Brethren bits: Personnel, job openings, and more.

• Beth Burnette will serve as promotions specialist for the General Board's "Messenger" magazine, beginning about Oct. 1. This is a part-time, temporary position funded for two years through special gifts to the "Messenger" anniversary fund. Burnette will work primarily from her home in St. Charles, Ill. A member of York Center Church of the Brethren in Lombard, Ill., Burnette is retiring as administrative assistant for Illinois and Wisconsin District and as York Center's Christian education director. She has experience in nonprofit and for-profit marketing and developing print materials for advertising in the Chicago area and in Maryland.
  
  
• The Indianapolis Peace House seeks an associate director for the undergraduate study-away program, recruitment of students, finding and overseeing internship placements, and coordinating activities. The Peace House is a residential experience for students and includes coursework, internship, communal living, and participation in neighborhood activities. Indianapolis Peace House (www.indypeacehouse.org), a component of the Plowshares project (www.plowsharesproject.org), is a Lilly Endowment-funded collaborative of Manchester, Earlham, and Goshen colleges. Required qualifications include a bachelor's degree; organizational skills; record of experience in mediation, conflict resolution, or peace studies; experience with student recruitment; interpersonal and communication skills; willingness to travel. Desired qualifications include a master's degree in an appropriate field; experience with program administration in a college or university; ability to teach; familiarity with Indianapolis and its not-for-profits. Salary is commensurate with experience. The position is open immediately but should be filled no later than Aug. 1. Candidates should send a resume, with at least three references, to Erwin Boschmann, CEO, c/o DeeDee House, Indianapolis Peace House, 1201 N. Central Ave., Box 3, Indianapolis, IN 46202-2696; dhouse@indypeacehouse.org; 317-631-7322; fax 317-631-5969.
  
  
• The Ecumenical Stewardship Center in Indianapolis seeks an executive director to supervise staff; provide oversight for corporate management, fiscal solvency, and member relations; cultivate and maintain relationships with member denominations, associate partners, and other faith-based stewardship organizations; and provide management, direction, promotion, and support for new and existing events, programs, and resources. A passion for Christian stewardship and commitment to the mission of the center is essential. Demonstrated skill in administration, organizational and financial management, written and verbal communication, and program development is required. Experience in ecumenical settings, contexts of diversity, and denominational ministry is expected. Academic training in theology or social sciences is preferred. A competitive salary and benefits are available. Send cover letter and resume by Aug. 15 to ESC Search Committee, 1100 W. 42nd St., Indianapolis, IN 46208. Visit www.stewardshipresources.org for more information.
  
  
• The National Council of Churches (NCC) seeks young adult volunteers for its Stewards Program. Stewards will serve during the General Assembly of the NCC and Church World Service in Baltimore, Md., Nov. 8-10. This is the third year for the program, which gathers a small group of Christian young adults from across the country to assist in the work of the assembly and to observe ecumenism "up close" as some 250 delegates from 36 Protestant, Anglican, and Orthodox denominations gather for worship, business, and fellowship. Stewards assist with hospitality, registration, audio-visual technology, and other tasks. The experience includes a young adult spiritual development event. Stewards must be between the ages of 18 and 30 and have the recommendation of their denomination. Contact Chris Douglas at the General Board's Youth and Young Adult Ministries, cdouglas_gb@brethren.org or call 800-323-8039 ext. 297.
  
  
• Youth pastors are invited to meet at Annual Conference in Peoria, Ill. Those who are serving as paid youth pastors in the Church of the Brethren are invited to a gathering of youth ministry professionals sponsored by the General Board's Youth and Young Adult Ministry Office on Monday, July 4, 1-2 p.m. in Room 201 of the Peoria Civic Center. This will be a time for networking, sharing, and learning to know others in the field of fulltime youth ministry.
  
  
• The Central Maryland Chapter of the American Red Cross is closing its Carroll County, Howard County, and Harford County offices as part of a restructuring plan to centralize services at the chapter office in Baltimore. The Carroll County office at the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., will close July 1. Linda Vanderhoff, district director, extended her thanks for the generous support given to the Red Cross by Brethren Service Center agencies and staff.
  
