Approximately four dozen members from Columbia Union churches in the greater Baltimore and Washington, D.C., area gathered at the union office in Columbia, Md., October 20 for the Liberty Festival 2012. Sponsored by the union’s Office of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL), the program provided an overview of the role of religious freedom in the development of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and also provided an opportunity for the church to consider religious freedom from the perspective of other faiths.
If the referendum on Maryland’s Civil Marriage Act passes, the state would join six others and the District of Columbia in legalizing same-sex marriage. As they head to the polls this month, Seventh-day Adventist Christians are wondering what passage of this law and two others could mean for Bible-believers. In 1999 and again in 2004, the world church released statements upholding the biblical view and fundamental belief that marriage should involve one man and one woman.
We acknowledge the concerns and questions our recent special constituency vote raised among some of our church family and administrators and regret that some misunderstood our motives and intentions. We unwaveringly stand in solidarity with our worldwide church family in faith, belief, doctrine and mission and appeal for understanding.
“Washington Adventist Hospital will continue to grow where we are while we again seek to obtain approval for a new hospital campus. Though this is a challenge, we choose to embrace possibility,” said William G "Bill" Robertson, Adventist HealthCare (AHC) president, speaking to attendees at the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee who gathered today for their regular fall meeting.
Silver Spring, Md.—After two hours of presentations from multiple levels of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as well as 90 minutes of discussion, delegates to the Columbia Union Conference Special Constituency Meeting today voted an historic motion—“That the Columbia Union Conference authorize ordination to the gospel ministry without regard to gender.”
This month the Columbia Union Conference published a special issue of the Visitor magazine themed “Weighing the Issues: Why We’re Advocating for Women’s Ordination.”
“The territory that comprises our great union is best viewed as a mission field that God has called us to reach,” says Frank Bondurant, Columbia Union Conference vice president for Ministries Development. “Accordingly one of the fundamental core values for our next quinquennium is to ‘impact our communities by revealing the love of Christ, sharing the distinct Adventist message and inviting people to accept Christ as their Savior.’”
On Sunday at the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee in Hershey, Pa., members voted to adopt the following values for the 2011-2016 term: Christlikeness, unity, respect, excellence, equality, integrity and service.
At its spring meeting Sunday, the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee voted two items that will propel the subject of women in ministry to the top of its agenda this year. They are as follows:
