DENOMINATIONAL NEWS/NEWSLINE
Manchester University in North Manchester, Ind., is celebrating the 75th anniversary of peace studies with a special feature in the spring issue of its magazine. Manchester has the oldest undergraduate peace studies program in the world. The formal celebration of the anniversary will likely be this fall during Homecoming. The magazine also celebrates the university’s presidential transition. Find the spring issue online at magazine.manchester.edu/issue/spring-2023.
Plans are taking shape for the next unit of BVS volunteers: Orientation Unit 333, which will take place Aug. 1-9 at Inspiration Hills Camp in Burbank, Ohio. About 15-20 volunteers are expected to be part of this orientation. The nine-day gathering will include group-building, a variety of sessions, service opportunities, visiting some local congregations, preparing for projects, and more. Volunteers will be coming from across the US and Germany, the latter group through BVS’ European partner, EIRENE. Applications are still being accepted for that orientation, or for another unit that will take place this fall, Sept. 26-Oct. 4 at Camp Koinonia in Cle Elum, Wash. Projects are available across the US, in Central America, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Japan, and elsewhere. Learn more and apply at www.brethren.org/bvs.
Recent grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) are supporting food distribution to the Hispanic community in Lancaster, Pa., agriculture micro-projects by the Church of the Brethren in Venezuela, a community garden project of the Church of the Brethren in Spain, and sustainable agriculture education in Burundi. Find the latest newsletter from GFI at mailchi.mp/brethren/gfi-update-2023-5.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed grants this spring from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) for a tornado response and rebuilding program in Kentucky, aid to Ukrainian refugees and others affected by the war, a hurricane response in Honduras, projects of the Church of the Brethren in the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other needs. The seven recent grants total more than $375,000.
Ecumenism Metro Chicago and Chicagoland Christians United for the Care of Creation are planning a Declaration for the Care of Creation Signing Ceremony on Aug. 17 at 10 a.m. at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago. It will be held in conjunction with the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which is taking place there Aug. 14-18—drawing as many as 10,000 participants from 80 nations.
Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and one of the places people are coming together to mark the occasion is on Facebook. A “Brethren Volunteer Service–75th Anniversary” Facebook group has been created, and more than 500 people have joined. A flurry of photos, stories, and other recollections have been filling the page’s feed, from the earliest years of BVS up to the present. It’s a public group, so anyone can view the page at www.facebook.com/groups/709470850904528.
And a new book celebrating the BVS anniversary, A Year of Living Differently, by author Jim Lehman, is now available from Brethren Press. Cost is $19.48. Order at www.brethrenpress.com or call 800-441-3712. Anniversary observances are also planned for Annual Conference and National Older Adult Conference.
The 2023 Song and Story Fest family camp co-sponsored by On Earth Peace will be hosted at Camp Peaceful Pines July 29-Aug. 4. The camp and outdoor ministry center of the Church of the Brethren’s Pacific Southwest District is located in the Sierra Nevada mountains between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park, near Dardanelle, Calif. The theme for this year’s Sierra Wildfire Song and Story Fest is “After the Fire…” (Psalm 19:1-3). The event is billed as an intergenerational camp for all ages, individuals, and families. Storytellers, musicians, and workshop leaders include Rhonda and Greg Baker, Hannah Button-Harrison, Matt Guynn, Bill and Jacob Jolliff, Erin and Cody Flory Robertson, Anna Lisa Gross, Kathy Guisewite, Jonathan Hunter, Jim and Peg Lehman, Mike Stern, and Barbara West. Registration includes all meals, on-site facilities, and leadership, and is based upon age–adults $370, teens $240, children age 5 to 12 $150, children 4 and under free–with a maximum fee per family of $1,000. Daily fees are available. Registrations after July 1 add 10 percent as a late fee. Register online at onearthpeace.org/song_and_story_fest_2023.
The annual Clergywomen’s Breakfast will be held on July 5 at Annual Conference in Cincinnati. The keynote speaker, Margaret “Maggie” Elwell, is Assistant Professor of Peace Studies at Bethany Theological Seminary. Elwell has served as director of the Center for Theology, Women, and Gender at Princeton Seminary, taught English and humanities in Baltimore City Public Schools, and provided leadership to projects focused on social justice and disaster relief. She is a critical theorist of violence and a narratologist. Tickets can be purchased when registering for Annual Conference; if you have already registered, use the Additional Purchases button. Tickets will also be available while they last onsite. A limited number of partial scholarships are available. Contact officeofministry@brethren.org for information.
