Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

North American Division

North American Division Building

On March 14, 2021, the Potomac Conference Corporation will be the first conference in the Columbia Union Conference to virtually host a full constituency meeting. Like many organizations that have had to adjust their official meeting protocols, after much prayer and deliberation, Potomac made the decision to proceed with the virtual option. The conference’s executive committee later approved the request from the conference administration.

Photograph by Erica Haller

At age 15, Jose Cortes Jr., the North American Division’s associate ministerial director for evangelism, wanted to be a doctor—not a pastor. Being a wise father, José H. Cortés, Sr., who serves as president of the New Jersey Conference, encouraged his son to pursue his dream. But early one morning in Madrid, Spain, Cortes Jr. heard his heavenly Father’s call to become a pastor. “I believe that [my father’s] wonderful and exemplary ministry during his early years influenced and silently encouraged my call,” says Cortes Jr. 

Columbia Union team participation in the annual test of Bible knowledge has more than doubled over the past year.

Story by Columbia Union Staff; Photos by Jeff Cooley

On Wednesday, June 19, the administrations of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and its North American Division (NAD) forwarded, to the boards of Pacific Press Publishing Association and Review and Herald Publishing Association, a request for the two organizations to consider a merger in the near future. The proposal comes in response to church administrators’ analysis of the current publishing mission setting along with related distribution systems. It builds upon the work of several commissions/groups that, over the past several years, have studied the challenges and opportunities arising from rapid technology changes in publishing, as well as changes in how society accesses information.

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.”