Brethren bits: Correction, personnel, job opening, and more.

• Correction: The total of four grants from the General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund reported in the Newsline of June 22 is $165,000.
  
  
• Nigeria mission workers Matt Haren and Nancy Steedle are concluding their terms of service this summer. In Nigeria they have worked through Brethren Volunteer Service and the Global Mission Partnerships of the General Board. Haren has taught at Hillcrest School in Jos. Steedle has worked with the Women's School of Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (EYN--the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria), located at EYN headquarters near Mubi. Haren plans to continue his teaching career in the United States. Steedle plans to enter graduate studies.
  
  
• Amy Adkins began July 18 as part-time program assistant in the General Board's Brethren Witness/Washington Office in Washington, D.C. She has been serving in the office as a legislative assistant through Brethren Volunteer Service. Adkins is from Middlebury, Ind., and is a graduate of Manchester College in North Manchester, Ind.
  
  
• The General Board seeks a customer service inventory specialist to fill a fulltime position with Brethren Press in Elgin, Ill. The position is available immediately. Brethren Press is a denominational publishing house that provides resource information including Christian education materials, supplies, and brochures to congregations and individuals. Responsibilities include inventory control, ordering, payables, reconciliation; handling telephone, mail, and Internet orders; and processing end-of-the-month activity, statements, reports, and journals. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated ability in customer service, word processing, intermediate accounting, and general office skills. Experience in a church or service organization and some college credits are preferred, experience in Christian education is a plus. To apply, mail a cover letter, resume, and references to: Church of the Brethren General Board, Office of Human Resources, 1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120. The application deadline is Aug. 8.
  
  
• The Annual Conference Study Committee on Doing Church Business is asking for prayer to support its work at an upcoming meeting, Aug. 1-3 in New Paris, Ohio. Members will share results from interviews across the denomination and consider responses to surveys filled out at Annual Conference. The committee also will prepare a first draft of its response to how the Annual Conference delegate body may more adequately discern the mind of Christ. The final draft will be presented to the 2006 Annual Conference. Committee members are Joe Detrick, Matt Guynn, Verdena Lee, Dale Posthumus, and Dave Shetler. Please address comments and questions to doingchurchbusiness@brethren.org.
  
  
• The 2005 Ecumenical Citations were given by the Committee on Interchurch Relations at Annual Conference. Colleen Hamilton of Hope Church of the Brethren in Freeport, Mich., and Marisa de Oliveira of Campo Limpo Preaching Point in Campo Limpo, Brazil, received the citations. The two were among four youth and young adults recognized for peacemaking efforts, including Matt Boyer of La Verne (Calif.) Church of the Brethren, and Anna Christine Simons of Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren in South Bend, Ind. Hamilton received the citation for her efforts for the environment and global concerns including helping to begin a recycling program at her high school, bringing focus to the use and waste of styrofoam in the school cafeteria, working and worshiping ecumenically with another congregation in the area, and participating in a high school arts troupe "HEARTS: Helping Educate Abstinence, Responsible Teens." De Oliveira received the citation for her deep sense of justice and her call to share God's love with others through her work for hunger and women's and children's issues. She volunteers at a soup kitchen, has begun a children's church and after-school tutoring program, and has developed and runs children's and women's programs in a poor and dangerous neighborhood of her city.
  
  
• People of faith are organizing around the country from July 8-21 to pray, bear political witness, and speak truth to power to end the violence in Darfur, Sudan, reported the General Board's Brethren Witness/Washington Office. Thursday July 21 is the one-year anniversary of the date the US Congress unanimously declared the violence in Darfur a genocide. The office announced that public vigils across the country are being assembled to call leaders to put meaning to the words "never again." An action alert reported that nearly 400,000 people have been killed and millions have been displaced in Darfur, and that the violence continues with little attention from the media and politicians. The office sponsored a prayer vigil for Sudan at the Church of the Brethren Song and Story Fest family camp on July 10. For more information about other vigils for Sudan, see www.sojo.net. Contact the Brethren Witness/Washington Office at 800-785-3246 or e-mail washington_office_gb@brethren.org.
  
  
• Brethren Volunteer Service is announcing the start of its summer orientation, July 24-Aug. 12 in New Windsor, Md., at the Brethren Service Center. This will be the 265th BVS unit, with 16 volunteers from the US and Germany. Brethren members will make up most of the group. The remaining volunteers come from varied faith backgrounds. The group will have a chance to work at the center, at A Greater Gift/SERRV, and at the clothing warehouse. A weekend immersion experience will take place at an inner city Baltimore homeless shelter, and while there the group also will work at soup kitchens and Habitat for Humanity. Another day of service will be spent meeting the needs of members of the local community. In addition, unit members will join in a BVS potluck that is open to all those who are interested, on July 30 at 6:30 p.m. at Union Bridge Church of the Brethren. "Please feel free to come and welcome the new BVS volunteers and share your own experiences about Brethren Volunteer Service," an invitation read. "As always your prayer support is welcome and needed. Please pray for the unit and the people they will touch during their year of service."
  
  
• A celebration of the early days of Heifer Project International will be held in Carroll County, Md., Aug. 12-14. The commemorative conference called "Passing on the Gift" is sponsored by the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Md., along with the Heifer International Mid-Atlantic Regional Office and the Historical Society of Carroll County. On Earth Peace is sponsoring a screening of the documentary, "Seeds of Peace," at the Carroll Arts Center in Westminster, Md., on Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. The Brethren Service Center will be the site of day-long activities featuring a gathering of Seagoing Cowboys on Aug. 13. Brochures are available from Kathleen Campanella at 410-635-8710 ext. 747 or e-mail kcampanella_gb@brethren.org.
  
