I am amazed at the end of each year when I add up and record all the work that has been done in Nigeria by the Nigeria Crisis Response, a joint effort of the Church of the Brethren with Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). Last year, 2017, was no different.
Church of the Brethren general secretary David Steele and Office of Public Witness director Nathan Hosler have given endorsement to a Christmas letter to Vice President Mike Pence “to protect the humanitarian, diplomatic, and peacebuilding budget in the FY19 budget” of the federal government.
At last month’s National Older Adult Conference (NOAC), Jim Wallis, president and founder of Sojourners, spoke to us of faithfulness and of living our Christian witness. This month, Sojourners reminds us that this is a call to peacemaking in the context of our daily lives. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, a time for us to consider that while “one in three women experience intimate partner violence in their lives…95 percent of church-going women report they have never heard a sermon on abuse preached from the pulpit of their church.”
Roy Winter is on a trip to Puerto Rico this week to assess needs following Hurricane Maria and to meet with Church of the Brethren leaders in Puerto Rico District. Winter is associate executive director of Global Mission and Service and Brethren Disaster Ministries.
Global Mission and Service invites participants to join a workcamp organized by Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). Workcamp dates, including travel to and from Nigeria, are Jan. 5-22, 2018.
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.
Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has deployed a specially trained team of Critical Response Childcare volunteers to Las Vegas, Nev., following the mass shooting there. The team was requested by the American Red Cross, and are serving in a Family Assistance Center, reported CDS associate director Kathleen Fry-Miller.
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
The following release from the World Council of Churches (WCC) notes an unprecedented honor for a member of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). Rebecca Dali, founder of the Center for Compassion, Empowerment, and Peace Initiatives (CCEPI), has received the 2017 Humanitarian Award from the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation at a ceremony at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland.
Many Brethren across the country have been involved in prayer gatherings, prayer walks, vigils, and other gatherings responding to the events in Charlottesville, Va., while others have helped issue a variety of statements. Here is a sampling.
