Annual Conference moderator will make history.

Belita D. Mitchell will make history when Annual Conference convenes in Cleveland, Ohio, on June 30-July 4. She is the first African-American woman, and the first female African-American ordained minister, to moderate the annual meeting of the Church of the Brethren. Mitchell serves as pastor of First Church of the Brethren in Harrisburg, Pa.

The Conference moderator serves in the highest elected position in the Church of the Brethren, which is a volunteer position. In Cleveland, Mitchell will lead a delegate body of hundreds of representatives of congregations from across the US and Puerto Rico, and a Standing Committee of representatives of the denomination's 23 districts.

"Looks like we're going to have an excellent Conference!" she said in an telephone interview as she prepared to start out on a "trek" to meet with district briefings for the 2007 Conference. In light of the full business schedule, she is encouraging delegates "to study all of the business items, so that you understand the business, and to pray, so that you come with an open mind and an open spirit, so that you come to the work of business as worship."

Mitchell said she hopes the Conference will come prepared by prayer. The preparation of prayer "helps us to embody more openly and visibly what it means to be the body of Christ," she said. "If we were to come 'prayed up,' then we'll be more open to see what God has for us to do."

Several unfinished business items are coming back to the Conference this year, and Mitchell has suggested to her own congregation to send the same delegate as last year, to make for a better informed delegate body. She also urges delegates to be in conversation with their congregations about the business, and while at the Conference to find ways to be in communication with other members of their congregation who also will be in attendance.

Belita Mitchell and her spouse of 35 years, Don Mitchell, live in Mechanicsburg, Pa. Don Mitchell is a retired business owner and serves as director of Church Development for Atlantic Northeast District. The Mitchells are the parents of four children and four grandchildren. They have three surviving children, Sanya Ward-Wallace of Fontana, Calif., Kym Mitchell-Moore of Seattle, Wash., and Don-Valliant Mitchell of Mechanicsburg. Grandchildren are Noelle, Shannon, Marcus, and Serenity.

Mitchell was born Belita D. Brewington in Colp, Ill. She received her elementary education in Detroit, Mich., and completed high school and college in southern Illinois. She received a bachelor of arts degree from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.

She is a second career ministerial leader, following a 30-year career in professional sales with a Fortune 100 company. Her first pastorate was at Imperial Heights Church of the Brethren in Los Angeles. Her ministry training was completed through the Training in Ministry program of the Brethren Academy for Ministerial Leadership, and included coursework at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. While in California, she was active in Pacific Southwest District, and served on the Board of Directors of Brethren Hillcrest Homes in La Verne.

Her denominational service has included a term on the Committee on Interchurch Relations, and participation in the Cross Cultural Ministries Steering Committee. She was one of the Church of the Brethren representatives to the Anabaptist Consultation on Alternative Service in 2005.

Mitchell's request continues to be for prayer, as she leads the Church of the Brethren this year. "I'm asking everyone to pray for me, that I'll be able to keep it together," she said.

Source: 4/11/2007 Newsline Extra