News
Providing Encouragement and Assessment
NAD Administrators Affirm Work and Assess Needs During Visit to the Guam-Micronesia Mission
Beginning January 4, 2024, a North American Division administrative team visited several islands within the Guam-Micronesia Mission for two weeks. “We wanted to provide encouragement and do an assessment of needs and see how we could better support the work there,” said NAD president G. Alexander Bryant.
Adventist Community Services Prepares to Help After Tornadoes Strike Missouri, Kentucky, and Wisconsin
Yesterday afternoon, a devastating tornado struck Kentucky and St. Louis, Missouri. In Kentucky, 14 are reported dead. In St. Louis, five deaths have been reported, along with widespread damage. At least 20 blocks of the city sustained damage. More than 5,000 properties are without power, and local emergency services are actively responding. As ACS begins to respond, they urge members to pray for those impacted and those providing assistance.
Union Adventist University Receives Grant for Culinary Medicine Teaching Kitchen
The Ardmore Institute of Health has awarded Union Adventist University’s Master of Public Health Program a grant to establish a culinary medicine teaching kitchen (CMTK). The $35,000 will purchase six commercial-grade mobile workstations, each including the culinary tools and appliances to support two students at a time, enabling the university to host classes of up to 12 students in the teaching kitchen. Any remaining funds will support a student garden that was established by the university’s first public health cohort last year.
Mid-America Union Conference Executive Committee Appoints New Communication Director
During its regular spring meeting, the Mid-America Union Executive Committee voted to approve a recommendation by MAUC’s administrative team outlining a leadership transition for the union’s communication department. Following the vote, then-director Brenda Dickerson became the associate director, and then-associate director/digital media manager Hugh Davis became the new director, effective May 1, 2025. This transition of titles, initially proposed by Dickerson, serves as a model for succession planning and smooth leadership transitions in appointed positions.
James P. Willis II Elected as New Vice President for Education for the Pacific Union Conference
The Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists has elected James P. Willis II as its new vice president for education, effective July 1, 2025. He will succeed Dr. Berit von Pohle, who is retiring after a distinguished career spanning 46 years in Adventist education
Ending Domestic Violence — No Time to Waste
The church plays an important role in creating a safe community and an environment in which domestic violence, or intimate partner violence (IPV), is addressed, not covered up. An appropriate understanding of Scripture is also protective. Local churches must become aware of resources in their communities designed to help both victims and perpetrators.
Adventist Pharmacy Workers' Case Expected to Go to U.S. Supreme Court
"Walgreens doesn’t accommodate religious accommodations.” That’s how Darrell Patterson’s supervisor at Walgreens described the company’s policy. Despite that very frank (and honest) assessment, despite the fact that Walgreens violated its own policies by firing Patterson, and despite the fact that Walgreens suffered no hardship from his not working on Sabbath, four judges in two different courts decided that Walgreens didn’t violate the law. Now in 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to set this injustice right and clarify the law for all people of faith for the first time in more than 30 years.
Jere Wallack, Co-Founder of Sonscreen Film Festival, Passes to His Rest
After a battle with cancer and short time in hospice care, Jere Wallack, former director of the North American Division’s (NAD) Church Resource Center (CRC, later known as “Vervent”), and co-founder of Sonscreen Film Festival, passed away on Aug. 17, 2018. Wallack was retired from denominational service and living in Arizona with his wife, Nancy, when he fell ill earlier this year.
Health System’s Name Change Reinforces Wholistic Adventist Health Message
United States-based Adventist Health System (AHS) recently announced the organization will change its name to AdventHealth as of January 2019, a transition AHS leaders say connects the health care system closer to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “The decision to identify our dynamic health system as AdventHealth emerged from a multi-year process of prayer, market research, and mission-focused thinking,” says Adventist Health System CEO Terry Shaw.