DENOMINATIONAL NEWS/NEWSLINE
Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) Unit 333 held orientation Aug. 1-9 at Inspiration Hills Camp in Burbank, Ohio, with 13 volunteers and 3 staff participating. Six of the volunteers came from EIRENE, BVS’s long-time service partner in Germany. Of the seven US volunteers, four are Church of the Brethren members and two others graduated from a Brethren college/university. The orientation included training sessions, group-building activities, volunteer-prepared meals, visits to local churches, and a service project at the camp. The week ended with a service of feetwashing, commissioning, and celebration. Greg Davidson Laszakovits, BVS Europe coordinator Sara Cook, Ben Bear, Emily Hooker, and Kayla Alphonse provided session leadership, joining the group remotely via Zoom, along with some staff-led sessions. Volunteers headed to projects from California to Maryland and to Northern Ireland and Ecuador. BVS, which is currently celebrating its 75th anniversary, will hold its next orientation Sept. 26-Oct. 4 at Camp Koinonia, Cle Elum, Wash. For more information on BVS and how to apply to serve as a full-time volunteer, visit www.brethrenvolunteerservice.org.
Ecumenism Metro Chicago and Chicagoland Christians United for the Care of Creation are planning a Declaration for the Care of Creation Signing Ceremony on Thursday, 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.
Christian Churches Together (CCT) is holding its annual forum on Oct. 3-6 in Savannah, Ga. The event will gather leaders and representatives of the ecumenical organization’s 30-plus communions and organizations representing Orthodox, Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and historic Black churches to “pilgrimage together on the Historic Baptismal Trail, pray and dialogue with one another, and experience each other’s traditions in shared worship as we seek to love, learn, and lead together,” said an announcement. The theme is “Water that Unites and Water that Divides: Baptism and the Journey to Unity and Reconciliation.” The Church of the Brethren is a member denomination of CCT.
“Believing and Belonging,” an accessible Anabaptist membership curriculum from Anabaptist Disabilities Network, is now available at www.brethrenpress.com. The curriculum is designed to help churches welcome people with disabilities into full fellowship in the body of Christ, according to a release from ADN.
Wood Travel Partners, a Brethren-affiliated travel agency, is offering a river cruise tour of Germany, including a stop in Schwarzenau, Aug. 22-30, 2024. The cruise, down the Rhine and Danube rivers, will also include stops in Regensburg, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Wertheim, Cologne, and elsewhere. To learn more, call 765-274-3986 or email jwood@dreamvacations.com.
A new book celebrating Brethren Volunteer Service’s 75th 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 Church of the Brethren Mission Advancement team has decided to no longer ask congregations to submit a Self-Allocation Form detailing projected giving to various denominational and district programs during the year. Instead, an annual narrative providing an overview of mission and ministry efforts will encourage congregations to support the work of the church.
The Church of the Brethren Mission and Ministry Board during its Annual Conference summer meeting called a new executive committee for 2023-2024, naming board members Lauren Seganos Cohen, Joel Gibbel, and Roger Schrock to serve on the committee with chair Colin Scott and chair-elect Kathy Mack.
A grant of $1,250,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. will support the development of Shine: Living in God’s Light. MennoMedia received the grant on behalf of Shine, a joint publication of MennoMedia and Brethren Press. The grant is part of Lilly Endowment’s Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative, which aims to help parents and caregivers share their faith and values with their children.
The Church of the Brethren Global Food Initiative is marking 40 years of ministry this year, with more than $80 million in grants and aid provided over that time to locations around the world and in the US.
For the first time since 2019, junior high youth and their advisors gathered for the Church of the Brethren National Junior High Conference in June. Eleven districts were represented in the 164 participants who spent the weekend on the campus of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa. Worship, a central piece of the program, invited participants to ask the question: “What Does God Want from Me?” A video wrap up from the conference is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/mX5ge6SzqEw.
Phyllis J. Carter, 92, of Goshen, Ind., a former moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference who also held other key leadership positions in the denomination, died Aug. 10 at Majestic Healthcare of Goshen. In addition to serving as moderator of Annual Conference in 1992 (serving as the second woman to be elected to the top leadership position in the Church of the Brethren) she also served on the former General Board and chaired the board’s World Ministry Commission, and was district executive of Florida/Puerto District. A funeral service was held Aug. 15 in Goshen.
