May 4, 2009 – Miami, Florida…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders at the Inter-American Division (IAD) have cancelled its mid-year executive committee meetings that were scheduled for this month because of the spread of the H1N1 influenza virus, or swine flu. There are now confirmed cases of the virus in four countries in the IAD territory, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“Due to the uncertainty of the present health challenge the world faces, especially in some of our countries, the Division administration has decided to cancel all meetings scheduled at the time of our mid-year meetings,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America.
Pastor Leito said the decision took administrators quite some time to study the issues and implications of halting the church business meetings. The end of the year executive committee meetings remained scheduled to take place in late October.
Church officials also postponed a division-wide teacher’s congress set to be held in Cancun, Mexico, later this month. The congress has been tentatively re-scheduled for Sep. 6-10, 2009.
As far as church business that must be dealt with, Pastor Leito said that several video conferences with regional, or union, church administrators are planned to take place during the next few weeks.
Confirmed cases of this flu, a highly contagious acute respiratory disease of pigs, caused by one of several swine influenza A viruses, presently numbers over 1,000 cases in 21 countries, according to WHO.
Mexico’s four major church regions cancelled its services last week and through the weekend. Adventist schools and universities in Mexico remain closed following the federal government’s mandate to shut down large gatherings and all public and private schools through May 6. (see previous story).
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America has more than 3.2 million members throughout the 33 countries and dozens of islands from Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, Colombia, Venezuela and the French-Antilles Guiana territory.
For news updates and event schedules, visit www.interamerica.org