The Church of the Brethren Office of Ministry has created an online video resource of six segments featuring congregations that are creatively practicing the priesthood of all believers and thereby meeting their needs for pastoral leadership. At a time when congregations are struggling to find pastors to serve their needs, this series produced by videographer David Sollenberger is offered as a reminder that God places abundant spiritual gifts within congregations, just waiting to be discovered, affirmed, and nurtured. The series features three congregations, Warrensburg and Cabool in Missouri and Arkansas District, and Clover Creek in Middle Pennsylvania District. Their pastoral teams consist of as few as two to as many as five people. The series is a testimony to the effectiveness of the Brethren practice of the priesthood of all believers in fostering a culture of calling set-apart ministers. Find the new resource at www.brethren.org/ministryoffice/shared-ministry-model.
The seventh Brethren World Assembly will take place July 26-29 at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College and at Germantown Church of the Brethren in Philadelphia on the final day, July 29. The theme of the assembly is “Brethren Faithfulness: Priorities in Perspective.” The gathering marks 300 years of the Brethren in America and the 300th anniversary of the Germantown Church. The event also marks the centennial of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). The scheduled sessions relate to the history and developments of the Brethren in America from 1723 up to the Civil War, with an additional session about EYN. Opening devotions and evening worship services will open and close each day. For the entire Assembly, July 26-29, including the day at Germantown, fees are $310 (early bird cost, registered by May 15) or $370 (tegular cost, registered between May 16 and June 15). For the days in Elizabethtown only, July 26-28, fees are $190 (early bird, registered by May 15) or $225 (regular cost, registered between May 16 and June 15). One-day options are also available. Lodging is additional. Registration closes June 15. For more information, contact BWA23@etown.edu or call 717-327-8188.
Creation Justice Ministries, which is a partner organization for the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy is relaunching a “52 Ways to Care for Creation” bulletin insert series. Each week’s bulletin insert highlights a creation justice idea for action or reflection that corresponds with the season or the church calendar. Find out more at www.creationjustice.org/resource-hub/category/bulletin-insert.
Plans are taking shape for the next unit of BVS volunteers: Orientation Unit 333, which will take place Aug. 1-9 at Inspiration Hills Camp in Burbank, Ohio. About 15-20 volunteers are expected to be part of this orientation. The nine-day gathering will include group-building, a variety of sessions, service opportunities, visiting some local congregations, preparing for projects, and more. Volunteers will be coming from across the US and Germany, the latter group through BVS’ European partner, EIRENE. Applications are still being accepted for that orientation, or for another unit that will take place this fall, Sept. 26-Oct. 4 at Camp Koinonia in Cle Elum, Wash. Projects are available across the US, in Central America, Ireland and Northern Ireland, Japan, and elsewhere. Learn more and apply at www.brethren.org/bvs.
Recent grants from the Church of the Brethren’s Global Food Initiative (GFI) are supporting food distribution to the Hispanic community in Lancaster, Pa., agriculture micro-projects by the Church of the Brethren in Venezuela, a community garden project of the Church of the Brethren in Spain, and sustainable agriculture education in Burundi. Find the latest newsletter from GFI at mailchi.mp/brethren/gfi-update-2023-5.
Brethren Disaster Ministries has directed grants this spring from the Church of the Brethren’s Emergency Disaster Fund (EDF) for a tornado response and rebuilding program in Kentucky, aid to Ukrainian refugees and others affected by the war, a hurricane response in Honduras, projects of the Church of the Brethren in the Democratic Republic of Congo, among other needs. The seven recent grants total more than $375,000.
Ecumenism Metro Chicago and Chicagoland Christians United for the Care of Creation are planning a Declaration for the Care of Creation Signing Ceremony on Aug. 17 at 10 a.m. at McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago. It will be held in conjunction with the Parliament of the World’s Religions, which is taking place there Aug. 14-18—drawing as many as 10,000 participants from 80 nations.
Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, and one of the places people are coming together to mark the occasion is on Facebook. A “Brethren Volunteer Service–75th Anniversary” Facebook group has been created, and more than 500 people have joined. A flurry of photos, stories, and other recollections have been filling the page’s feed, from the earliest years of BVS up to the present. It’s a public group, so anyone can view the page at www.facebook.com/groups/709470850904528.