  
• Brethren Benefit Trust and the General Board are now providing wireless internet access at the General Offices in Elgin, Ill. This is a new service provided in cooperation between the agencies.
  
  
• Dates and sites have been announced for the next two Cross-Cultural Consultations and Celebrations: May 4-7, 2006, in Lancaster, Pa.; and April 19-22, 2007, in New Windsor, Md. Plans are for the consultation to be held on the west coast in 2008. For more information contact Duane Grady at 800-505-1596 or e-mail
  dgrady_gb@brethren.org.
  
  
• Brethren Volunteer Service is having a potluck on July 30 at 6:30 p.m. at Union Bridge (Md.) Church of the Brethren. Any former Brethren Volunteer Service workers and Civilian Public Service (CPS) workers are invited, and anyone who has a connection to either program. "We see this potluck as a wonderful opportunity for the `volunteers in training' from BVS Unit 265 to be able to connect with people that have done similar service," said Sam Bowman of the BVS office. "We hope to see you there." Bring a covered dish to share, or any other type of food for the potluck. There will be a short informal time of introduction and sharing.
  
  
• Peoria (Ill.) Church of the Brethren is holding a Biker Weekend June 25-26, with the local chapter of the Christian Motorcyclist Association (CMA). The chapter has met monthly in the church fellowship hall for the past two years, reports the congregation's newsletter. Weekend events will include motorcycle games in the parking lot, a barbecue, rides, a concert by the southern gospel group "The Chasteens," Sunday morning worship with testimonies from the biker community, and a traditional CMA blessing of the bikes during the Sunday school hour. "The main objective of this event is to reach out to and witness to the biker community in a way and in a setting that they find comfortable and welcoming," the newsletter said. "The CMA is doing much of the heavy lifting for this event and we are grateful to them for their heartfelt desire to reach out in the name of Christ."
  
  
• Imperial Heights Community Church of the Brethren in Los Angeles, Calif., is starting a community orchestra. "We have acquired an instructor who has caught the vision and has the passion of working with individuals who have the desire to play a musical instrument," reported pastor Thomas Dowdy in an open invitation to Pacific Southwest District saying, "I believe you will be blessed in what God is doing in this multicultural community.... We have extended this wonderful opportunity to the community free of charge, asking anyone who wants to play a musical instrument with or without experience to come join this orchestra." The church is offering classes for the orchestra and the opportunity for individual instruction. The debut performance will be Sunday, Aug. 21, during the weekend of the Pacific Southwest District board meeting at Imperial Heights. For more information call 323-754-3998.
  
  
• Pastor Ruth A. Yoder and Union Center Church of the Brethren in Nappanee were among those receiving grants from the 2005 Clergy Renewal Program for Indiana Congregations, funded by Lilly Endowment Inc. The grants were awarded to 36 ministers statewide, to allow them to take an extended time away from the daily demands of church leadership to spend time studying, reflecting, reconnecting with their families, traveling, and writing.
  
  
• Painesville (Ohio) Church of the Brethren is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a worship service held 50 years to the day from its first worship service on June 26, 1955. Worship will be held at 10:30 a.m. this June 26, followed by a luncheon. The celebration will include opening a time capsule buried in 1985, on the 30th anniversary. RSVP for the luncheon at 440-352-3974.
  
  
• The Church of the Brethren was represented at the 10th annual Religion Fair in Harrisburg, Pa., in May. The Brethren joined others including Catholics, Quakers, Mormons, Muslims, Buddhists, Bahai, Jews, and Unitarian-Universalists at the fair, according to "The Patriot-News." The event was sponsored by the Interreligious Forum of Greater Harrisburg.
  
