Harriet Bicksler, chair
Rachel Petersen
Eric Seibert
Lenora Stern
Lynn Brown
World Prayer Team:
Lenora Stern, Chair, 697-0473
|
|
“They’ll know we are Christians by our Love”
|
"Love your enemies. Do to others as you would have them do to you. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up; put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."
-- from Luke 6 and Ephesians 4
|
 Featured guest speaker: Richard Hughes,
Senior Fellow at the Boyer Center, Messiah College
Adult Sunday School:
- Richard Hughes, focusing on civil dialogue in the public square
- Lorraine Stutzman-Amstutz and Michelle Armster, Mennonite Central Committee U.S. Office of Justice and Peacebuilding, focusing on civil dialogue in the church and community
Youth Sunday School:
- Mimi Kopp and Emily Kephart, Shalom House, a ministry of Circle of Hope BIC Church, Philadelphia
Children’s Sunday School: Mary Walters Ebersole, Speedwell Heights BIC Church and elementary school librarian, and Rita Clarke, storyteller
Ingathering Offering: Goal of $2,000 to support the ministries of Shalom House and MCC U.S. Office of Justice and Peacebuilding
|
|
What Does it Mean to be a Peace Church?
by Harriet Sider Bicksler
|
LET ME START BY EXPLAINING THE TITLE. Besides being the topic I was asked to write about, it’s an important question for a congregation in a denomination that from its beginnings more than 225 years ago has embraced beliefs classifying it as a “peace church.” From the original confession of faith that declared, “The sword is completely forbidden for revenge or defense,” to our current statement of faith where we affirm that “We follow our Lord in being people of peace and reconciliation, called to suffer and not fight,” peace has been part of who we are. The question is especially important at a time when there appears to be some erosion in commitment to this particular denominational concern. [download the whole article]
|
|
