wfn.org | Newsline - Church of the Brethren weekly news update

[Church of the Brethren News Services]

Date:      June 9, 1999
Contact:  Nevin Dulabaum
V:  847/742-5100   F:  847/742-6103
E-MAIL:   CoBNews@AOL.Com

Newsline                                       June 9, 1999

News
1) Child caregivers of the General Board's Emergency
     Response/Service Ministries have established five projects
     during the past month, including the Board's first-ever
     aviation disaster response.
2) Two events for people in Littleton, Colo., who are concerned
     about violence in videos and in video games have been
     scheduled for Saturday by the local Brethren church.
3) This year's Young Adult Conference draws about 70 participants.
4) Over 550 Brethren place their names on Jubilee 2000 petitions.
5) The Church of the Brethren Washington Office joins "Appeal for
     Peace in Yugoslavia."
6) New Life Ministries board, staff convene; determine goals and
     sharpen focus.
7) Presentations critiquing Christian Schwarz' Natural Church
     Development are now available in booklet form from New Life
     Ministries.
8) The Church of the Brethren Annual Conference to bid farewell to
     its familiar format.
9) The introductory packet of "In Our Midst," a new series of
     "fresh, creative resources" by the General Board for
     congregational use, is nearly ready for release.
10) A $50,000 grant from the General Board's Emergency Disaster
     Fund is allocated to support new and ongoing Hurricane Georges
     recovery projects.
11) A $7,500 Global Food Crisis grant is allocated for Target
     Earth's Armenian village project.
12) A group from Beaver Butler Presbyterian Church provide
     volunteer labor at the Brethren Service Center, New Windsor,
     Md.

Personnel
13) A manager of marketing and public relations is being sought by
     Brethren Benefit Trust.

Features
14) Why is Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren in Littleton,
     Colo., sponsoring two public  events for people concerned
     about violent videos and video games? Pastor Sarah          
     Leatherman Young explains in a chat with Newsline.
15) A celebration underway in Cuba signifies new-found freedoms for
     Cuban Protestants. Merv Keeney, director of Global Mission
     Partnerships for the General Board, explains.

1) Child caregivers of the General Board's Emergency
Response/Service Ministries have been kept busy over the past month
as ER/SM has established caregiving services at five locations
throughout the country, including its first-ever response following
an aviation disaster. 

Four members of ER/SM's CAIR (Child Care - Aviation Incident
Response) Team, who were trained in March, were summoned to Little
Rock, Ark., to provide care for children impacted by the June 2
crash of American Airlines Flight 1420, which killed nine people
and injured many others. ER/SM is the only agency under contract
with the Red Cross to provide child care services related to
aviation disasters, and this was the first accident in which
Brethren caregivers were summoned.

Lydia Walker, CAIR Team administrator, was on the scene eight hours
after being notified by the American Red Cross. Karen Walters of
Tempe, Ariz.; Sharon Gilbert of Fullerton, Calif.; and Anne Price
of Laguna Beach, Calif., arrived later that evening.

The CAIR Team is an integral part of the American Red Cross'
aviation disaster response. The 1996 Family Assistance Act mandates
that the National Transportation Safety Board and the affected
airline work together to provide services for survivors and
affected families. The Red Cross has been designated as the agency
to coordinate mass care, mental health services, and child care.

Child care services in Little Rock included meeting children at the
airport, accompanying them on visits to the hospital to see injured
family members, and helping distraught family members in
decision-making related to the care of their children. Since
families were housed by the airline in several area hotels, there
was no central location for a child care center. In the event of a
larger scale aviation disaster with a more complex recovery
process, several more CAIR Team members would be called in.

CAIR Team members have expressed their gratitude for the prayers
and support of their congregations and to the staff at ER/SM's
headquarters in New Windsor, Md., for support during their training
and during the operations this past week.

