ADRA kicked off a seven-day “Prayer for Everyone” initiative on Thursday to share with Seventh-day Adventists worldwide its plans to work with the United Nations to end extreme poverty, fight inequality and injustice, and combat climate change. The Adventist Development and Relief Agency is joining other faith communities around the world in promoting the initiative, which is using the hashtag #PrayerforEveryone.
An extraordinarily diverse group of lawmakers from around the world called for greater global efforts to end religious persecution and repression at a Seventh-day Adventist co-sponsored conference in New York. The International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief produced an unlikely alliance of political leaders. Among the more than 100 legislators from some 50 countries were an ayatollah from Iran, Anglican lawmakers from Britain, a Christian member of parliament from Pakistan, Jewish politicians from Israel, Hindu lawmakers from India, and Buddhist legislators from Myanmar.
Seventh-day Adventist leaders praised the naming of a downtown Rome square after Protestant reformer Martin Luther at a ceremony attended by German and Italian politicians and diplomats, Adventist believers, and even a Martin Luther lookalike. The square, Piazza Martin Lutero, was inaugurated at Colle Oppio park, close to the Colosseum, during an event eagerly anticipated by the small Protestant community in Rome.
Seven Seventh-day Adventist believers have been killed in a nighttime attack in northern Cameroon, marking the most serious loss of life that the church has sustained since Boko Haram militants embarked on a violent campaign to establish a strict Muslim state in Africa about five years ago. Heavily armed men entered the village of Aïssa Harde, located 11 kilometers east of the regional capital, Mora, around 11 p.m. Thursday, breaking into homes and killing at least nine people, including the seven Adventists, said Richard Hendjena, head of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in northern Cameroon.
It’s a Revelation prophecy seminar unlike any you’ve ever witnessed. Seventh-day Adventist filmmaker Christopher Hudson has crafted an exploration of the Roman Catholic Church and Revelation 13 into a hip, fast-paced film that has gone viral on YouTube and even won accolades from some unlikely quarters in pop culture.
Angry villagers have demolished a new Seventh-day Adventist church building in the Solomon Islands and ordered the small congregation to leave their island by the end of the month. Irving Vagha, an Adventist leader in the Solomon Islands, an Oceanic country comprised of scores of islands east of Papua New Guinea, asked church members to pray.
Gary Rittenbach’s full-time job is running between computers as director of academic computing at Walla Walla University, a Seventh-day Adventist institution in College Place, Washington. His other big pursuit is running. He’s good at it — so good, in fact, that he recently joined a small club of runners who have completed all six of the world’s top marathons: New York, Chicago, Berlin, Boston, Tokyo, and London.
Is Seventh-day Adventist food fit for a king? The new king of Tonga apparently thinks so. With King Tupou VI’s approval, thousands of guests at his coronation dined on wholesome breakfast cereals and soymilk produced by the Adventist Church-owned Sanitarium Health & Wellbeing food giant. “[We] are fairly sure that this is a first in our history,” a Sanitarium spokeswoman said Wednesday.
An innovative Adventist youth program in the church’s Southeast Asia territory (SSD) has recently earned praise from local government leaders in Vietnam. One Year in Mission (OYIM) Vietnam volunteers received a certificate of governmental appreciation for two community projects in ward 9 Phu Nhuan district during an August 27 ceremony in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly known as Saigon.
As Europe grapples with a migrant crisis, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency said it is working overtime to care for vulnerable families in Serbia, a main entry point for refugees fleeing to the continent. ADRA has teamed up with the United Nations and three other entities to open an asylum information center that provides reliable information about refugee rights and other resources in Serbia’s capital, Belgrade.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Europe called for compassion and prayer Thursday amid a migrant crisis that saw hundreds of migrants stage protests in France and Hungary and the bodies of other migrants wash up in Turkey this week. Desperate migrants and asylum seekers have flooded into Europe by the thousands from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia this summer, leaving the continent divided over how to deal with them.
Rome will name a central square after Protestant reformer Martin Luther in response to a request by the Seventh-day Adventist Church and with the support of the Roman Catholic Church. The square on Oppian Hill, a park area that overlooks the Colosseum in the central Monti district, will be named Piazza Martin Lutero in honor of Luther’s achievements on Sept. 16.