Brethren bits: Remembrance, personnel, and more.

• Don Snider, 89, died Feb. 1 at his home at Timbercrest Church of the Brethren Home in North Manchester, Ind. Interspersed with several pastoral placements in Illinois and Pennsylvania, Snider served as National Youth Director for the Church of the Brethren 1944-51; directed Brethren Service post-World War II relief and rehabilitation work in Kassel, Germany, 1951-54; and directed Brethren Volunteer Service 1961-69. He was a regional secretary in Middle Pennsylvania District 1942-44, interpreting the then-new Brethren Service and serving as recruitment staff for Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., his alma mater. At one time, Snider held the quarter-mile track record at Juniata, time 50 seconds flat. He also held a degree from Bethany Theological Seminary. Snider was a leader in the peace witness of the denomination, was a draft counselor for youth, and was vocal in opposition to the law instituted in 1980 requiring young men to register for Selective Service. He also worked to resettle Vietnamese refugees in the US, and led numerous youth camps. A memorial service was held at Manchester Church of the Brethren on Feb. 12.
  
  
• Brenda Hayward has begun as receptionist at the Church of the Brethren General Offices in Elgin, Ill. Her work experience includes 18 years in a variety of capacities at Bank One, as well as other customer service settings. She has an early connection with the General Offices through her father, Henry Barton, who worked in the building as a printing press operator for many years.
  
  
• The Brethren Retirement Community in Greenville, Ohio, seeks a president/CEO. The community serves 450 residents in independent living, at a satellite campus, and in residential, assisted living, skilled nursing, and dementia care units. The CEO will play a pivotal role in guiding the Brethren Retirement Community through its current five-year strategic planning process. Expectations for candidates include financial and operational management experience, a team style of leadership, community public relations, and effective communication skills. NHA required. Contact Ralph McFadden at 352 Shiloh Ct., Elgin, IL 60120; 847-622-1677; e-mail hikermac@sbcglobal.net; fax 847-742-6103. Resumes and salary histories will be accepted until March 18.
  
  
• Southern Ohio District is searching for a part-time director of Outdoor Ministries. The district seeks applicants committed to leading and implementing Christian ministry in a variety of outdoor settings. Applicants may respond by post, e-mail, or fax by March 15 to Southern Ohio District Church of the Brethren, 1001 Mill Ridge Circle, Union, OH 45322; e-mail mfsteury_ds@brethren.org; fax 937-832-6396. In case of questions, please call 937-832-6399.
  
  
• Volunteers are needed for Annual Conference in Peoria, July 2-6, especially to work with registration. If you plan to attend and can help, please call the Annual Conference office at 800-323-8039 or e-mail annualconference@brethren.org.
  
  
• Information Services staff for the General Board have installed a spam filter on the board's e-mail server. This filter has been effective in reducing spam e-mail arriving in staff e-mail boxes. However, some good e-mail has been blocked. If you have sent an e-mail to General Board staff and have not gotten a timely response, please follow up with a phone call to that staff person. It is possible the e-mail was not received. Information Services continues to work at fine tuning the spam filter for maximum effectiveness.
  
  
• "Messenger" magazine editor Walt Wiltschek is serving as the English-language reporter for the World Council of Churches (WCC) Central Committee meetings in Geneva, Switzerland, Feb. 15-22. The General Board is offering his time and talents as a service to the international ecumenical organization, which is covering his expenses, said Wendy McFadden, Brethren Press publisher. Jeff Carter, pastor of Manassas (Va.) Church of the Brethren, is the Church of the Brethren observer at the meetings. On the agenda: making consensus the established method of decision-making; planning for the WCC Ninth Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in Feb. 2006; the peoples and churches of the Pacific region; ethical challenges including human sexuality; and a new configuration of the ecumenical movement.
  
  
• The General Board's Brethren Witness/Washington Office invites Brethren to the 2005 Ecumenical Advocacy Days March 11-14 in Arlington, Va. "Making All Things New" is the theme. Participants will examine US policy regarding the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Latin America, global economic justice, global security, ecological justice, and US domestic issues. An additional "track" will be offered on "Global Security and Nuclear Weapons Danger" focusing on terrorism, militarism, and nuclear weapons. Registration is $135, not including hotel stay. See www.advocacydays.org or call the Brethren Witness/Washington Office at 800-785-3246.
  
  
• The Brethren Witness/Washington Office will host a drop-in Feb. 22 for the School of Americas (SOA) Watch Legislative Action Days. The event supports legislation to close the US Army's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly the SOA). See http://home.maryknoll.org or call the office at 800-785-3246.
  
  
• Mary Blocher Smeltzer of La Verne (Calif.) Church of the Brethren, was one of more than 200 teachers honored by the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, Feb. 5. The group taught Japanese American students in internment camps during World War II, and were honored for "extraordinary actions (that) touched and transformed a generation of Japanese Americans," reported the "Los Angeles Times." Smeltzer was invited to a dinner at the Century Plaza Hotel in company with many of the teachers, now in their 80s and 90s, who voluntarily joined Japanese Americans in the internment camps. "We thought they needed help, so we helped," she told the Times. She taught at the Manzanar camp in California with her husband Ralph, now deceased. "Inside the camp, when every public indication was that we had no future, you had these teachers saying, `Yes, you do matter,'" said Glenn Kumekawa, a retired Rhode Island professor who was sent to Topaz camp in Utah at age 14. Some 110,000 Japanese Americans were held at 10 camps and an estimated 30,000 children attended school there. Smeltzer and her husband also helped resettle 1,000 Japanese Americans in Chicago and New York through the Church of the Brethren.
  
  
• Bill Puffenberger, a retired Elizabethtown (Pa.) College professor of Religious Studies, is making a collection of Brethren Service Commission Cups in their various shapes, sizes, and wood types for permanent display at the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies. For a brief history of the cups, or to donate a cup to the collection, contact Puffenberger at 28 Shybrook Ct., Elizabethtown, PA 17022-9200; 717-367-7021; e-mail puffenwv@etown.edu. Include a brief descriptive note with cup donations. "We want to document the age, locality, wood type, and craftsperson of each donated cup if at all possible," Puffenberger said.
  
  
• "Lenten Fast from Violence" weekly resource guides are available from the US Committee for the Decade to Overcome Violence (DOV), a program of the World Council of Churches. The guides for the six weeks of Lent highlight responses of people of faith to overcoming violence with nonviolent means. Weekly themes include violent media and video games, violence in creation, violence against women, militarism, Iraq, and the violence of poverty. Included are biblical reflections, prayers, educational resources, advocacy tools, and samples of nonviolent responses. See the DOV website www.overcomingviolence.org.
  
  
• The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund is offering a sample letter to the IRS that taxpayers concerned for peace may enclose with 2004 returns. The nonprofit campaign advocates for a law allowing conscientious objectors to pay full federal income taxes without funding the military. The letter explains that the sender is not opposed to paying taxes, expresses opposition to war, and supports the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill. It quotes the Ten Commandments, "Thou shalt not kill," and Matthew 5:44, Jesus' command to "Love your enemies." See www.peacetaxfund.org.

Source: 2/16/2005 Newsline
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