And a new book celebrating the BVS anniversary, A Year of Living Differently, by author Jim Lehman, is now available from Brethren Press. Cost is $19.48. Order at www.brethrenpress.com or call 800-441-3712. Anniversary observances are also planned for Annual Conference and National Older Adult Conference.
The 2023 Song and Story Fest family camp co-sponsored by On Earth Peace will be hosted at Camp Peaceful Pines July 29-Aug. 4. The camp and outdoor ministry center of the Church of the Brethren’s Pacific Southwest District is located in the Sierra Nevada mountains between Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park, near Dardanelle, Calif. The theme for this year’s Sierra Wildfire Song and Story Fest is “After the Fire…” (Psalm 19:1-3). The event is billed as an intergenerational camp for all ages, individuals, and families. Storytellers, musicians, and workshop leaders include Rhonda and Greg Baker, Hannah Button-Harrison, Matt Guynn, Bill and Jacob Jolliff, Erin and Cody Flory Robertson, Anna Lisa Gross, Kathy Guisewite, Jonathan Hunter, Jim and Peg Lehman, Mike Stern, and Barbara West. Registration includes all meals, on-site facilities, and leadership, and is based upon age–adults $370, teens $240, children age 5 to 12 $150, children 4 and under free–with a maximum fee per family of $1,000. Daily fees are available. Registrations after July 1 add 10 percent as a late fee. Register online at onearthpeace.org/song_and_story_fest_2023.
The annual Clergywomen’s Breakfast will be held on July 5 at Annual Conference in Cincinnati. The keynote speaker, Margaret “Maggie” Elwell, is Assistant Professor of Peace Studies at Bethany Theological Seminary. Elwell has served as director of the Center for Theology, Women, and Gender at Princeton Seminary, taught English and humanities in Baltimore City Public Schools, and provided leadership to projects focused on social justice and disaster relief. She is a critical theorist of violence and a narratologist. Tickets can be purchased when registering for Annual Conference; if you have already registered, use the Additional Purchases button. Tickets will also be available while they last onsite. A limited number of partial scholarships are available. Contact officeofministry@brethren.org for information.
The Church of the Brethren Office of Ministry has created an online video resource of six segments featuring congregations that are creatively practicing the priesthood of all believers and thereby meeting their needs for pastoral leadership. At a time when congregations are struggling to find pastors to serve their needs, this series produced by videographer David Sollenberger is offered as a reminder that God places abundant spiritual gifts within congregations, just waiting to be discovered, affirmed, and nurtured. The series features three congregations, Warrensburg and Cabool in Missouri and Arkansas District, and Clover Creek in Middle Pennsylvania District. Their pastoral teams consist of as few as two to as many as five people. The series is a testimony to the effectiveness of the Brethren practice of the priesthood of all believers in fostering a culture of calling set-apart ministers. Find the new resource at www.brethren.org/ministryoffice/shared-ministry-model.
The seventh Brethren World Assembly will take place July 26-29 at Elizabethtown (Pa.) College and at Germantown Church of the Brethren in Philadelphia on the final day, July 29. The theme of the assembly is “Brethren Faithfulness: Priorities in Perspective.” The gathering marks 300 years of the Brethren in America and the 300th anniversary of the Germantown Church. The event also marks the centennial of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria). The scheduled sessions relate to the history and developments of the Brethren in America from 1723 up to the Civil War, with an additional session about EYN. Opening devotions and evening worship services will open and close each day. For the entire Assembly, July 26-29, including the day at Germantown, fees are $310 (early bird cost, registered by May 15) or $370 (tegular cost, registered between May 16 and June 15). For the days in Elizabethtown only, July 26-28, fees are $190 (early bird, registered by May 15) or $225 (regular cost, registered between May 16 and June 15). One-day options are also available. Lodging is additional. Registration closes June 15. For more information, contact BWA23@etown.edu or call 717-327-8188.
Creation Justice Ministries, which is a partner organization for the Church of the Brethren’s Office of Peacebuilding and Policy is relaunching a “52 Ways to Care for Creation” bulletin insert series. Each week’s bulletin insert highlights a creation justice idea for action or reflection that corresponds with the season or the church calendar. Find out more at www.creationjustice.org/resource-hub/category/bulletin-insert.
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