News
Casting Our Eyes to Calvary
The 2022 CALLED Convention Arena Experience
The North American Division’s CALLED Pastors’ Family Convention is a time centered around guiding, supporting, and celebrating pastors. The CALLED Arena Experiences not only met that goal, but exceeded it, focusing on pastoral health and how believers must be grounded first and foremost on Christ alone. Over the course of four days, the arena experience was the central point of group worship that capped each day with morning and evening sessions.
Site of Civil Rights Breakthrough Inspires North American Division Writing Conference Attendees to Effect Change
On January 9 and 10, 2023, the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (NAD) held its first counternarrative writing conference. The unique conference took place during the NAD’s Adventist Ministries Convention. Held at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, it championed sharing narratives from the perspective of historically marginalized groups, i.e., counternarratives.
Rose Otis, First General Conference Women’s Ministries Director, First Woman to Serve as a North American Division Vice President, Passes to Her Rest
On Jan. 7, 2023, Rose Marie Otis, first General Conference Women’s Ministries director, and first woman to serve as a North American Division vice president, passed to her rest. Widely known as a public speaker and author, she was living in Frederick, Maryland, at the time of her death. Otis was 82.
Southwestern Adventist University’s Adaptive Physical Activity Lab: A Hands-on Service Opportunity for Kinesiology Students
Dr. Paulino Santos, chair of the Department of Kinesiology at Southwestern Adventist University (SWAU), threw a party at the end of his Adaptive Physical Activity class for his students and their participants. Young participants with disabilities from the surrounding churches and the community came to celebrate their accomplishments with their student therapists at the end of an eight-week lab in Santos’s Adaptive Physical Activity class.
The Star of Hope
The North Star serves a fixed compass in the night sky, guiding the pathway to the dawning of a new day. The history of African American Seventh-day Adventists is filled with numerous “north stars” who have contributed to the betterment of society for all people. Fortunately, this growing list continues into the twenty-first century.
Community Faith Leaders Gather as North American Division Hosts Fourth Religious Freedom Prayer Breakfast
On Jan. 17, 2023, approximately 100 people from diverse faith traditions gathered for the fourth annual breakfast. The event, held again in person for the second year in a row, recognized Jan. 16 as National Religious Freedom Day in the U.S., and included prayer for the blessing of the meal served, elected officials, the community, the nation, global health and healing, for peace, religious freedom, and for unity of spirit.
“Happiness” Multimedia Project Launches in February 2023
After more than a year of work and the commitment of numerous media centers, media entities, and professionals in several communication fields from around the world, Hope Media Europe, with the Trans-European Division (TED) and Inter-European Division (EUD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will officially launch the multimedia HAPPINESS project on February 3, 2023. Addressing the intentional collaboration with media partners from TED, EUD, North American Division, Inter-America Division, and South American Division, Adrian Duré, coordinator for the network projects in Europe through Hope Media Europe, shared that “together and with God's direction, we can do great things and we can touch the lives of many people in the world through our productions."
Adventist Women Leaders Luncheon Challenges Nearly 70 Attendees to Leverage their Strengths for Ministry Success
At the Adventist Women Leaders (AWL) luncheon, held January 11, 2023, at the conclusion of the North American Division 2023 “Replenish” Adventist Ministries Convention in Greensboro, North Carolina, nearly 70 attendees learned how to leverage their strengths and manage their weaknesses from keynote speaker Leah JM Dean, founder of the leadership, professional, and personal development company Conduit International Ltd.
Bikers Blessed in Baton Rouge Ministry
Motorcycle Ministry Sabbath took place on Aug. 6, 2022. Earlier last year, when Michael Cerda, pastor of the Baton Rouge Seventh-day Church, first shared with the congregation that the Southwestern Union asked tmhe to host “bikers” from all over the country, there was a unified laugh followed by thoughtful silence. Members weren’t sure how to host bikers.