Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

Potomac Conference

If you are ever in Baltimore on a Friday evening, you can find Yehuda Mordechai in the basement of an old Jewish synagogue. Allegheny East Conference’s Berea Temple now occupies the building, but its Jewish history holds special significance to Mordechai, who is working to build up the newly established Baltimore Hebrew Adventist congregation in an area with a large Jewish population. It is in this place that Mordechai leads a Friday night Shabbat service designed to reach Jews for Jesus.

For many years, the building directly behind Potomac Conference’s Beltsville (Md.) church served as a parsonage. But on Tuesday, September 4, the building became a branch office of the Prince George’s County Department of Social Services. The office, located in the Adventist Community Services house at 4220 Ammendale Road, will offer emergency temporary cash assistance, food stamps and medical assistance.

A veritable list of who’s who gathered on November 15 to celebrate and recognize Erwin Mack, a member of Potomac Conference’s Sligo church in Takoma Park, Md. Some guests attended 80-year-old Mack’s retirement party held at Washington Adventist University also in Takoma Park. This marked the second time that Mack retired from the Takoma Langley Crossroads Development Authority, a business association, which he founded and chaired for more than 20 years. Through that organization Mack lobbied for increased police surveillance, combined advertising, utility improvements, and street and pedestrian safety enhancements.

Several communication professionals from the Columbia Union Conference took home awards from the recent Society of Adventist Communicators convention held in Lombard, Ill. Potomac Conference’s Communication Department won “Best in Class” for the Corporate Communication Website category. The team includes Dan Jensen, Communication director; Adrienne Suarez, graphic designer and Paolo Esposito, communication intern.

Some 50 Seventh-day Adventist legal professionals enjoyed fellowship and professional enrichment during the recent inaugural Columbia Union Attorney Weekend. The event was organized by Adventist Lawyers Association (ALA), which “exists to unite and support Adventist lawyers in service to the community and each other.” The general counsel offices of both the General Conference and the Columbia Union Conference sponsored the weekend.

Potomac Conference’s Richmond Academy of Seventh-day Adventists (RA) in Richmond, Va., celebrated 100 years of excellence in Christian education on October 14-16. The weekend festivities started with Dwight C. Jones, Richmond mayor, and Nancy Melashenko, Potomac Conference associate director for education, dedicating RA’s new brick commemorative walkway.