{"id":5957,"date":"2017-02-18T20:00:52","date_gmt":"2017-02-18T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=5957"},"modified":"2018-10-03T20:03:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T20:03:27","slug":"brethren-bits-for-feb-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2017\/brethren-bits-for-feb-18\/","title":{"rendered":"Brethren bits for Feb. 18, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nFebruary\u00a018,\u00a02017<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Lititz (Pa.) Church of the Brethren is one of the churches that are making available yard signs saying, \u201cNo matter where you are from, we\u2019re glad you\u2019re our neighbor,\u201d in English, Spanish, and Arabic. An announcement from the Lititz congregation said it is making 100 of the signs available for purchase for $10 each. The church will donate any extra funds that are received to a Church of the Brethren refugee\/displaced persons fund. These signs, thousands of which are appearing across the country according to NPR, originated with a simple hand-painted sign at Harrisonburg (Va.) Immanuel Mennonite Church. Find the NPR story at www.npr.org\/sections\/thetwo-way\/2016\/12\/09\/504969049\/a-message-of-tolerance-and-welcome-spreading-from-yard-to-yard .<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Rudelmar Bueno de Faria has been named general secretary of ACT Alliance,\u00a0an international ecumenical partner organization of the Church of the Brethren and Brethren Disaster Ministries. He will begin his term on June 1. An ACT release noted that he \u201cbrings a wealth of experience to the position, having served for 25 years with the World Council of Churches, Lutheran World Federation, and Evangelical Church of Lutheran Confession in Brazil. He currently serves as the WCC\u2019s representative to the United Nations where he has engaged in advocacy, diplomacy, negotiations, and relations with key people in the UN system, member states, CSOs, and ecumenical and interfaith networks. Prior to this position, he spent many years with LWF in a variety of roles in the World Service in Geneva and San Salvador.\u201d Rudelmar will succeed John Nduna, who has served as general secretary of the ACT Alliance since its founding in 2010.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

