NEWSLINE - July 1, 1997 Special Annual Conference Report NEWSLINE is the weekly online newsletter of the Church of the Brethren posted each Thursday by the Communications Dept. through cobnews@aol.com. Interested persons can "hear" Newsline by calling 410 635-8738 or receive a "fax" of Newsline by calling 800 323-8039, ext. 257. Newsline by "e-mail" is available by sending an online request to cobnews@aol.com. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% NEWSLINE 07-01-97 1) The 211th Church of the Brethren Annual Conference convenes. 2) Elaine Sollenberger of Everett, Pa., has been tapped by Annual Conference Standing Committee to succeed former moderator-elect Jimmy Ross. 3) Standing Committee shapes this year’s Annual Conference business for delegates 4) The General Board hires two Leadership Team members and takes other actions during its July meetings. 1) Amidst palm trees, sunny skies, televised high-speed freeway chases and even a weekend “Aloha Jam Festival,” more than 3,000 Brethren have gathered in Long Beach, Calif., to attend the 211th Church of the Brethren Annual Conference. This year’s theme, “Count Well the Cost,” will be explored this evening by moderator David Wine in tonight’s opening worship service. Anne Myers, Annual Conference secretary, will serve as worship leader. Following tonight’s worship, there will be four hearings plus a forum regarding business items that will be addressed this week by Conference delegates. These topics are Deacon Ministry in the Church of the Brethren, Human Genetic Engineering and Fetal Tissue Use, Denominational Polity for Real Property, Child Exploitation and the General Board’s redesign. Other activities scheduled for tonight include age-group gatherings and the welcoming of new church fellowships. Conference business begins Wednesday at 8:55 a.m. 2) Elaine Sollenberger of Everett (Pa.) Church of the Brethren has been selected by Annual Conference’s Standing Committee to fulfill the term of moderator vacated by Jimmy Ross, who resigned over the weekend due to health complications. Standing Committee also approved extending David Wine’s moderator tenure through August 31, 1997, at which time Sollenberger will assume the duties of the denomination’s highest elected leader. Both actions will be sent this week for approval by Annual Conference delegates. 3) Standing Committee, in its pre-Conference meetings that are used by committee members to shape the scope of business to be discussed by Annual Conference delegates, voted to recommend that the General Board’s proposed new design be adopted. This despite reservations expressed by some committee members that the redesign was moving too quickly and despite a motion to postpone action on the proposal until the 1998 Annual Conference. Some Standing Committee members expressed concern over a perceived lack of dialog and communication about the redesign with districts and congregations and questioned some of the actions taken by the General Board regarding staff dismissals and program funding. The proposal will require a two-thirds majority vote from the Annual Conference delegate body. Standing Committee also approved a second business item that will require a two-thirds vote — an unfinished business item regarding the denominational polity statement on property and stewardship issues. Standing Committee approved a proposed amendment to the action of a query brought by the Hanover Church of the Brethren, Southern Pennsylvania District, that asks whether the denomination should develop a position paper that speaks specifically to domestic violence, given statistics that show domestic violence on the rise in the United States. The motion made and carried by Standing Committee “recommends to the 1997 Annual Conference that the query be answered with the statement that the Church of the Brethren condemns all domestic violence, and with a request to the General Board that our General Board staff suggest resources that encourage districts and congregations to address the concerns, including the prevention of domestic abuse.” After minor discussion, Committee members voted on a Oregon/Washington District query that asks for a study to widen the denomination’s definition of ministry limits of licensed ministers. By its action, Standing Committee recommends to the 1997 Annual Conference “that the concerns of the query be accepted and recommends that the specific questions raised in the query be directed to the General Board and the Council of District Executives (CODE) as they work with the recommendations in the 1996 Annual Conference statement” on calling and forming quality ministerial leadership within the Church of the Brethren. Regarding a query by the Cando (N.D.) Church of the Brethren concerning the denomination’s relationship with the National Association of Evangelicals, Standing Committee passed a motion to recommend to conference delegates “that the concerns of the query be accepted and referred to the Committee on Interchurch Relations for study and information gathering including, but not limited to, observer status