News Articles

In partnership with the Israel Antiquities Authority and The Israel Museum, Southern Adventist University is the only scheduled location in the United States where visitors can see the first complete alphabetic sentence in human history ever found. This oldest deciphered sentence is inscribed on an ivory lice comb, which was excavated by Southern archaeologists and dates to 1700 B.C. The rare artifact is on display at the Lynn H. Wood Archaeological Museum on Southern’s campus on loan from the Israel Antiquities Authority. The current exhibit, “The Ivory Comb: Lice and Literacy at Lachish,” is open to the public through May 2, 2025.

Walla Walla University believes Adventist education is more important than ever. To train even more Adventist educators who ensure the Christ-focused development of the whole student, WWU is offering job-embedded North American Division Adventist Education Certification courses that do not require summer classes.

As the calendar has turned the page from December to January, the light has effectively turned green for Pentecost 2025, a comprehensive, all-hands-on-deck revival and evangelism initiative of the North American Division. Winston Taylor, pastor of the Cedar Grove Seventh-day Adventist Church, with a core team of about 15 members, has already established significant connections with the community through multiple outreach efforts. A first fruit of this goal is scheduled for March 9–29 in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Around 5:30 a.m. on January 8, 2025, the alert sounded on John Cress’s phone. He and his wife would have to evacuate their home in the Glen Oaks neighborhood of Glendale as the Eaton Fire charred a path toward them. The sky was black with smoke and tinged with red and orange.

Ten years ago, after delivering a well-received presentation at the annual American Society of Church History meeting, Michael Campbell, North American Division director of Archives, Statistics, and Research, pitched the idea of a book on Adventism to the head book editor at Oxford University Press. Intrigued by Campbell’s introduction to Adventist scholarship, the editor invited him to submit a proposal. Their conversation was the catalyst for the groundbreaking Oxford Handbook of Seventh-day Adventism, a 39-chapter volume published in 2024 after much prayer and revision.

During their senior year, Luke Graham and Avianna Alvarez, Walla Walla University engineering alumni, were two of 16 student finalists chosen for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers Pressure Vessel Piping Conference student paper competition.

Jack J. Blanco, former dean of the Southern Adventist University School of Religion and professor emeritus, and author of The Clear Word Bible paraphrase, passed peacefully to his rest on Sabbath, January 11, 2025. He was 95.

Adventist Health Glendale and Adventist Health Global Mission are partnering with the Southern California Conference and the Pasadena Seventh-day Adventist Church to begin offering help (and hope) for residents of Altadena and Pasadena affected by the ongoing fires. The initial phases of response began Jan. 10, 2025, and will continue during the coming months.

On Wednesday evening, January 8, 2025, the North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church hosted a special prayer meeting to launch the world church’s 10 Days of Prayer with emphasis on "Seeking God's Spirit" for Pentecost 2025. “We’re delighted to have you here with us tonight. We’re excited about what God is going to do and about His promises, and tonight, we’re going to claim those promises.” NAD president G. Alexander Bryant said in his greetings.

A series of fires erupted in southern California on Tuesday, January 7, 2025, amid extremely dry and windy weather conditions. As of January 9 the death toll is seven; thousands of homes have been destroyed. The largest blaze, the Pacific Palisades Fire, is now considered the most destructive in Los Angeles City history. This release contains information about what the Southern California Conference is doing to respond immediately to the crisis caused by the fires.