With the support of the President's Cabinet and the WAU Religion Department, President Weymouth Spence announces the naming of the Henry and Sharon Fordham Department of Religion at Washington Adventist University.
“I am very happy and excited to be back at the New Jersey Conference and to embark on this new journey as their treasurer,” says Carlos Portanova, who will be joined by his wife and three children.
“Our goal was to provide tools and ideas to facilitate and enhance efforts to tell our
Church’s stories and share our message internally and externally,” says Celeste Ryan Blyden, vice president for Strategic Communication and Public Relations.
Rob Vandeman began his pastoral ministry career in 1971 at a church in Denver. He joined the Columbia Union in 1984 as senior pastor of Chesapeake Conference’s Spencerville church.
“We never imagined that, months later, it would become a virtual event, allowing participants as far away as California, Illinois and Texas to join us!"
Many churches across the Columbia Union Conference are still closed for in-person worship due to the coronavirus pandemic, including all churches in the Allegheny East and West conferences. Churches in the New Jersey Conference have experienced 38 deaths as a result of COVID-19. Eighty percent of these churches are now open at 25 percent capacity, reported President Dave Weigley at the September 17 Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee meeting.