—\u00a0Religions for Peace USA is hiring an executive director.<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cReligions for Peace USA envisions a nation in which people of faith and goodwill live together in respect and mutual support, creating paths to peace and justice,\u201d said the announcement of the job opening. \u201cReligions for Peace USA’s mission is to inspire and advance common actions for peace through multireligious cooperation among our nation’s religious communities.\u201d The executive director is the organization\u2019s primary organizer and administrator, working to coordinate a bold, shared witness for peace and justice among member religious communities and to provide a moral compass in the religiously pluralistic context of the United States. Learn more at\u00a0www.idealist.org\/view\/job\/kdTCmb5zTFsP<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Beacon Heights Church of the Brethren in Fort Wayne, Ind.,<\/strong>\u00a0earlier this month sharing a concern about proposed legislation in Indiana, IN Senate bill SB309, that would have dramatically impacted the ability of the church to use its solar panels. The story of Beacon Heights\u2019 solar panels was featured in \u201cMessenger\u201d magazine\u2019s April 2016 issue, and the church has been asking for support in contacting state elected officials about the detrimental effects of the proposed legislation. \u201cFor us, this is a matter of faith,\u201d said a statement from pastor Brian Flory. \u201cThis is a matter of shining our light and helping our public officials to understand the moral importance of letting our faith community live out the value of being good stewards of God\u2019s creation.\u201d This week, an Indiana Senate committee made changes to the bill that would mitigate some of the worst of its effects on organizations such as Beacon Heights, that have installed solar panels with the expectation of significant savings in energy use and expense. See the Indianapolis Star report at\u00a0www.indystar.com\/story\/news\/2017\/02\/16\/solar-energy-incentives-gradually-reduced-under-indiana-senate-proposal\/97986312<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Camp Eder near Fairfield, Pa., is holding a Maple Madness Pancake Breakfast<\/strong>\u00a0on Feb. 25 and March 4, partnering with Strawberry Hill Nature Preserve. Cost is $8 for adults, $4 for children. \u201cCome to Camp Eder to learn about \u2018Sugaring,\u2019 the process of turning the sap from Maple trees into delicious Maple syrup!\u201d said an invitation. \u201cStrawberry Hill naturalists will demonstrate how to tap a Maple tree, collect the sap, and boil it down into syrup. You can also enjoy the fruits of our labor by sampling real Maple syrup at a pancake breakfast.\u201d Also featured will be local arts and crafts vendors.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Camp Harmony near Hooversville, Pa., is offering a \u201cHouse of Prayer\u201d retreat<\/strong>\u00a0on April 1, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. \u201cCome and get away for time with the Lord and other brothers and sisters in Christ,\u201d said an announcement. Dave and Kim Butts are the speakers. The cost is $15, which includes lunch and snacks and .5 continuing education credits for ministers. Register by March 1 by contacting Western Pennsylvania District, 115 Spring Rd., Hollsopple, PA 15935.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0A class on \u201cLeadership and Culture: Building Bridges\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0at the University of La Verne is the subject of a podcast published by radio station KPCC 89.3. The university is a Church of the Brethren-related school in La Verne, Calif. The class enrolls students from the University of La Verne and CETYS University in the Tijuana area of Mexico. The link for the story, \u201cAmid heated politics, college class brings together US, Mexico students,\u201d was shared by the Pacific Southwest District office:\u00a0http:\/\/www.scpr.org\/news\/2017\/02\/16\/69095\/amid-heated-politics-college-class-brings-together<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Bread for the World is reporting<\/strong>\u00a0that despite gains, African Americans are still disproportionately affected by hunger and poverty. \u201cOver the past year, African Americans have seen significant decreases in hunger and poverty levels, with a nearly 5 percentage point drop in hunger alone. Much of these declines are due to effective federal policy and strong community leadership,\u201d said a release. \u201cHowever, much more must be done.\u201d Despite the recent gains, however, almost 50 percent of all black children younger than age 6 still live in poverty, which is more than three times the proportion of young white children. \u201cUnemployment and low wages, lack of access to healthy and affordable food, poor schools, and higher incarceration rates are just a few of the factors that contribute to this problem,\u201d the release said. \u201cWhile African-Americans make up only 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 22 percent of those experiencing poverty and hunger.\u201d Download the report \u201cHunger and Poverty in the African-American Community\u201d at\u00a0www.bread.org\/factsheet<\/a>\u00a0. Bread for the World recently released a new graphic, \u201cI Still Rise,\u201d highlighting African-American contributions to ending hunger and poverty over the past century; find it at\u00a0www.bread.org\/rise<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0A quarterly report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has been gaining media attention<\/strong>\u00a0for reporting an increase in the number of American hate groups, particularly anti-Muslim groups. This is \u201cfueled in part by the recent presidential election,\u201d said an article in the Washington Post, which noted that \u201cmany of the groups the SPLC identified as part of the rise in extremist activity reject the label of \u2018hate group.\u2019\u201d However, the newspaper also noted findings that \u201chate groups in the United States nearly tripled, from 34 in 2015 to 101 last year. Nearly 50 of those new additions are local chapters of ACT for America, an anti-Muslim activist group…. Diminished are the overt Ku Klux Klan robes and Nazi insignia sometimes associated with extremist hate groups: the number of KKK chapters fell 32 percent, and the use of symbols has diminished in favor of a more \u2018intellectual\u2019 approach….\u201d The Post also cited an FBI report of a 60 percent rise in hate crimes targeting Muslims in 2015. Find the Washington Post article at\u00a0www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/southern-poverty-law-center-says-american-hate-groups-are-on-the-rise\/2017\/02\/15\/7e9cab02-f2d9-11e6-a9b0-ecee7ce475fc_story.html<\/a>\u00a0.
\nIn a review of the SPLC report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency,<\/strong>\u00a0the increase of hate groups was characterized as anti-semitic. \u201cAt least 550 of the 917 groups are anti-Semitic in nature,\u201d the article said, in part. \u201cThe groups active in 2016 include 99 categorized as neo-Nazi, 100 as white nationalist, 130 as Ku Klux Klan, and 21 as Christian Identity, a religious movement that says whites are the true Israelites and Jews are descended from Satan.\u201d Find the article at\u00a0www.jta.org\/2017\/02\/15\/news-opinion\/united-states\/number-of-us-hate-groups-rose-in-2016-and-most-are-anti-semitic-civil-rights-center-finds<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

—\u00a0Todd Flory, a Church of the Brethren member who works at Wheatland Elementary School<\/strong>\u00a0in Wichita, Kan., is one the teachers featured by National Public Radio (NPR) in \u201c5 Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News.\u201d Author Sophia Alvarez Boyd writes, \u201cAs the national attention to fake news and the debate over what to do about it continue, one place many are looking for solutions is in the classroom. Since a recent Stanford study showed that students at practically all grade levels can’t determine fake news from the real stuff, the push to teach media literacy has gained new momentum.\u201d Flory is working with a teacher in Irvine, Calif., teaming up their fifth grade classes to do \u201ca fake news challenge via Skype,\u201d the piece reported. \u201cFlory\u2019s fourth-graders chose two real articles and wrote a fake article of their own. Then, they presented them to Bedley\u2019s class in California. The fifth-graders had four minutes to do some extra research based on the presentations, and then they decided which article out of the three were fake.\u201d See\u00a0www.npr.org\/sections\/ed\/2017\/02\/16\/514364210\/5-ways-teachers-are-fighting-fake-news<\/a>\u00a0.<\/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":"

In this issue: ACT Alliance names new general secretary, job opening, news from congregations and camps, ULV class on leadership and culture gains attention, Bread for the World reports decreases in poverty and hunger among African Americans, and more news by, for, and about Brethren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":5958,"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":[],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-5957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957","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=5957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5959,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5957\/revisions\/5959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5957"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=5957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}