Newsline: Church of the Brethren moderator visits Nigeria Brethren

[COBNews Newsline]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service -- June 5, 2008
Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, News Director
800-323-8039 ext. 260 -- cobnews at brethren.org

CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN MODERATOR VISITS WITH
BRETHREN IN NIGERIA

(June 5, 2008) Elgin, IL -- The moderator of the Church of the Brethren
Annual Conference, James Beckwith, has returned from a 12-day trip to
Nigeria to visit with Ekklesiyar Yan'uwa a Nigeria (EYN--the Church of
the Brethren in Nigeria). He visited with a number of key leaders in
EYN. Currently, Filibus Gwama serves as EYN's president, Samuel
Shinggu as vice president, and Jinatu Wamdeo as general secretary.

Beckwith went to a variety of locations important to the Brethren in
Nigeria, including the national capital, Abuja, where EYN has a large
congregation; the EYN headquarters and Kulp Bible College and
Comprehensive Secondary School near the city of Mubi; the city of Jos,
and the nearby Theological College of Northern Nigeria; and the village
of Garkida, where decades ago the first Brethren worship service in
Nigeria was held outdoors under a tamarind tree. 

In Garkida, he had the opportunity to preach at the church where he had
worshiped as a youth, when his parents served as Church of the Brethren
missionaries. He spoke with a translator on John 12 and the theme for
the 300th Anniversary of the Church of the Brethren. "That was special,"
he said, adding that he spent time with the children of the congregation
in Sunday school classes. He also preached in Abuja. Each service lasted
about three-and-a-half hours, and hundreds of people attended, with the
congregation in Abuja numbering almost 1,000.

In Nigeria, Beckwith found a church faced by "tremendous struggle with
financial strain," including a large disparity between members who are
wealthy and those in poverty. The church also is facing up to the task of
overcoming tribalism--EYN includes members from a wide variety of
ethnic groups--and issues related to the education and nurture of church
leaders.

At Kulp Bible College, he heard that the school may put a quota on the
number of students, because EYN has more trained pastors than
positions available. A theological career is "an exciting opportunity" in
Nigeria, Beckwith said. At the same time, there have been periods of
months when the church has been unable to pay faculty salaries. And the
growth in the number of preaching points in EYN also is slowing down,
Beckwith said. Pastors and Bible teachers in Nigeria must "be in it for
the Lord's work," he commented.

EYN is putting into place a plan for a centralized system to pay pastors
salaries, hoping also to be able to fund pensions for retired pastors. EYN
also is carrying out an impressive pastoral development program,
Beckwith said.

While Beckwith was in the country, EYN leaders were involved in a top-
level meeting of religious leaders in northern Nigeria, held in Maiduguri
where interfaith violence between Muslims and Christians has killed
many people and destroyed churches. The president and vice president of
EYN attended along with Muslim Emirs and leaders of other Christian
bodies.

In visits with staff of Mission 21, a European mission agency that has
worked with EYN and the Church of the Brethren for years, Beckwith
heard a good report of work toward a solar-powered well digging and
water piping system for EYN headquarters. Mission 21 also works with
Theological Education by Extension and an HIV/AIDS project.

Beckwith also joined in a pastoral visit by mission workers to pray for
health for a baby boy named Micah--the new child of a church member
who had lost all five of his older children to illness.

"It's important to maintain brotherly and sisterly ties with EYN,"
Beckwith said. "I am impressed by the vibrant life and faith they have in
the midst of frequent death." The good regard is mutual, he added. EYN
general secretary Jinatu Wamdeo "offered a prayer for me and for the
Church of the Brethren, that we would experience peace, purity,
progress, and power."

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its
faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and
Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It
celebrates its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts more than 125,000
members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and
sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and
India.

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For more information contact:

Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
Director of News Services
Church of the Brethren General Board
1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
800-323-8039 ext. 260
cobnews at brethren.org

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