"Though every tragic event brings with it the pain of loss and
injury, this accident in Little Rock gave the CAIR Team a 'walk
through' of procedures learned in our training," said Walker. "We
all learned a lot and are especially appreciative of the respect
and support of American Red Cross, which has given us this
additional opportunity to minister to children."

Plans are being developed for future training of additional CAIR
Team personnel.

Meanwhile, a second team of 13 ER/SM child caregivers is at Fort
Dix in Trenton, N.J., working with Kosovar refugee children. The
first team of 11 began its work on May 25, caring for 180 children
that first day. Each caregiver is assigned to a two-week shift, and
so the second crew is now on duty. A third team of 15 volunteers
will begin work on June 19. This work is being funded in part from
a $2,000 grant from the General Board's Emergency Disaster Fund.
This grant will help finance 10 weeks of volunteers.

Across the country in Phoenix, Ariz., nine caregivers from area
Church of the Brethren congregations were called into action May 27
when the county condemned apartments that housed 15 families,
leaving about 20 adults and 20 children homeless. Most of the
parents are employed as farm workers and only speak Spanish.

The families were sent to live temporarily in a school gymnasium,
where ER/SM caregivers worked with them over the Memorial Day
holiday. The families received permanent housing on June 1. 

Two other child care operations, which were established in Kansas
and Oklahoma following devastating May tornadoes, closed their
doors in late May -- 296 children were cared for in Kansas, 240 in
Oklahoma.

2) Two community events for people of Littleton, Colo., who are
concerned about the effects of violent videos and computer games on
their kids, will be held Saturday at Arapahoe Community College.
These events, sponsored by Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren,
Littleton, were organized following the deadly shooting at nearby
Columbine High School. (see item 14.)

Lt. Col Dave Grossman, author of "On Killing: The Psychological
Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society," will lead the two
public events. At 1 p.m. Grossman will lecture on the effects of
violent videos and computer games. Attendees will also be able to
swap their old violent videos and computer games for a new "family
friendly" board game. Families will also be able to receive a
packet of free resources by signing the "Family Pledge of
Nonviolence."

Grossman will then lead a 6 p.m. workshop on youth violence and the
lessons he and his home community of Jonesboro, Ark., learned
following a 1998 school shooting.

A former psychology teacher at West Point and a lead trainer of
mental health professionals following the Jonesboro shootings,
Grossman will also meet privately with law enforcement and
emergency rescue personnel who responded to the Columbine
shootings.

For more information, contact Sarah Leatherman Young, Prince of
Peace pastor, at popcob@juno.com or at 303 797-1536.

3) A challenge was presented to the 70 participants of this year's
Church of the Brethren Young Adult Conference over Memorial Day
weekend, a challenge delivered by David Radcliff, director of
Brethren Witness for the General Board. Radcliff used local and
global facts on the status of the earth's resources in relation to
the world's population to challenge participants to examine how
their life choices as Christians affect the global community.

This conference, now secure in its new holiday slot having been
scheduled for years over the Thanksgiving holiday, was held at Camp
Woodland Altars in Peebles, Ohio.

Spirited music was led by Joseph Helfrich of Oakland Church of the
Brethren, Gettysburg, Ohio. Helfrich also served as worship service
leader along with a Bethany Seminary team and Shawn Flory Replogle,
pastor of South Waterloo (Iowa) Church of the Brethren. Cliff
Kindy, a Church of the Brethren member from North Manchester, Ind.,
and member of the independent Christian Peacemaker Teams, led a
workshop titled "Radical Christian Action."
 
YAC 2000 will be held at Camp Harmony, Hooversville, Pa., over the
Memorial Day weekend. Contact Jenny Stover at
jstover_gb@brethren.org or at 800 323-8039.

4) Over 550 Church of the Brethren members placed their names on
Jubilee 2000 petitions that will be delivered next month to the G-7
Summit, the annual meeting among the United States and six other
industrial powerhouses. This year's summit will be held in Germany.

The petition drive was headed by the General Board's Brethren
Witness office in conjunction with its Washington Office. The
petition originated with the Jubilee 2000 USA Campaign, which the
General Board endorsed in March. 

