A new Church of the Brethren Gun Violence Prevention Action Team launched in January 2023, with the purpose of encouraging the Church of the Brethren to be faithful as an effective force for reducing gun violence in our neighborhoods and wherever it occurs. On Earth Peace is convening this action team as part of a broader campaign to activate advocates for gun violence prevention.
On Wednesday, Dec. 7, a letter was sent to Congress urging members to support efforts to repeal the authorization for the US to participate in the ongoing war in Yemen. The Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy was one of the faith-based and civil society organizations that signed the letter.
A webinar sponsored by the Interfaith Working Group on Drone Warfare is the subject of an action alert from the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy. Titled “Drone war, tech assassinations, and the future of conflict: Theological, legal, and policy developments,” the webinar is planned for Dec. 13 at 12 noon (Eastern time).
H. Lamar Gibble, 91, a former longterm staff member of the Church of the Brethren noted for his ecumenical work as Peace and International Affairs Consultant/Europe and Asia Representative, died on Oct. 29 in Elgin, Ill.
Beginning Friday, Oct. 14, an online art auction to support the Ukrainian crisis response, overseen by Brethren Disaster Ministries, will open and receive bids for 180 donated art items.
More than two dozen faith groups, including the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy, have written a letter to President Biden urging the abolition of nuclear weapons, and stating that “the possession and use of nuclear weapons cannot be justified.” The letter comes after the Biden administration responded with threats of “catastrophic consequences” to Russian Pres. Putin’s veiled threats to use nuclear weapons.
Boko Haram has attacked the Bwalgyang community in the Chibok Local Government Area of Borno State. In the attack on Sept. 19, two people were killed and the church auditorium of the congregation of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) as well as many houses and properties were burnt or looted.
Our spiritual, cultural, and traditional belief systems speak of creation as a garden. Humankind, it is said, is the receptacle and caretaker of the garden. After more than two years of pandemic crisis, ongoing wars and conflicts, and a heating planet, the nations of the world have resumed in-person meetings to discuss their mandates and treaty bodies regarding life in the garden called earth.
Scott Holland has been awarded professor emeritus status at Bethany Theological Seminary in Richmond, Ind., as of July 1. Now in semi-retirement, he is continuing to teach the core courses in the seminary’s groundbreaking theopoetics program that he helped to develop. He also continues to represent the seminary and the theopoetics program “on the road” as a preacher and guest lecturer.
Lafayette (Ind.) Church of the Brethren developed a statement in response to recent violent events around the country: “The Lafayette Church of the Brethren strongly denounces racially motivated violence such as the recent murders in Buffalo, New York. As Christians, we know God loves everyone and calls us to love our neighbors and our enemies. We confess that we have been silent when we should have been speaking out against racial violence. We will not be silent anymore….”