Au cours d’une session de sa circonscription convoquée par la Columbia Union Conférence, les délégués des huit conférences ont massivement voté une recommandation du comité exécutif de l’union d’autoriser l’ordination sans égard au sexe. En cette historique occasion, 209 personnes ont voté en faveur, 51 se sont opposés, et 9 se sont abstenus.- Une proportion de 4 à 1.
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.”
“Things in North Carolina were pretty rough. They didn’t want us there anyway,” says Phillip Herout, now 85 years old, recalling his basic training at Montford Point Camp in New River, N.C., which was set up to train the first black Marines. “The place was full of mosquitoes and snakes.” They also lived in substandard housing and suffered abuse from their white drill instructors.
Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2) researchers visited several camp meetings around the Columbia Union Conference. Many of 96,000 study members of AHS-2 are church members in the Columbia Union.
La Columbia Union Conférence convoque ce dimanche 29 juillet une circonscription spéciale en vue de considérer une requête des membres du comité exécutif d’approuver l’ordination au ministère sans égard au sexe.
“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:
In 2010 Mikhail Kulakov, DPhil, became director and editor-in-chief of the Bible Translation Institute, which is based at Washington Adventist University. While Kulakov is based at the Takoma Park, Md.-campus, he is partnering with the Zaosky Adventist Seminary and Institute in Russia.
Story by Celeste Ryan Blyden