The Washington Office continues to be actively involved in this
worldwide movement for cancellation of unpayable international debt
for the world's poorest nations. Contact the office at
washofc@aol.com or at 202 546-3202.

5) On May 19 the Church of the Brethren Washington Office joined
about 20 religious and peace organizations by becoming members of
the National Coalition for Peace in Yugoslavia.  This group, formed
earlier last month by leaders of several major U.S. peace
organizations, has called for a cease fire in the Balkans. 

The coalition has created an "Appeal for Peace in Yugoslavia,"
which is similar to the letter Judy Mills Reimer, executive
director of the Church of the Brethren General Board, sent to
President Clinton in March. The appeal, announced on May 20, calls
for an end to bombing as a prerequisite to the peace process,
condemns all atrocities, encourages all efforts made in good faith
toward a diplomatic solution, and supports a return of OSCE
monitors and an international peacekeeping operation that will
monitor activities of the Serb military and the Kosovo Liberation
Army.

Coalition members gathered at the White House at noon on June 3 to
speak out for an end to NATO bombing. They also participated in a
demonstration June 5 at the Pentagon. According to Pam Genise of
the Washington Office, a third demonstration is planned for June
24th if the bombing continues.

6) After 15 months of being an independent Anabaptist evangelism
ministry and having hosted its second Anabaptist Evangelism
Council, New Life Ministries' board of directors and management
team met at the New Windsor (Md.) Conference Center about a month
ago. There they worked on short- and long-term goals and sharpened
NLM's focus as it seeks to be a "resource to resourcers" for its
four partner denominations -- the Church of the Brethren, the
Mennonite Church, the Conference of Mennonites in Canada, and the
Brethren Church. Also serving as a member agency is one para-church
organization, Shalom Foundation, publisher of "Together." 

The group affirmed the continued development of LIFE (Living in
Faithful Evangelism) modules for congregations to study and
implement outreach plans. It also encouraged NLM to continue
offering hospitality workshops in conjunction with denominational
mission leaders and for hosting a third Anabaptism Evangelism
Council, where theologians and practitioners in evangelism convene.
Next year's by-invitation-only event will be held Feb. 19-20 at
Associated Biblical Seminary, Elkhart, Ind.

Paul Mundey, senior pastor of Frederick (Md.) Church of the
Brethren, chaired the recent meeting. Other NLM board members in
attendance were Thom Keller of Newmanstown, Pa; Karl McKinney,
pastor of Reba Place Mennonite Church near Chicago; Stafford
Frederick, pastor of Olathe (Kan.) Church of the Brethren; James
Wenger, pastor of North Baltimore (Md.) Mennonite Church; and
Emanuel Sandberg, executive director of the Brethren Church,
Ashland, Ohio. 

Attending from the NLM management team were Joan Hershey of Mount
Joy, Pa., director and Church of the Brethren member; Ed Bontrager
of the Mennonite Board of Congregational Ministries; Marilyn Miller
of the Commission on Home Ministries of the General Conference
Mennonite Church; Ron Waters of the national office of the Brethren
Church; and Dick Benner, director of Shalom Foundation.  

New Life Ministries became an independent organization on Jan. 1,
1998, when it was spun off from the Church of the Brethren General
Board through the Board's redesign. As a General Board ministry it
was known as the Andrew Center.

7) Presentations critiquing Christian Schwarz' Natural Church
Development are now available  from New Life Ministries, which in
February hosted its second Annual Anabaptist Evangelism Council to
look at Schwarz' work. The council featured a number of critics who
looked at Natural Church Development from various perspectives,
including theological, missiological, and ecclesiological. 

The 54-page booklet is available for $10, or costs $15 when
packaged with last year's "Anabaptist Witness in a Post-Modern
World." Contact NLM at lifeminnew@aol.com or at 800 774-3360.