implications and costs, and report back to the 1998 Standing Committee.” Among the reports and proposals heard by Standing Committee was a report on Hispanic Ministries in the Church of the Brethren. Glenn Timmons, Director of Congregational Life Ministries for the General Board, explained that the elimination of Hispanic Ministries as a specific portfolio in General Board program was in line with the elimination of other specified portfolios. While concerns were expressed by Standing Committee members about General Board action to eliminate such portfolios, Timmons reminded members that it was the portfolios, not the programs, that were being eliminated. As will be the case with other programming, such as urban and ethnic ministries, support will continue to Hispanic Ministries through the new Congregational Life Ministries structure, explained Timmons. Just what kind of support that will be in the way of financial support and resource personnel has as yet to be determined, though Timmons did say that future Congregational Life Ministries staffing would be considered on the basis of a broad range of skills, including knowledge and experience in urban and ethnic ministries and non-English language abilities. Elimination of funding to Korean Ministry was also discussed at length by Standing Committee. Controversy about this issue centered whether the General Board had the authority to cut funding to that ministry without consultation by Annual Conference, since the Korean ministry program began as a Conference mandate. David Radcliff, General Board staff for Korea, spoke to the history of the Church of the Brethren ministry in Korea as well as to the intentions and hopes for ongoing relationships. “We can’t yet know what the fruits will be of the seeds planted by our presence there,” said Radcliff. General Board Chair Kathy Hess emphasized that the cut in funding to the Korean ministry was the result of an overall shortfall in General Board funds. “Again, the program has not been eliminated. (The General Board) eliminated funding,” said Hess. Standing Committee met in closed session to discuss an issue related to the denomination’s Korean ministry, namely that of the severance of General Board staff Dan Kim, field director for the overseas project. (A closed session was also held by the Standing Committee Executive Committee regarding a personnel matter involving an ordination appeal from a district.) Standing Committee approved a motion to accept the InterAgency Forum’s proposal on denominational coordination that would grant the agency a more formal status. Standing Committee also approved a motion recommending “the InterAgency Forum to evaluate the redesign work of the General Board and then report back to Standing Committee.” This motion grew from the concern among committee members that there be an entity for reevaluating the General Board’s new design. After expressed concern by several members of Standing Committee about the implications for future dialog on issues of sexuality, Standing Committee passed a motion to accept the Human Sexuality Sub-Committee’s “Chronology of Work and Concluding Report” as its final report, in effect bringing the work of the sub-committee to an end. It was agreed by some Standing Committee members that more dialog needs to happen at the local level, and that the dialog sessions at Annual Conference in past years have not always produced a cohesiveness, in part because of the divisive nature of issues of homosexuality and the large number of individuals attending the sessions, thereby making meaningful dialog difficult. The sub-committee has planned a final insight session to take place during lunch this Thursday. “Speaking the Truth in Love” will not address issues but will generate discussion about a biblical understanding of dialog. Following some confusion about the content of a Standing Committee/General Board proposal for Annual Conference to adopt the “Annual Conference Process Regarding Unfunded Annual Conference Mandates,” the item was tabled. The proposal suggests the need for a report of feasibility and cost estimates to be presented in conjunction with all queries and Annual Conference business involving General Board programming. Standing Committee adopted a report of the committee charged to review the Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee with regard to organization, structure and mandate. The PCBAC is a representative body elected by Annual Conference to act in an advisory capacity on all pastoral compensation matters and is reportable to Annual Conference at least every five years. In its report, the PCBAC determined that its functions and those of Brethren Benefit Trust are “sufficiently different that they should not be combined.” With some minor editorial changes, Standing Committee adopted the report of the Polity for Free Ministry Study Committee, which was appointed by Annual Conference Officers pursuant to a motion adopted by the 1996 Standing Committee to come up with a proposed draft of polity for the free ministry. Part of the report of the polity