A Seventh-day Adventist leadership summit emphasized that unity is needed to finish the church’s mission of spreading the gospel and overwhelmingly endorsed the unity described by Jesus in John 17. Unity is a key issue among church leaders as the General Conference, the administrative body of the world church, contends with several units that are not in compliance with voted policies.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America continued on the heels of its recently launched Year of the Child and Adolescent with the unveiling of its new Vacation Bible School program last week. More than 160 children’s and adolescent ministries directors from across the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory gathered for a two-day workshop in Miami, Florida, on Jan. 31 to Feb. 1, to reaffirm their commitment to one of its strongest outreach programs of the year.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nicaragua recently inaugurated a brand new facility for its Adventist Hospital in Estelí, Nicaragua. The facility becomes the only private hospital in the city, located 150 kilometers north of Managua—the capital city. The Jan. 9 inauguration ceremony drew city officials and community and church leaders.
Changing the leadership culture throughout the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory is what top church administrators have been aggressively seeking to do with on-going training geared toward its regional and local church administrators and department heads at every level of the church organization. Last week, hundreds of committee and board members across unions, conferences, missions, educational and health institutions in Inter-America were summoned to an online training program themed “Transformed to Lead a Healthy Organization,” from the IAD Headquarters in Miami, Florida, Jan. 24, 2018.
Seventh-day Adventist pastors, leaders and communicators got a glimpse last week of the new website that the Inter-American Division’s communication department will be launching soon. The preview of the website was featured during a CommSessions event. The new website will continue to feature news, more stories, more resources, all adapted to the church’s latest identity guideline system.
Based on a recommendation of the Youth Department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters, the Executive Committee of the General Conference appointed a new associate director last week, to a position left vacant after Jonatán Tejel returned to his home division in Europe last year. Andrés J. Peralta, a pastor with extensive experience as a youth leader and evangelist, will join the team of director Gary Blanchard and associate director Pako Mokgwane as associate director for Junior Youth.
A volunteer is in critical condition after falling from a ladder while serving on a SAGE and Maranatha Volunteers International mission trip in Costa Rica. Ken Lauren, of Snoqualmie, Washington State, United States, was painting the interior of the Bribri Seventh-day Adventist Church when the accident occurred, on Jan. 11. He is currently at the Hospital Clínica Bíblica in San Jose, Costa Rica.
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) Dominica is currently transitioning from relief to rebuild, said the organization’s leaders in that Caribbean nation, after Hurricane María damaged houses, churches, and schools across the island last year. ADRA, the humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, recently received a 20ft (6-meter) container from the Inter-American Division headquarters in Miami, Florida, United States, with buckets containing cleaning supplies. They are now being distributed in the communities affected.
Migrants and refugees are not “problems to be solved,” but vulnerable individuals who must be treated with respect and compassion, said participants this week at a United Nations symposium co-sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The event, held Jan. 22 at the United Nations Secretariat in New York, United States, was the Fourth Annual Symposium on the Role of Religion and Faith-based Organizations in International Affairs, and it brought together some 250 representatives from the UN community, religious groups, and non-governmental organizations.
On Thursday, Jan. 11, Adventist University of Health Sciences (ADU), a Seventh-day Adventist school based in Orlando, Florida, United States, hosted the inauguration of Edwin I. Hernández, its second president. Hernández served as ADU’s provost for two years prior to succeeding the school’s founding president Dave E. Greenlaw on August 1 last year. Under his leadership as provost, ADU has sharpened its standards, embraced innovation, and expanded its degree programs.
The Unity Oversight Committee met at the world headquarters on Dec. 14, 2017, with newly appointed chair, Mike Ryan (voted by the General Conference Administrative Committee), and Hensley Moorooven, secretary. At this meeting, the committee adopted a process to help it in its work of reviewing the “Procedures for Reconciliation and Adherence in Church Governance: Phase II” document referred to it by the 2017 Annual Council and developing a new or revised proposal.
Church leaders are encouraging Seventh-day Adventists to dig deeper into the meaning of “religious freedom” as the global church prepares to commemorate Religious Liberty Sabbath on January 20. Dr. Ganoune Diop, director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department, says that, for Adventists, religious liberty has always been about more than just legal principles or constitutional philosophy.