1996 Cincinnati, Ohio 210th

The First Church of the Brethren Annual Conference on the WEB

A cooperative effort of COB-NET and the News Service of the General Board

1996 AC Logo

The 210th Annual Conference (July 3-7, 1996) of the Church of the Brethren was held in the (then named) Albert B. Sabin Convention Center, 525 Elm Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202. When the convention center opened in 1968, it was named after Dr. Albert Sabin who developed the polio vaccine. Over the years it has been renovated several times and experienced three grand openings, the last being in 2006 as the Duke Energy Convention Center. There is over 750,000 square feet of exhibit hall, meeting hall, and entertainment space. Duke Energy, headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, is a Fortune 500 company supplying 35,000 megawatts of electric generating capacity in the Carolinas and the Midwest, and natural gas distribution services in Ohio and Kentucky. Brethren will be happy to know that Duke Energy is a green company that is focusing on renewable sources of energy.

HISTORICAL NOTES:

Annual Conference has been held in the State of Ohio seventeen times and twice before in Cincinnati: 1987 with Moderator Guy E. Wampler, and 1972 with Moderator Dale W. Brown. In 1790, the city (more of a settlement) was named after Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus, the retired Roman consul who was entreated from his farm to save the Republic by Senators who promised him unchecked authority. He saved the city of Rome from plunder by the Sabines from one direction and the Aequi from another. He humiliated both foes with incredible wisdom and iron-fisted resolve. Rome welcomed their hero with a gigantic celebration, but after enjoying the unquestioned power of a dictator for only sixteen days, he relinquished that power and returned to his farm and family. Cincinnatus is regarded as the virtuous politician who truly serves the people by completing his term and then leaving office to go back home, instead of the modern career politician who feathers his/her nest with exemptions, privileges, favors, pensions, and most of all - tenure. What an inspiration for the delegates this year as they tackle a mountain of business.

SPECIAL NOTES:

COB-NET 1996 was the first year that Annual Conference enjoyed a cyber home “ON THE WEB,” a technological milestone for the Church of the Brethren. The COB News Service of the General Board worked directly with Church of the Brethren Network, by providing special communication about news, daily journals, and sermons to be uploaded each day of the week. Non-conference going Brethren were able to keep updated on Conference business and worship as the News Service of the General Board sent information directly to COB-NET for posting. In the middle 1990s this achievement was of little notice to many Brethren, for only a three churches, two colleges, and one camp had a web site. Nonetheless, this is history.

1996 was also the first year that Habitat For Humanity enjoyed a simultaneous presence with Conference attendees. In what has been described as a “blitz-build,” hundreds of volunteers labored to construct and completely finish, “Three Houses in Ten Days.” This was also the tenth anniversary for Habitat for Humanity in the city of Cincinnati. Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity was present at a Friday luncheon to personally congratulate the workers and encourage all Brethren to: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”

OFFICERS:

2011 Conference Officers were Moderator H. Fred Bernhard, then pastor of Oakland Church of the Brethren, Gettysburg, Ohio; Moderator-elect David Wine of Abilene, Kansas and then president of Mutual Aid Association; and Secretary Anne Myers.

UNFINISHED BUSINESS

NEW BUSINESS

ADDITIONAL NOTES:

WORSHIP SERMONS:

DAILY NEWSLINE

July 1, 1996

July 2, 1996

July 3, 1996

July 4, 1996

July 5, 1996

July 6, 1996

July 7, 1996

CONFERENCE JOURNAL

July 2, 1996

July 3, 1996

July 4, 1996

July 5, 1996

July 6, 1996

“They determined that Paul and Barnabas and certain other of them,
should go up to Jerusalem unto the apostles and elders (about this question).”
Acts 15:2