8) Annual Conference 1999 in Milwaukee will bid farewell to the
Church of the Brethren meeting as it has been known for years,
which has begun on a Tuesday evening and has concluded with Sunday
morning worship. Beginning next year in Kansas City, Conference
will convene on a Saturday night and will conclude Wednesday at
noon. Many other changes related to annual reports, worship
services, and business sessions will also be made. These changes
will be announced in Milwaukee through a promotional blitz,
including brochures and an introductory video. Also to be announced
in Milwaukee will be next year's conference theme and some
ecumenical leadership.

Traditionally, the next year's theme has been chosen by the Annual
Conference Program and Arrangements Committee the preceding August.
This time, however, the committee used its April meeting to make
some of the major decisions, so that they could be incorporated
with the other new conference information that will be released in
Milwaukee.

This year's conference will be held June 29 - July 4. Conference
information is available at www.brethren.org/annconf.

9) "In Our Midst" is a new series of "fresh, creative resources"
produced by the Church of the Brethren General Board for
congregational use. 

The introductory packet, due for release this summer, is on
spiritual growth. It will include --
* "Spiritual Direction with Small Groups" by Tom Deal.
* "Gratitude, The Gateway to Heaven" by Robin Wentworth Mayer.
* "Doing the Worshipful-Work of God" by David Smalley.
* "Spiritual Direction" by Chris Douglas.
* "Encouraging Faith Development in Children" by Belinda Yingst.
* "The Mystery Within" by Rebecca Herder.
* "Why Spirituality?" by Beth Sollenberger Morphew.
* a collection of original prayers from Brethren across the
     denomination.
* an article about labyrinths.
* a reprint of "Perfection" by Kathleen Norris from "Amazing
     Grace." 

Forthcoming packets are planned to cover a variety of topics
including mission education, worship resources, and Christian
education.

Packets will be mailed to all people who receive Source, the
General Board's monthly resource packet. Additional "In Our Midst"
packets will be available from Brethren Press for $4.95 by writing
brethren_press_gb@brethren.org or by calling 800 441-3712.

Collaborating on this project are staff from Brethren Press,
Brethren Witness office, Global Mission Partnerships, and
Congregational Life Teams.

10) A $50,000 grant from the General Board's Emergency Disaster
Fund has been allocated in support of ongoing Hurricane Georges
recovery projects in Puerto Rico by Emergency Response/Service
Ministries. The funds will be used to continue current projects and
expand into new areas that include Rio Prieto, San Isidro
Canovanas, and Culebra.

11) A $7,500 Global Food Crisis Fund grant has been allocated for
the Armenian village project of Target Earth, a Christian agency
with programs in Belize. The funds will help in the construction of
a community education center where classes on adult literacy,
health, and agriculture will be offered.

12) A group from Beaver Butler Presbyterian Church, Slippery Rock,
Pa., volunteered their services May 25-26 at the Brethren Service
Center, New Windsor, Md., working for Emergency Response/Service
Ministries' Material Resources and for SERRV International.

Eighteen people worked in ER/SM's Distribution Center assisting
with unloading a trailer load of assistance kits, clothing, and
quilts; sorting and folding Lutheran World Relief clothing; and
packing Church World Service assistance kits. About 10,000 pounds
of clothing (110 bales) were processed, as were 400 cartons (22,160
pounds) of layettes, school kits, and health kits. On May 27, the
Distribution Center shipped 326 cartons (10,922 pounds) to Tirana,
Albania. 

13) A manager of marketing and public relations is being sought by
Brethren Benefit Trust. This Elgin, Ill.-based staff position will
"develop and execute a plan that builds greater awareness of
Brethren Benefit Trust among all members of the Church of the
Brethren."

Resumes are being accepted immediately. Tentative start date is
July 15. Contact Sandra Pryde a spryde_bbt@brethren.org or at 800
746-1505.

