Annual Conference 2005 - Wednesday Business Page

Jim Hardenbrook, 2005 moderator, symbolically hands the gavel to Ron Beachley, 2006 moderator, transitioning the title from one to the other.
Photo by Regina Roberts

A NEW MODERATOR AND MODERATOR-ELECT ARE CONSECRATED
The Annual Conference moderator and moderator-elect for 2006 were consecrated at the close of a brief business session today. The new moderator, Ronald Beachley, who also serves as executive minister of Western Pennsylvania District, received the gavel in an official handing-over of the position from the 2005 moderator Jim Hardenbrook.

“It’s beautiful,” said Hardenbrook, of the gavel he held. But the Annual Conference moderator’s gavel is designed to be difficult to hold and not to fit in the hand comfortably, he added. That’s the way church leaders should handle power, he said. “So hold this carefully,” he told the new moderator. “This is an incredible gift that you have been given, not the gavel but the opportunity to be moderator of the 2006 Annual Conference.”

In his first statement as moderator, Beachley said, “I realize that I have been entrusted with an awesome responsibility and challenge. How does one prepare for such a responsibility? Through prayer and faith.” He called the denomination to prepare for next year’s Conference with three disciplines: the reading of a chapter in the New Testament aloud each day over the next year; fasting from food, television, the Internet, or another aspect of life the first day of each month; and praying daily for someone who does not know Christ. “We will come back next year and share our stories of how that has affected people’s lives.”

Moderator-elect Belita D. Mitchell also was consecrated for her service to the denomination. Beachley will lead Annual Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, on July 1-5, 2006, and Mitchell will lead the Conference in Cleveland, Ohio, June 30-July 4, 2007. The consecration service closed with a laying on of hands, with family members and congregations of the new leaders represented on the Conference stage.

Del Keeney and Duane Grady, members of the Cross Cultural Ministries Team, gave a brief report on how the Church of the Brethren is caring for the poor.
Photo by Regina Roberts

AN OVERVIEW OF THE DAY’S BUSINESS
The morning’s business session was the last for the 2005 Annual Conference.

The Cross Cultural Ministries Team gave a brief report called for by the Caring for the Poor decision of the 2000 Annual Conference, which asked for an update in 2005. The delegate body agreed to having a more complete report come to the 2006 Conference.

A new Outreach Planning Packet for congregations was introduced with a video. The inter-agency packet titled, “As One Church,” is free and available to each congregation for planning its financial support for the various agencies and ministries of the denomination. It is planned to include district information as well.

In other business, the delegate body received a report of a recent trip to Sudan by moderator Jim Hardenbrook and Brethren Witness/Washington Office director Phil Jones. The office is a ministry of the General Board. “We went to listen,” Hardenbrook said. The two Brethren leaders were on a small delegation of interfaith leaders from the US that visited the capital city of Khartoum, and a camp of refugees fleeing violence in Darfur. The visit included a meeting with the president of Sudan.

Hardenbrook with quilt and walking stick

Jim Hardenbrook receives thank you gifts and shares parting words as he exited the post of moderator.
Photo by Regina Roberts

Hardenbrook encouraged the Church of the Brethren to continue its longterm work in southern Sudan and to seize the opportunity to work on what he said is a window of opportunity for peace in that country. “There is a deep hope for peace throughout Sudan,” he said. “I don’t think this was true six months ago, a year ago. There is a window of opportunity there.”

A presentation to Hardenbrook to thank him for his service as moderator was made by the Association for the Arts in the Church of the Brethren. The presentation included the traditional gift of a quilted wall hanging, this year made from leftover scraps from Conference quilts of the past 16 years. The group also presented a walking staff made in Cameroun, with additional ornament meaningful to the Brethren. “Be reminded that the journey continues,” a group representative told the moderator.

Members of the 2005 Annual Conference news team, a ministry of the General Board, contributed to this report: Regina Roberts, Jesse Reid, Hannah Edwards, and Sarah Kovacs, photographers; Kathleen Campanella, Karen Garrett, Jill Kline, Frank Ramirez, Frances Townsend, Sarah Leatherman Young, and Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, writers; Amy Heckert, technical support; Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford and Becky Ullom, editors.

219th Annual Conference Peoria, Illinois July 2-6, 2005