  
• The Brethren Home Community of Southern Pennsylvania District will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2008. Founded in 1908, the home was located in Cumberland County on Pine Road near Huntsdale, Pa., until a fire destroyed the home on Jan. 27, 1951. A new home was established with the purchase of the Cross Keys Hotel one mile east of New Oxford, Pa. The home is now a continuing care retirement community with over 900 residents in independent living, assisted living, and a health care center. A Centennial Committee has been organized to plan for special events, publish a book, and prepare a display of significant events. Centennial events will begin at the Festival of Lights in Dec. 2007 and continue through the anniversary year. More information can be found at www.brethrenhome.org.
  
  
• Unity in Community, an organization founded with help from Manassas (Va.) Church of the Brethren, celebrated its 10th anniversary on May 14, according to the "Potomac News." The Manassas church hosted the interfaith supper celebration titled "Taste of Unity." Unity in Community serves Prince William County and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park, working on problems of intolerance and racism and supporting diversity. The first Unity in Community meeting of local clergy was held in 1995 at the invitation of Illana Naylor and the Manassas church. Accomplishments include "hate-free" and "bigot-free" zones, education on hate crimes, work with schools and youth, and action countering leafletting by the KKK.
  
  
• Waynesboro (Pa.) Church of the Brethren hosted the 54th annual Clothesline Art Exhibit of the Waynesboro Studio Club on the second weekend in June. The event showed the work of local artists and students from Waynesboro Area Senior High School. The church hosts monthly meetings of the club.
  
  
• The 16th annual World Hunger Bike Ride in Virlina District took place June 18 starting at Antioch Church of the Brethren in Rocky Mount, Va. The event offered a choice of rides of 10 miles, 25 miles, and 50 miles.
  
  
• The Sonfest festival of contemporary Christian music in Smithsburg, Md., on June 11 featured recordings of songs by the late Dean Mouk, pastor of Welty Church of the Brethren in Smithsburg until his death nearly a year ago. The annual festival is sponsored by Trinity Lutheran Church. Mouk was a fixture from the first Sonfest eight years ago, reported the "Herald-Mail."
  
  
• Samuel Dante Dali, a leader in Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (EYN--the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), has been awarded a Ph.D. at the University of Birmingham, England, in the area of church history. His dissertation is titled, "The Contemporary Search for Visible-Practical Unity in the Fellowship of the Churches of Christ in Nigeria: In the Light of the Ecumenical Policies and Work of the Sudan United Mission (1904-1960)." Dali returns this month to his teaching position at the Theological College of Northern Nigeria. His study was sponsored through the Global Mission Partnerships office of the General Board as a part of longterm leadership development in EYN.
  
  
• The National Council of Churches is holding a "Money for Mission: Greening Initiatives That Make Cents" workshop on June 29, 8:30-11:30 a.m., at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America headquarters in Chicago. The workshop is intended for faith leaders--including camp and conference center staff, clergy, lay leaders of congregations, and denominational staff--to learn how to "green" religious congregations and institutions. Organizers hope to empower and enable participants to incorporate environmentally sustainable practices and increase environmental stewardship while reducing financial burdens. Registration of $10 includes breakfast. To register e-mail cassandra@toad.net or visit www.nccecojustice.org.
  
  
• The Valley Brethren-Mennonite Heritage Center in Harrisonburg, Va., will host a "Tears and Ashes" bus tour in the Dayton (Va.) area on July 16, beginning and ending at Garbers Church of the Brethren. Norman Wenger and David Rodes, researchers and compilers of "Unionists and the Civil War Experience in the Shenandoah Valley," will lead the tour. Sites will include Meigs Lane, Silver Lake Mill, "Doc" Gabe and Margaret Swank Heatwole's house that hid Unionists fleeing the war, and Pleasant View Old Order Mennonite Church. The $50 fee includes a Mennonite-German meal at Bank Mennonite Church. Checks written to CrossRoads (or VBMHC) and received by July 8 will reserve a seat. Send to P.O. Box 1563, Harrisonburg, VA 22803. The center also is holding Sunday evening vesper services in July and August at the CrossRoads Ampitheater. Area Brethren leaders will take part in many of the services, which will conclude Aug. 28 with a service led by Mountain View Church of the Brethren. For more information see www.vbmhc.org.

Source: 6/22/2005 Newsline
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