14) This Saturday the Prince of Peace Church of the Brethren of
Littleton, Colo., will be hosting two public events for people
concerned about the effects of violent videos and computer games.
These events, to be led by Lt. Col Dave Gross, follow the deadly
shooting at nearby Columbine High School. Earlier this week
Newsline submitted a few questions about these upcoming events to
Sarah Leatherman Young, Prince of Peace pastor.

Newsline: Why is Prince of Peace coordinating this event?

Leatherman Young: Three weeks after the shootings at Columbine High
School, a church study group was discussing ways we could witness
to our community, especially in light of the tragedy. A gun
buy-back program was mentioned, but we thought that might not have
much success, as there wouldn't be a lot of financial incentive
among the affluent families surrounding Columbine. We then hit upon
the idea of a "game swap," where families could trade in violent
videos or computer games for a nonviolent board game that the whole
family could play together. We saw it as a "win-win" situation.
Since it has been widely reported that the Columbine shooters loved
to play violent games like "Doom," many families have been
re-thinking having these games in their homes; the game swap is a
way to get rid of the violent games while encouraging more family
group entertainment and interaction.

Newsline: Why invite Lt. Col Dave Grossman to speak?

Leatherman Young: I had taken some counselor training for a
community event two years ago from Grossman. At first I was
reluctant to do so, because of his military background. However,
his research shows clearly two important facts -- that there is a
built-in human resistance to killing our own species, and that
modern violent video games desynthesize people to that resistance
and are similar to the training that law enforcement and the
military uses to enable their recruits to fire. He makes a powerful
witness against violent games and movies, which many parents have
seen as "harmless entertainment."

And so, as we decided to hold the game swap, I thought of how great
it would be if Grossman could speak at it. Although he is booked
well into the future, when he heard our request to come to
Littleton, he immediately agreed to come and to waive his speaking
fee. He has a great compassion for what our community is going
through, because he was among the professionals who responded to
the school shootings in his town of Jonesboro, Arkansas.

Newsline: Why is this issue so important to Littleton Church of the
Brethren, which had no direct connection to the Columbine shooting?

Leatherman Young: A saying has arisen in this area -- "We are ALL
Columbine." There is a sense that this event may have been the
proverbial straw that broke the camel's back in regards to our
country finally addressing what a violent culture we are, and
making a skill game for children out of shooting humans on video is
certainly a part of it. We are in a "teachable moment" right now in
our country, and I hope that events like the one we are holding on
the 12th will help prevent more violence in the future.

15) Change in Cuba is underway, change that is allowing Protestant
churches more openness and recognition. This change is currently
being celebrated in Cuba by Protestants from around the world,
including two Church of the Brethren members. Merv Keeney, director
of the General Board's Global Mission Partnerships, explains --

Protestant churches in Cuba have, for a long time, nourished the
dream of celebrating their life and witness together as evangelical
(Protestant) denominations. Recent changes in the society provide
new recognition and openness for the activities of these churches
as never before. These changes create a climate for unity and
collaboration among churches and are seen as opening the door for
spiritual renewal in Cuba. Representatives from churches around the
world have been invited to join the celebration May 30 through June
20 to renew relationships with evangelical churches in Cuba.

The Church of the Brethren has maintained ties with the church in
Cuba during the country's long economic and political isolation
over several decades. It is important for us to join in this
celebration that both recognizes, and helps to create, a new day
for the church in Cuba.

My office arranged for two Brethren to attend the celebration
events scheduled at several major cities: Sandy Mason Cable of
Manchester Church of the Brethren, North Manchester, Ind., and Rene
Calderon of Koinonia Church of the Brethren, Grand Junction, Colo.
Both bring previous experience with Cuba church relationships and
are seeking to reconnect personally with church partners.

Newsline is produced by Nevin Dulabaum, manager of the Church of
the Brethren General Board's News Services. To receive Newsline by
e-mail or fax, call 800 323-8039, ext. 263, or write
CoBNews@AOL.Com. Newsline is available at www.brethren.org and is
archived with an index at http://www.wfn.org.