Connecting Columbia Union Seventh-day Adventists

Seventh-day Adventist

Charles McMillan, PhD, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and president of Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), was named alumnus of the year by his alma mater, Washington Adventist University (WAU) during alumni homecoming weekend, April 12-14. The Los Alamos Lab, based in New Mexico operates the lab for the National Nuclear Security Administration. McMillan was the guest of honor at the annual alumni awards banquet held in Bethesda, Md., April 13.
 

Most longtime singles have had to endure intrusive but well-meaning inquiries into their marital status, not only from adorable kindergartners but also grandparents, parents and caring church folk. One Adventist single offers her candid opinion about being single in the church today, and what she learned from hosting her first singles event.

During the 11 o’clock service on Sabbath, January 5, Brenda Billingy, senior pastor of Allegheny East Conference’s (AEC) Metropolitan church in Hyattsville, Md., looked from her chair on the podium to the back of her church and wondered, “Why is the [Columbia] Union president here?” She soon found out. Her associate pastor, Marquis D. Johns, had planned a surprise ceremony, that included Columbia Union president Dave Weigley, executive secretary Rob Vandeman and treasurer Seth Bardu, to celebrate her ministerial credentials that had been recently revised to indicate that she is an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister.

It’s a Sabbath morning and the small chapel at 5203 Manchester Drive in Temple Hills, Md., is packed. This is the inaugural meeting of the Arise church, the first Hispanic American church in the Potomac Conference and people have come from Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., to see what it is all about.

Seventh-day Adventists employ a number of creative ways to share their faith and minister to others. As you look for ways to reach your community this holiday season, and in the year ahead, you may want to pick up your December Visitor as it includes imaginative examples of ministry in motion. Below is one story of creative evangelism:

During year end meetings last week, Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee members voted to give $40,000 to the Allegheny East and New Jersey conferences to aid them in their super storm Sandy relief efforts. The three union officers then prayed over José H. Cortés, New Jersey Conference president; and Henry J. Fordham, Allegheny East Conference president; as well as for the efforts of volunteers throughout New Jersey.