NATIONAL OLDER ADULT CONFERENCE

About 550 people attended this year’s Church of the Brethren National Older Adult Conference Sept. 4-8 at the Lake Junaluska Conference Center in western North Carolina, near Asheville, along with a contingent who joined virtually. That included several dozen members of Illinois/Wisconsin District.

Several district members were involved in prominent ways, including worship speakers Christina Singh (Freeport) and Katie Shaw Thompson (Highland Avenue), conference pianist Nancy Miner (Highland Avenue), logo/worship center designer Debbie Noffsinger (Highland Avenue), planning team member Leonard Matheny (Peoria), denominational staff Josh Brockway (Highland Avenue), and NOAC coordinator Christy Waltersdorff (York Center). District executive Walt Wiltschek did a workshop and hosted a talent night for Brethren Volunteer Service and served as a “minion” during the week.

“If we practice tuning into awe maybe we will tune…into a world made whole and holy,” Shaw Thompson said during the closing worship. She invited participants to go into their congregations and other settings and create “a community connected and made whole by God.” Bible study co-leader Bob Neff likewise said that events such as baptisms and common meals are “communal things that bring meaning” in church life. In Singh’s message Tuesday evening, she said, “However God calls you, he will always reveal it to you. How will you know? If you have a hunger that others do not have.”

Other worship speakers and keynoters included Jeremy Ashworth, pastor of the Circle of Peace congregation in Arizona; Mennonite actor Ken Swartz and pianist/improvisational artist Ken Medema; author Osheta Moore, ordained Church of the Brethren minister Deanna Brown, Harrisburg (Pa.) First pastor Lexi Aligarbes, and author Mark Charles, who addressed themes around the Doctrine of Discovery. The famous NOAC News team provided video highlights through the week.

Also on the conference schedule were morning Bible studies, daily workshop options and “talkback” sessions with presenters, arts and crafts, recreation opportunities, and evening ice cream socials and get-togethers.

More than $25,000 in offerings were collected during the week, and some participants also assembled and packed 1,375 disaster health kits to be taken to the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md. More than 80 people did a fundraising walk around the lake’s 2.5-mile path to support a new NOAC scholarship fund. The next NOAC will take place in September 2025.