{"id":25079,"date":"2025-04-10T05:47:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T05:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/?p=25079"},"modified":"2025-04-17T19:34:57","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T19:34:57","slug":"western-district-leaders-gather","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2025\/western-district-leaders-gather\/","title":{"rendered":"Western district leaders gather"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By Russ Matteson<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On March 1, 47 leaders from the Church of the Brethren districts west of the Mississippi River gathered by Zoom for the first of several planned meetups designed to enhance connection and relationships across the western Brethren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The gathering included district moderators and moderator-elects, Standing Committee delegates, board chairs, members of denominational staff and boards, and the district executives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conversation focused on how people came to be Brethren and to serve in the leadership roles they are in, as well as the hopes and concerns that they have for the church today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Northern Plains District executive minister Tim Button-Harrison opened the time with a devotional that shared about the 300th anniversary of the sending of Brethren from the first congregation in Germantown, near Philadelphia, to reconnect with the newer Brethren communities that were scattered throughout Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\"><div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"347\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Western-Brethren-Gathering-Group-600px.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-25080\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Western-Brethren-Gathering-Group-600px.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Western-Brethren-Gathering-Group-600px-300x174.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/04\/Western-Brethren-Gathering-Group-600px-560x324.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Leaders from western districts of the Church of the Brethren met via Zoom.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A second gathering is planned for May 17 via Zoom. A Western Brethren gathering also will be held after worship on the first night of Annual Conference in Greensboro, N.C., on July 2.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>&#8212; Russ Matteson is district executive minister for Pacific Southwest District of the Church of the Brethren.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;-<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Find more Church of the Brethren news:<\/p>\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__list wp-block-latest-posts is-layout-flow wp-block-latest-posts-is-layout-flow\"><li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/discernment-and-calling-an-appeal\/\">Discernment and calling: An appeal for nominations for the Annual Conference ballot<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/disenman-ak-apel-yon-apel\/\">Dis\u00e8nman ak ap\u00e8l: Yon ap\u00e8l pou nominasyon pou bilten v\u00f2t Konferans Any\u00e8l la<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/discernimiento-y-vocacion-convocatoria\/\">Discernimiento y vocaci\u00f3n: Convocatoria para la presentaci\u00f3n de candidaturas para la votaci\u00f3n de la Conferencia Anual.<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/help-shape-intergenerational-resources\/\">Help shape resources for intergenerational ministry: An invitation from Brethren Press<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a class=\"wp-block-latest-posts__post-title\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2026\/ayude-a-dar-forma-a-los-recursos\/\">Ayude a dar forma a los recursos para el ministerio intergeneracional: Una invitaci\u00f3n de Brethren Press.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On March 1, 47 leaders from the Church of the Brethren districts west of the Mississippi River gathered by Zoom for the first of several planned meetups designed to enhance connection and relationships across the western Brethren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":25080,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1703],"tags":[1511,3256,3095,3255],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-25079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-brethren-newsline","tag-districts","tag-russ-matteson","tag-events","tag-western-brethren"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25079"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25083,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25079\/revisions\/25083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25079"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=25079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}