Church of the Brethren webcast series is launched.

Webcasts--sometimes called "podcasts"--are now being offered through a joint project of several Church of the Brethren agencies and Annual Conference. Sponsors include the Association of Brethren Caregivers (ABC), Bethany Theological Seminary, Brethren Benefit Trust (BBT), the Church of the Brethren Credit Union, the General Board, and On Earth Peace.

Initiative for the project came from Bethany Seminary, which is hosting the webcasts at www.cobwebcast.bethanyseminary.edu, with impetus from Enten Eller, the seminary’s director of Distributed Education and Electronic Communication, who is serving as executive producer for the webcast series.

Every two weeks, coinciding with each issue of Newsline, new audio webcasts will be offered featuring information from one of the agencies or from Annual Conference. Webcasts may be listened to online using most computers by visiting www.cobwebcast.bethanyseminary.edu, or they may be downloaded and played on an MP3 player or iPod. Free subscriptions (through an RSS feed) are also offered. Newsline will include announcements of the topics of webcasts as they become available. For more information, visit the cobwebcast website listed above.

Today's inaugural webcasts are about BBT’s socially responsible investment (SRI) ministry. Interviews with Eller and Nevin Dulabaum, BBT’s director of Communications and interim director of Socially Responsible Investing, and Dawn Wolfe of the staff of Boston Common Asset Management, tell the story of how BBT-owned shares helped launch a landmark move by insurance company Aflac, the first US corporation to give shareholders a nonbinding vote on executive compensation. Included is additional information about the extent and details of BBT’s SRI ministry and advocacy work, SRI events coming up at this year’s Annual Conference, and the encouragement given by last year’s Annual Conference for Brethren members to review their own investments.

For more information go to http://www.cobwebcast.bethanyseminary.edu, or contact Enten Eller at Bethany Theological Seminary, 615 National Rd. W., Richmond, IN 47374; 800-287-8822 ext. 1831; Enten@BethanySeminary.edu or webcast@bethanyseminary.edu.

Source: 2/28/2007 Newsline