committee included an attachment on polity in free ministry that the committee suggested be inserted as a new section titled “Plural Non-Salaried Ministry” in the Ministry chapter of the Church of the Brethren Manual of Organization and Polity. The report seeks to clarify the authority and status of set apart free ministers and speaks to raising awareness of the possibilities for expanded use of the free ministry model. Pending 1997 Annual Conference action, the study committee’s attachment on polity would be considered by the 1998 Annual Conference. Standing Commitee heard and accepted a report by the group appointed to study The New Testament as Our Rule of Faith and Practice. In addition to its nomination of Elaine Sollenberger, the Nominating Committee of Standing Committee made several other recommendations for action. >From a list of 11 candidates, Standing Committee selected four new Nominating Committee members to join the four who remain in active terms of service to form the 1998 Standing Committee Nominating Committee. New members are Sandy Bosserman (Missouri/Arkansas), Marlene Neher (Northern Plains), Pat Royer (Pacific Southwest) and Fred Swartz (Mid-Atlantic). Standing Committee carried a motion by its nominating committee to propose two names to Annual Conference delegates to fill an unexpired term of the Pastoral Compensation and Benefits Advisory Committee for Laity. The nominees are Laird Bowman of Boones Mill, Virginia and Michael Dilling of Warsaw, Indiana. As Standing Committee business drew to a close, a final motion emerged from and was carried by Standing Committee that recommends that the Annual Conference Officers appoint a committee of Standing Committee members to research the role of Standing Committee and how it can best serve the Church. This motion is an attempt to clarify what some Standing Committee members believe are increased responsibilities that have evolved in recent years, including the role of liaison to other denominational bodies and the suggesting of polity items to Annual Conference. 4) Two new additions to the Church of the Brethren General Board’s nine-person Leadership Team were announced today. This morning in closed session the General Board filled the director of Brethren Witness and director of Ministry leadership team positions. David Radcliff was hired as director of Brethren Witness, effective July 5. Radcliff has served the General Board since 1989 as director of Denominational Peace Witness and as director of Korean Ministry since 1990. Prior to joining the General Board staff Radcliff served as a team pastor of Pleasant View (Md.) Church of the Brethren, as nurture and witness pastor at Williamson Road (Va.) Church of the Brethren, as as senior pastor at Midland (Va.) Church of the Brethren. Radcliff earned his undergraduate degree from Bridgewater (Va.) College, and his Master’s of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Bethany Theological Seminary. Allen Hansell was hired as director of Ministry, effective October 16. Hansell has served as executive of Atlantic Northeast District since 1989. Hansell has pastored the Mountville (Pa.) and Wilmington (Del.) congregations, and served as Christian Education director at Hagerstown (Md.) Church of the Brethren. Hess also announced that the General Board did not call an executive director at this morning’s meeting. As a result, the Board is expected to appoint a new executive director search committee when it meets Thursday evening for its annual reorganization meeting. In related news, the General Board approved a resolution calling for the closing of the School of the Americas, a military school in Georgia. It approved a proposal from its Leadership Team for a $150,000 reduction to the Board’s 1998 budget parameter, down to $4,850,000 (plus $135,000 in “Behold I make all things new” financial commitment funds). The Board approved a report by the SERRV International Advisory Committee that calls for the creation of a task team that will explore the pros and cons and feasibility of SERRV incorporating as a separate institution. The Board also approved a proposal that outlined the establishment of Congregational Life Teams to be developed in five geographic areas that span the United States. A total of nine fulltime positions are expected to be allocated to this new ministry, though the number of people assigned to this task will be greater through part-time employment and through the expected sharing of personnel with other affiliated organizations. Interim executive director Karen Miller reported that the Board’s site committee, a committee selected to help determine the site of the Board’s central offices, has yet to convene, though a meeting is expected sometime following Annual Conference. Thus far the committee has held a conference call. Finally, the Board heard citations read to employees with 10 years or more service who are being terminated within the next few weeks as a result of the Board’s redesign. Those people were Kermon Thomasson, Dale Minnich, June Gibble, Shantilal Bhagat and Barbara Ober.