Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

August 2011

“Sometimes as young adults, especially those who are single, we go our own way on Friday nights. But with this ministry, we can open the Sabbath together,” says Anthony Barnes, a member of Allegheny East Conference’s First church in Washington, D.C. It was at his church that young adults from around the region recently met for the “First Fridays” worship service.

The Ephesus congregation in Columbus, Ohio, recently celebrated its centennial with a weekend full of festivities. Many former pastors returned to help celebrate, including James Washington, Charles Drake, Henry M. Wright, Stephen T. Lewis, Bufford Griffith and William T. Cox. Other guest speakers with close relationships to Ephesus included Barry C. Black, chaplain for the United States Senate, and James L. Lewis, former Allegheny West Conference president.

After 20 years of meeting for worship in places they could not call home, last weekend members of the Potomac Conference’s Virginia Beach (Va.) church celebrated the purchase of their own church building. Visitors from the community and over 10 sister churches in California, West Virginia, Maryland, Florida and North Carolina joined them for the grand opening ceremony. The sanctuary, lobby and hallways were standing-room-only when attendance soared to over 400 during the divine hour of worship.

A leading economist is predicting that the proposed relocation of the Washington Adventist Hospital to White Oak, Md. and its continued use of the hospital’s nearby Takoma Park, Md. campus, will be a catalyst for helping the region meet its full economic potential.