Upcoming Events:
Sunday
School 9:00
Tuesdays
10:00 Bible Study
Wednesdays 3:00 Power Hour Today Welcome, David Biggs! March 5 Church Board starting at 6:00 with commissions
March 8 Bobby Murray speaks.
March 15 Walt
Wiltschek is our speaker.
March 22 Ted
Smith is our speaker. March 24 11:30
Women’s Fellowship lunch— meal provided
March 29
Palm Sunday hymn sing
April 5
Easter—Bobby Murray speaks.
April 12
Executive Committee after worship.
Birthdays and Anniversaries
March
4 Blake Born
18 Mike Timlin
21 Josh Sawyer
27 Dawna Carter
29
Mindy Sawyer
30
Julie Frydenger
April
1 Beth Sawyer
7 Ron Petersen
9
Jordan Wright
10
Nancy Fansler
19 Presley Born
In
Our Prayers
Pray for peace with Iran!
Leonard Matheny; Pam and Tommy Trone;
Ruth Siburt; Martha Wood; Bill Traughber;
Randy and Michelle West; Mike and Kathy
Gentry; Nancy Fansler; Doug Larrick; Ron and
Kathleen Petersen; Debbie Garvey Leibrock; Dorthea
Wood; Nancy Gorrell; many unspoken requests; victims of disasters; victims of
shootings; shut-ins; the Nigerian church; Haitian Brethren; Ukraine; Israel and
Gaza, Sudan, other places where violence is happening; immigrants
Military and Other Services and their families Brethren
Volunteer Service workers; Disaster project workers
***
Needed:
There is always a need for volunteers for the children’s message during the
service, a children’s lesson/story time in the nursery during the sermon, and
for Power Hour on Wednesdays. Please sign up in the back of the sanctuary.
We need worship leaders too. Bobby has been generous
to have done this the past several months. Who will volunteer to give him a
break now and then?
History Corner:
Verna Blickenstaff was born January 31, 1891, and was
baptized by JW Lear (then pastor at Cerro Gordo) on January 4, 1903. She
attended Mt. Morris College and Bethany Biblical Seminary and took nurses’
training at the Illinois Training School for Nurses, graduating with an RN in
1917. She then spent many years in India working at several locations. She
passed away in California in February, 1985.
Cora Cripe Brubaker was born March 19,
1877. Her family moved to Cerro Gordo from Indiana
when she was 8 years old, and she was baptized here when she was 12. She
attended Mt. Morris College and Moody Bible Institute. She assisted with
mission work in Chicago from 1893-1905. After her marriage, the Brubakers went
to the China mission field for 7 years. After coming back to the states, they
lived in North Manchester, IN. Cora died in
1964,
Ida Buckingham was born near Oakley on August 7, 1886.
She was baptized in 1900. After attending Mt. Morris College, she taught for 3
years and then spent 3 years at Bethany Biblical Seminary. In 1913, she went to
Sweden and served there until 1929 when she returned to Oakley. She served many
years on the district women’s work cabinet, as district director of peace, and
on the district historical committee. She died in 1964.
Minnie Susan Buckingham was born in 1893 near Oakley
and became a member of that congregation. She studied at Manchester College,
Bethany Biblical Seminary, the University of Chicago, and Cornell University.
She was dean of women at Bethany and taught at Chicago Teachers College and at
Sioux Falls College where she was head of the English department. She edited
the 1950 Church of the Brethren in Southern
Illinois.
Minnie passed away in 1977.
STATEMENT FROM CoB Inter-Agency Forum
A
Spirit of Power and Love
From its founding in 1708, the Church of the
Brethren made costly decisions about faithful responses to state power and
decided to live by the words of Peter and the apostles in Acts 5:29, “We must
obey God rather than any human authority” (NRSVue). May we be so brave today.
At a gathering of denominational leaders in late
January, we grappled with the terror and disorientation that many of our
churches and communities are experiencing. At this writing, 21 members of the
Church of the Brethren have been detained or deported. People in the United
States are losing their lives in detention and in public, at the hands of the
authorities.
We write now to members of the Church to remind all
of us: In the face of brutal immigration enforcement, misinformation, and
political violence, “God did not give us a spirit of timidity but one of power,
love, and selfdiscipline” (2 Timothy 1:7, ISV).
Some of our own Church of the Brethren members have
experienced immigration enforcement directly or are living in fear. Others are
concerned and want to stand in solidarity. Others are still learning the
gravity of what is happening.
We understand the value of law enforcement that
follows the law, protects the innocent, and affords due process to the accused.
But all of us are harmed when acts of state violence become the daily norm.
Our concern is for the humane treatment and dignity
of God’s children. All God’s children are beloved. All members of the Church of
the Brethren are brothers and sisters, and what affects one affects all.
Members of our churches are responding to the present moment in many
courageous, loving, and creative ways:
•
Prayer, worship, and spiritual practice • Purchasing
groceries for neighbors, providing deliveries, or accompanying people on
errands, so people in fear of ICE detention aren’t alone
•
Serving as observers when ICE comes to a
neighborhood
•
Preparing to de-escalate violent or polarized
conflict
•
Accompanying one another to immigration
interviews
•
Standing vigil outside mosques as a nonviolent
witness
•
Legislative advocacy
•
Raising voices in peaceful protest
We find ourselves holding a deep and growing
concern—not about matters that can be neatly labeled conservative or liberal,
but about the health of our common life together. When the military is asked to
serve as a police force, when trusted institutions become politicized, when the
integrity of elections is questioned or attacked, and when misinformation flows
from official voices, we sense patterns that trouble the spirit and strain the
fabric of our lives together as a country. In such moments, we invite the
church into prayerful attentiveness, practical preparation, and action. We are
invited to embody God’s peace and the selfgiving love of Jesus.
Some are already risking reputation, wellbeing, and
safety to follow Christ in challenging times, and the days ahead may ask more
of us. Brethren co-founder Alexander Mack’s baptismal hymn reminds us that
Christ
Jesus says, “Count well the cost
When
you lay the foundation.”
Are
you resolved, though all seem lost
To
risk your reputation,
Your
self, your wealth, for Christ the Lord As you now give your solemn word?
And so we draw closer to Christ and to one another,
trusting that in community we will find courage, wisdom, and hope.
A dynamic resource page supporting this
statement is available at www.onearthpeace.org/resources_for_living _in_power_love featuring
resources from church agencies. Check back from time to time to find new events
and resources to help the church live into its discipleship commitments in this
time.
“You
have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I
tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may
be children of your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:43-45).
Signed by 2026 participants in the Church of
the Brethren Inter-Agency Forum, which is comprised of Church of the Brethren
Annual Conference Officers, representatives of the Council of District
Executives, and Executives and Board Chairs of
the Church of the Brethren, Inc./Mission and Ministry Board,
Bethany Theological Seminary, Eder Financial, and On Earth Peace.
Some of our Deacons:
Mary
& Ellis Hissong 217-521-7790
Kathy
Gentry 217-855-3707
Carol
Kussart 217-855-3258
Kevin
Krall 217-370-7502
Shirley
Krall 217-454-7090
Tracy
Mogged 217-454-2020
Love God,
Grow with others,
Serve
faithfully, Reach the lost, Find peace.
