The Brethren Benefit Trust (BBT) board has adopted 2017 Department of Defense screens for investments. Each year as part of its Brethren values investing initiatives, BBT’s Board of Directors approves investment screens by adopting two Department of Defense lists comprised of companies that earn significant revenue from US military operations.
1) Action Alert for the third anniversary of the Chibok kidnappings
2) Global Mission and Service executive visits Chibok during recent trip to Nigeria
3) Church of the Brethren gives grants to rebuild Nigerian churches
4) Remembering Chibok at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University
5) Carrying the cross without fear: How the Coptic Church in Egypt deals with the constant threat
6) Love feast at Princeton
For the third year in a row, Kristie Hammond of Olivet Church of the Brethren in Ohio–now a senior at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University (MVNU)–arranged for a social justice speaker to commemorate each passing year of the Chibok abductions. She says she was personally affected by this horrific event because the girls were her age, or younger, and were kidnapped for trying to get a post-secondary education just as she is doing.
I went to Chibok last week. The security is extremely tight, and there is little space to do much, but I felt compelled to go along with three brothers from Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria): Marcus Gamache, Dr. Yusuf Yokubo, and the district secretary of Chibok. It was partially for my own understanding, partially to encourage EYN, and more specifically, the local Brethren families who continue to live and farm in Chibok.
I was privileged to travel to visit a Christian and Muslim refugee camp in Cameroon. The president of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) Joel S. Billi, the general secretary, administrative secretary, EYN spiritual adviser, and and six others including myself traveled to Minawawuoa in Maruoa Province, Cameroon, to visit a refugee camp on March 11.
Pastors of intercultural congregations are working to serve church members who are immigrants during a time when the nation’s immigrant community is feeling threatened. Leaders connected with the Church of the Brethren Intercultural Ministries are expressing concerns for the wellbeing of immigrants–documented and undocumented–in their congregations.
As citizens under the reign of God, we mourn the violence of these days…
The result of the presidential election and the politics in regards to immigration issues has impacted America in so many ways. Being a Latino pastor in a country where the Latino population reaches close to 60 million people gives me the opportunity to not only share the gospel in Spanish, but also to be concerned with the issues that affect my community.
More than 40 leaders from Christian Churches Together (CCT) joined a forum in Newark, N.J., on March 2-3 to discuss the ongoing persecution of Christians around the globe. I was invited to speak on behalf of the Church of the Brethren regarding the impact of Boko Haram on the Christian community in Nigeria.
A letter from the Church of the Brethren Intercultural Ministry, signed by director Gimbiya Kettering, is part of a new effort to connect with congregations located in areas considered to be “sanctuary” jurisdictions across the country.