Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

Chesapeake Conference

The Chesapeake Conference has over 13,924 members in 74 congregations (64 churches, 10 companies) in Delaware, Maryland, and on the edges of Virginia and West Virginia. It has a pastoral workforce of 65, and its largest congregation, Spencerville (Silver Spring, Md.) has a membership in excess of 1,719. The Chesapeake Conference operates a strong Christian educational program that includes nearly 100 teachers and more than 1,050 students in 11 schools including one high school, a Pre-K - 12 grade academy, a Pre-K - 10 grade academy and eight elementary schools. It also operates an Adventist Book Center and four Adventist Community Services centers in Maryland and Delaware.

Mt. Aetna Camp and Retreat Center, outside Hagerstown, Md., is a fully-accredited camping and retreat center that hosts more than 700 youth during the conference's annual summer camp program. The site, which houses a nature center with a collection of stuffed animals, birds, insects, and reptiles from around the world, is used for field trips, outdoor learning programs, church retreats, spiritual seminars, and camping and hiking excursions.

Transformational Evangelism attendees discuss evangelism methods following a presentation. Photo by Brian Tagalog

At the Columbia Union Transformational Evangelism Conference, pastors discussed what's working and what's not in evangelism.

Photo courtesy Potomac Conference

“We wanted our Adventist nurses to be recognized, acknowledged and celebrated for the work they do. We want them to know that the Adventist church and the Adventist HealthCare system appreciates them,” said event organizer Kathy Coleman, Faith Community Nurse coordinator and program director for Adventist HealthCare in Montgomery County, Maryland.