Seventh-day Adventist

Virginia-Gene Rittenhouse, DMA, professor and director of the New England Youth Ensemble (NEYE) at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Md., passed away early this morning in Massachusetts.

“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.

Don A. Roth, long considered the “PR person” for the Seventh-day Adventist church for the past 60 years and a former Visitor editor, passed away on Tuesday evening at his home in Loma Linda, Calif. “I spent 15 happy years in the Columbia Union Conference,” Roth wrote last year in a letter to the current Visitor editor. “We had a great team at the union office and I thoroughly enjoyed those years.”

During a two-week trip to Lusaka, Zambia, students from Washington Adventist University (WAU) in Takoma Park, Md., joined local church leaders and preached at 11 different locations every evening with one theme: “Searching the Scriptures.” Throughout this evangelistic crusade, more than 6,000 people faithfully attended the meetings every night. At the culmination of the meetings, 331 people were baptized.

Moving from Colorado to Maryland as Adventist HealthCare’s new executive vice president and chief operating officer, Terry Forde faces a dual adventure to learn both the physical and healthcare terrain of his new state.

Susan G. Hornshaw, PhD, was recently named provost at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Md. Hornshaw is a graduate of the University of Manitoba in Canada where she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology and a Master of Arts degree in Anthropology. In 1982 she received her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Toronto.

This month Ileana Espinosa joins the Columbia Union Conference’s Office of Education as associate director for elementary education. Espinosa hails from the Central California Conference where she served 14 years as associate superintendent. Prior to joining that conference, she taught high school English and Spanish for seven years at Madison Academy (Tenn.). She also taught on the elementary school level. She starts work at the union July 18 and fills the vacancy left when LaVona Gillham retired earlier this year.