Berwyn Lee Oltman, a former district executive in the Church of the Brethren, has passed away. He was born on April 26, 1932, in Enders, Neb. He married Kathryn Ann Forsyth in 1953. They both attended McPherson (Kan.) College and as newlyweds were dorm parents at the college. He attended Bethany Theological Seminary and was an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, serving several churches in Iowa before moving to Florida in 1980 to serve several churches there. He also served as district executive minister for the Church of the Brethren’s Atlantic Southeast District. He was a member of New Covenant Church of the Brethren at Camp Ithiel in Gotha, Fla., where he had pastored for a time. His wife, Kathryn, passed away less than 24 hours after his death. They had just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
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.
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.
Ecumenism Metro Chicago and Chicagoland Christians United for the Care of Creation are planning a Declaration for the Care of Creation Signing Ceremony on Thursday, 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.
Christian Churches Together (CCT) is holding its annual forum on Oct. 3-6 in Savannah, Ga. The event will gather leaders and representatives of the ecumenical organization’s 30-plus communions and organizations representing Orthodox, Catholic, mainline Protestant, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and historic Black churches to “pilgrimage together on the Historic Baptismal Trail, pray and dialogue with one another, and experience each other’s traditions in shared worship as we seek to love, learn, and lead together,” said an announcement. The theme is “Water that Unites and Water that Divides: Baptism and the Journey to Unity and Reconciliation.” The Church of the Brethren is a member denomination of CCT.
“Believing and Belonging,” an accessible Anabaptist membership curriculum from Anabaptist Disabilities Network, is now available at www.brethrenpress.com. The curriculum is designed to help churches welcome people with disabilities into full fellowship in the body of Christ, according to a release from ADN.
Wood Travel Partners, a Brethren-affiliated travel agency, is offering a river cruise tour of Germany, including a stop in Schwarzenau, Aug. 22-30, 2024. The cruise, down the Rhine and Danube rivers, will also include stops in Regensburg, Nuremberg, Bamberg, Wertheim, Cologne, and elsewhere. To learn more, call 765-274-3986 or email jwood@dreamvacations.com.
A new book celebrating Brethren Volunteer Service’s 75th 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 Church of the Brethren Mission Advancement team has decided to no longer ask congregations to submit a Self-Allocation Form detailing projected giving to various denominational and district programs during the year. Instead, an annual narrative providing an overview of mission and ministry efforts will encourage congregations to support the work of the church.
The Church of the Brethren Mission and Ministry Board during its Annual Conference summer meeting called a new executive committee for 2023-2024, naming board members Lauren Seganos Cohen, Joel Gibbel, and Roger Schrock to serve on the committee with chair Colin Scott and chair-elect Kathy Mack.
A grant of $1,250,000 from Lilly Endowment Inc. will support the development of Shine: Living in God’s Light. MennoMedia received the grant on behalf of Shine, a joint publication of MennoMedia and Brethren Press. The grant is part of Lilly Endowment’s Christian Parenting and Caregiving Initiative, which aims to help parents and caregivers share their faith and values with their children.
The Church of the Brethren Global Food Initiative is marking 40 years of ministry this year, with more than $80 million in grants and aid provided over that time to locations around the world and in the US.
For the first time since 2019, junior high youth and their advisors gathered for the Church of the Brethren National Junior High Conference in June. Eleven districts were represented in the 164 participants who spent the weekend on the campus of Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa. Worship, a central piece of the program, invited participants to ask the question: “What Does God Want from Me?” A video wrap up from the conference is available on YouTube at https://youtu.be/mX5ge6SzqEw.
Phyllis J. Carter, 92, of Goshen, Ind., a former moderator of the Church of the Brethren Annual Conference who also held other key leadership positions in the denomination, died Aug. 10 at Majestic Healthcare of Goshen. In addition to serving as moderator of Annual Conference in 1992 (serving as the second woman to be elected to the top leadership position in the Church of the Brethren) she also served on the former General Board and chaired the board’s World Ministry Commission, and was district executive of Florida/Puerto District. A funeral service was held Aug. 15 in Goshen.
Berwyn Lee Oltman, a former district executive in the Church of the Brethren, has passed away. He was born on April 26, 1932, in Enders, Neb. He married Kathryn Ann Forsyth in 1953. They both attended McPherson (Kan.) College and as newlyweds were dorm parents at the college. He attended Bethany Theological Seminary and was an ordained minister in the Church of the Brethren, serving several churches in Iowa before moving to Florida in 1980 to serve several churches there. He also served as district executive minister for the Church of the Brethren’s Atlantic Southeast District. He was a member of New Covenant Church of the Brethren at Camp Ithiel in Gotha, Fla., where he had pastored for a time. His wife, Kathryn, passed away less than 24 hours after his death. They had just celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary.
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.
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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