{"id":4955,"date":"2018-07-06T21:33:02","date_gmt":"2018-07-06T21:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=4955"},"modified":"2018-09-27T21:36:03","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T21:36:03","slug":"delegates-affirm-vision-of-ecumenism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2018\/delegates-affirm-vision-of-ecumenism\/","title":{"rendered":"Delegates affirm the ecumenical and interfaith work of the church"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nJuly\u00a06,\u00a02018<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Delegates line up at the microphones to speak to the paper outlining a “Vision of Ecumenism for the 21st Century.” Photo by Glenn Riegel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The 2018 Conference approved \u201cVision of Ecumenism for the 21st Century,\u201d and in doing so reaffirmed the historical identity of the Church of the Brethren as a denomination active in ecumenical work and in relationship with other Christian bodies. The paper also calls the church to build and nurture positive interfaith relationships.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn doing so, we strengthen a history of service and missions, disaster response and relief ministries, and peace witness–nationally and globally,\u201d the statement said. \u201cThese relationships further our understanding of opportunities for mission and ministry, and they instill a cooperative readiness to act upon needs and areas of common concern when they arise.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement is intended to guide the church\u2019s ecumenical and interfaith witness in a time of increased religious diversity in the US and around the world, brought by a committee established as part of a recommendation in 2012 from the former Interchurch Relations Study Committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrethren in the US need to take up the task of loving our neighbors whatever religion they hold,\u201d chair Tim Speicher said as he introduced the paper, citing Ephesians 4:4-6 and other scriptures. This message about Christian responsibility to love was strengthened by Elizabeth Bidgood-Enders, another member of the committee, who told the Conference, \u201cWe are called to love God and love our neighbors without qualifiers as to who those neighbors are.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to guidance, scripture, and historical foundations, the paper offers ideas for commitments and activities to help the Church of the Brethren at all levels–individual, congregational, district, and denominational–extend love, caring, and service to neighbors of varying backgrounds and beliefs. Speicher noted the benefits of such involvement, even for small or struggling congregations, saying many \u201cfind that their faith is enriched and strengthened because of having to engage with other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The paper received vigorous attention from the delegate body, including a time of \u201ctable talk\u201d and questions from the microphones. Many speakers supported the committee\u2019s work and echoed the paper\u2019s urging toward more opportunities to witness ecumenically and carry out service across faith boundaries in the name of Christ, with peacemaking seen as one outcome of such work. Others questioned interfaith activity as appropriate for the church, and spoke their concerns that such interactions compromise the Christian faith.<\/p>\n

An amendment attempting to strike references to interfaith activity failed. An amendment was adopted that replaced the phrase \u201cchildren of God\u201d at one point in the paper with the phrase \u201call people are created by and precious to God.\u201d The amender cited the use of the deleted phrase by Mormons and other groups.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford contributed this report.<\/em><\/p>\n

For more coverage of Annual Conference go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2018\/coverage<\/a>\u00a0.<\/em><\/p>\n

The news coverage of Annual Conference 2018 is made possible through the work of communications staff and a volunteer news team: Frank Ramirez, Conference Journal editor; photographers Glenn Riegel, Regina Holmes, Keith Hollenberg, Donna Parcell, Laura Brown; writers Frances Townsend, Karen Garrett, Alyssa Parker; youth team member Allie Dulabaum; web staff Jan Fischer Bachman, Russ Otto; Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, director of News Services; Wendy McFadden, publisher. Contact\u00a0cobnews@brethren.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/Newsline<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 2018 Conference approved \u201cVision of Ecumenism for the 21st Century,\u201d and in doing so reaffirmed the historical identity of the Church of the Brethren as a denomination active in ecumenical work and in relationship with other Christian bodies. The paper also calls the church to build and nurture positive interfaith relationships. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4956,"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":[1],"tags":[1295,1258,1262,1261],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-4955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-advocacy","tag-annual-conference","tag-ecunemical","tag-general-secretary"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4955"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4957,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4955\/revisions\/4957"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4955"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=4955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}