Church of the Brethren

Christian Century, April 5, 2003

* The Church of the Brethren has named the head of its humanitarian offices to become the church's first layman to serve as top executive. Stanley J. Noffsinger, head of the Brethren Service Center in New Windsor, Maryland, was named general secretary of the denomination's General Board on March 11.

The General Board oversees most of the church's ministries and programs. Noffsinger, 48, succeeds Judy Mills Reimer, a minister who will retire in July after leading the 136,000-member denomination for the past five years. A onetime manager of medical clinics, Noffsinger will address the Church of the Brethren's $700,000 deficit from last year and expected cuts of $384,000 in 2003.