Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

March 2011

At “Engaging Meaningful Ministry From the Margins,” a Fourth Street Friendship church event held last weekend in Washington, D.C., community leaders tackled tough questions about how to reach local communities. Approximately 500 people attended the event, and viewers from as far away as California and Dubai tuned in via the Internet.
 

Takoma Park, MD — The Trustees of Washington Adventist University (WAU) today voted a Memorandum of Understanding with Atlantic Union College (AUC). This MOU calls for the two institutions to work toward an agreement to establish a branch campus of Washington Adventist University at Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massachusetts. WAU would lease the facilities of AUC, and become the sole provider of higher education at the New England location. All provisions are dependent upon approval from the required accrediting and regulatory agencies.

Larry Beneke, a member of Ohio Conference’s Kettering church, has announced his retirement as chair of Kettering College’s Department of Radiologic Sciences and Imaging, a position he has held since 1996. His retirement becomes final in April as he finishes his 25th year at the school, and more than 36 years with Kettering Adventist HealthCare, the college’s governing organization.

Members of the Allegheny East Conference’s Emmanuel-Brinklow church in Ashton, Md., recently stood witness as a former member of the Klu Klux Klan embraced a man who he beat some 50 years ago. Back then that man was a Freedom Rider participating in the Civil Rights Movement. Today that man who was beaten is better known as U.S. Congressman John Lewis. Rep. Lewis was one of four people that the Emmanuel-Brinklow church recently honored during the church’s sixth annual Living Legends Awards for Service to Humanity. The honorees included Frazier and Virginia Mathis, Emmanuel-Brinklow members and founders of Global Vessels—a missionary organization; Ella Jenkins, a Grammy-award-winning children’s musician; and Congressman Lewis.