NEWSLINE

• Lilly Endowment Inc. has awarded Bethany Theological Seminary a $1 million grant in support of a new initiative focused on preparing pastors to help congregations embrace diversity and address divisive issues. The grant will enable Bethany to build bridges across differences in three areas—experiential learning, institutional partnerships and improved curriculum.
  
  
• The grant is being made through Lilly Endowment’s Pathways for Tomorrow Initiative. It is a three-phase initiative designed to help theological schools across the United States and Canada as they prioritize and respond to the most pressing challenges they face as they prepare pastoral leaders for Christian congregations. With the grant, the seminary will hire a new employee to coordinate ministry formation and community engagement, develop new courses, expand partnerships with other seminaries, and provide additional opportunities for students, faculty members, and staff to thoughtfully engage with diversity in many forms.
  
  
• On Earth Peace has announced a new goal to train 1,000 Church of the Brethren members in Kingian Nonviolence. Kingian Nonviolence is rooted in the philosophy and leadership of the Martin Luther King Jr. and the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement. “Our hope with the 1,000 Brethren Kingian Nonviolence Training program is to help revitalize the church to use nonviolence for Christian peacemaking and help Brethren to re-imagine how to engage with communities and issues of concern,” said a release. “We see this as an opportunity for our historic peace church to come alive in our times with a spiritually rooted and strategic approach in responding to violence and injustice. This is a great opportunity for the church to engage with its communities and help rejuvenate peace throughout the church.” Contact Annabell Knapp, knv-fellow@onearthpeace.org, for more information about this project.
  
  
• Brethren Disaster Ministries (BDM) staff have directed Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) grants to support several projects. An allocation of $50,000 will support the food programs, medical aid, and education programs of the Lebanese Society for Education and Social Development (LSESD), where a large number of Syrian and Palestinian refugees, hyperinflation/economic crisis, a failed government, an explosion that destroyed part of the primary seaport, and the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war have created severe shortages of food, medical supplies, public services such as electricity, and jobs in Lebanon. An allocation of $10,000 for Eglise des Freres au Congo (Church of the Brethren in the Congo) will provide food distribution to households displaced by violence. And a grant of $10,000 will support the BDM response to the U.S. 2022 summer flooding. During the week of July 25, 2022, a storm system moved across multiple states, causing flash flooding from Missouri to parts of Virginia and West Virginia, resulting in damaged homes and buildings, loss of life, and whole towns left underwater. In addition, a grant of $3,000 will support the Children’s Disaster Services’ local response for Central American asylum seekers, in partnership with the Washington (D.C.) City Church of the Brethren.
  
  
• Children’s Disaster Services also provided support in the wake of the severe flooding in the St. Louis area and in Kentucky. Read the full story at www.brethren.org/news/2022/cds-has-a-busy-few-weeks.
  
  
• Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) Summer Unit 331 held orientation at Camp Wilbur Stover in New Meadows, Idaho, from Aug. 9 through Aug. 17, the first time BVS orientation has been hosted at the camp. It was also the largest in-person orientation group since the pandemic started, said Pauline Liu, coordinator of volunteers for BVS. The 10 volunteers included five from EIRENE, a partner organization based in Germany. They are now serving across the US and in Rwanda and Northern Ireland.
  
  
• Carl Bowman, a Church of the Brethren sociologist and author, will be the speaker for the 53rd annual Dunker Church Service at Antietam Civil War battlefield. Special music will be provided by the Hagerstown (Md.) Men’s Chorus. The event takes place Sept. 18 at 3 p.m. Eastern. For more information contact Ed Poling at elpoling1@gmail.com.
  
  
• Brethren Benefit Trust has changed its name to Eder Financial in order to serve a broader audience. “The familiar services of BBT are not changing. Nor is the staff or the Board. The only thing that is changing is the name,” according to a release. “With changing demographics and affinity within the Church of the Brethren, a move to serve Anabaptist organizations and others of like mind will allow Eder Financial to fulfill its commitments to its members for decades to come,” president Nevin Dulabaum said.