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.

Matthew Abrams (center, in blue) and other Campus Ministries members prepare material to provide food for homeless people in Washington, D.C.

The foundational principle, “It is more blessed t o give than to receive” (Acts 20:35, NIV), presents a stark contrast to the self-centered messages in today’s society. But Matthew Abrams, a junior from Chesapeake Conference's Spencerville Adventist Academy (Md.), is leading the charge to bring the spirit of giving back into the light.

Members of the Fredericksburg Pathfinder Club participate in the Columbia Union Pathfinder Bible Experience

On Sabbath, 54 teams, comprised of at least 320 Pathfinders, gathered in Blue Mountain Academy’s gymnasium in Hamburg, Pa., to test their knowledge of the books of Esther and Daniel during the Columbia Union Conference’s sixth Pathfinder Bible Experience (PBE), a competition that tests participants Bible knowledge. So far it is the largest Columbia Union PBE event in the union.