Adventist leaders approve new administrative unit in Central America

October 16, 2014 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ansel Oliver/ANN

The current South Central American Union Conference territory will divide into two unions to better support management of local ministry. One union will include Panama, and the other union will include both Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

A Seventh-day Adventist Church administrative unit in Central America will be reorganized into two sections, a step that underscores Church membership growth in the region.

Church leaders approved the change yesterday on the final day of Annual Council, a meeting of the Executive Committee, at the denomination’s headquarters.

The move affects Church structure in the countries of Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua, which are home to a combined Church membership of approximately 295,000.

The Church’s South Central American Union Conference will become two unions—the Panama Union Mission and the South Central American Union Mission.

A union is made up of several local administrative fields. A union with the “conference” designation is financially self-supporting, while a union with a “mission” status relies on its parent management structure, a “division,” for support and oversight.

The headquarters for the Panama Union Mission will be in Balboa, Panama, and the headquarters for the South Central American Union Mission will be in Alajuela, Costa Rica.

The reorganization will become effective on January 1.

“We’re wanting to make these changes in recognition of the development of the mission of the church in those territories,” said Agustin Galicia, an associate secretary of the Adventist world church.

Once the changes are implemented, the church’s Inter-American Division will be comprised of 23 unions, the most in of any of the denomination’s 13 world divisions. Inter-America is also the largest division by membership, with more than 3.7 million Adventists.