Church Press. The first is an award of excellence for publisher Wendy McFadden’s online essay “A Playlist of Mercy and Hope.” The second award is an honorable mention for redesign of the Messenger website.
Country singer Slim Whitman, 90, who was a longtime member and deacon emeritus at Jacksonville (Fla.) Church of the Brethren, passed away June 19 at Orange Park (Fla.) Medical Center. He was the subject of the book “Mr. Songman,” written by Kenneth L. Gibble and published by Brethren Press in 1982.
We know Ken Morse as the author of “Move in Our Midst,” the hymn that provides the theme for Annual Conference this year. But Morse also was a poet, author of worship resources, writer of Sunday school curriculum, and editor and associate editor of Messenger magazine for 28 years.
How has Brethren theology changed since 1708? What was the discussion in church conferences in the late 1800s? What was life like on the mission field in the 1960s? When did my own congregation begin to meet? These are among the questions that until a few years ago could only be answered by turning pages of dusty, fragile Brethren publications located in basement archives of colleges and denominational offices.