  
• Brethren in the Roanoke (Va.) area are helping the Lighthouse Church build a new facility on US Rte. 220. The construction work is almost finished, reported Virlina District in an e-mail newsletter, but due to the expiration of the construction loan on July 31, the church needs to finish all of the building interior by that time. "This is a prime opportunity to engage in mission work for all of us, whether skilled or unskilled," the district said. For more information call the church at 540-798-6562.
  
  
• Codorus Church of the Brethren in Loganville, Pa., holds its Christian music festival, Dunkard Valley Live, Aug. 6-7. The festival will be at the Codorus church softball field two miles east of Loganville on Rte. 214. Rain dates are Aug. 13-14. The event will feature local groups and solists performing a wide variety of music, as well as speakers. Among the speakers is Walt Wiltschek, editor of the Church of the Brethren "Messenger" magazine. Admission is free, bring blankets or chairs for seating. Food will be available for sale. For more information e-mail DnkVallpromotion@aol.com.
  
  
• Missouri and Arkansas District will hold its district conference July 22-24 at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Mo., with Gene Sappington as moderator. Three districts are meeting the next weekend: Northern Ohio District July 29-31 at Ashland (Ohio) University with Terry Baldwin as moderator; Southeastern District July 29-31 at Mars Hill (N.C.) College with Harold Rose as moderator; and Southern Plains District July 29-30 at Big Creek Church of the Brethren in Cushing, Okla., with Dean Stump as moderator.
  
  
• Good Shepherd Home in Fostoria, Ohio, hosted a stop for the Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure on June 19. As many as 3,000 bicyclers stopped at the home, by invitation, for lunch and a break. For more information call Good Shepherd at 419-435-1801.
  
  
• Manchester College, in North Manchester, Ind., is up to the latest fundraising challenge of Lilly Endowment Inc., says president Jo Young Switzer in a release from the college. The endowment is offering $1.50 for every $1 the college receives from its donors, up to $4.5 million. "We have just built a $17 million Science Center and renovated our recital hall--both without debt," said Switzer. "Matching challenges from the Lilly Endowment made both of those campaigns a success." Manchester is among 34 Indiana colleges and universities to receive grant offers in a second phase of the endowment's Initiative to Strengthen Philanthropy for Indiana Higher Education. Only 14 schools will share in the $4.5 million challenge. Manchester has 19 months through Dec. 31, 2006, to raise $3 million to receive the $4.5 million. It may use the funds "for any proper college purpose," said the endowment. The college has two other current challenges from college trustees and donors, a $1 million dollar-for-dollar match to renovate the College Union, and a $70,000 dollar-for-dollar match to bolster the Manchester Fund. For more about Manchester College, visit www.manchester.edu.
  
  
• The Mutual Aid Association (MAA) reports that more than 400 Church of the Brethren congregations, camps, and districts, plus the denomination as a whole, will benefit from participation in Brotherhood Mutual Insurance Company's Partnership Group Program. In 2005, the group was awarded approximately $109,000 as its portion of the dividend-sharing plan, based on a calculation of three-year loss ratios. In 2005, about one-half of the money will be returned to the participating congregation or other ministry, on a percentage basis of the total premium, MAA said. The remainder will be used to support denominational ventures such as the 300th Anniversary Committee and Together: Conversations on Being the Church.
  
  
• COBYS Family Services, an agency affiliated with Atlantic Northeast District, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. The ministry also has launched a $600,000 Building for the Future Campaign. The agency provides adoption and foster care services; leads family life education programs in cooperation with church, school, and community groups; operates a group home for teen mothers and their children; and offers counseling in three locations in Lancaster and Lebanon Counties, Pa. The new funds will purchase and renovate a property for a Permanency Unit serving foster children, expand adoption and foster care ministries, improve a main office in Oregon Mill, retire debt, and expand an endowment fund. For more information see www.cobys.net.
  
  
• A 60th Annual Eastern Civilian Public Service (CPS) Reunion will be held Aug. 4 at Chambersburg (Pa.) Mennonite Church. The reunion is open to all who served in CPS during World War II. Programs and registration forms are sent to all who are presently on the mailing list. If you are not on the mailing list and want a program and registration form, contact H. Howard Witmer, 1001 E. Oregon Rd., Lititz, PA 17543; 717-581-3970; hmwitmer46@juno.com.
  
  
• Canned chicken donated by the Church of the Brethren is being donated by Church World Service (CWS) to vulnerable rural families in the Dominican Republic, according to the CWS hotline of June 27. The $54,600 worth of chicken will be distributed through a CWS partner, Social Service of the Dominican Churches.
  
  
• The World Council of Churches (WCC) has announced the theme for its next assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, Feb. 14-23, 2006. The theme, "God in Your Grace, Transform the World," "invites us to return to, and reappropriate, the resources of prayer," the WCC said. The theme will point the meeting of up to 3,000 church leaders and ecumenical representatives from around the globe to several spiritual nuances, the WCC said: "The world matters to God and should matter to us" (Mt. 16:24; John 3:3 and 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:17), "Blessed are the change-makers" (Mt. 19:16-22), "Human responsibility under the spotlight" (John 21:15-19), and "Transformation is God's agenda" (Mt. 4:17, 5:48; Luke 10:31-32). This is the first WCC assembly to be held in Latin America. It will be preceded by events for youth and women Feb. 11-13.
  
  
• Mennonite Central Committee is supporting an AIDS prevention project of Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (EYN--the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria) with a $3,500 grant. The money will help train 40 women, youth, and pastors in EYN churches to educate their congregations and communities about AIDS, MCC reported in a June press release. (See the feature below for more about EYN's HIV/AIDS program.)

Source: 7/20/2005 Newsline
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