President of the Inter American Division Pastor Israel Laito
Israel Leito re-elected as IAD president for a 5th term
Pastor Israel Leito, 70, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America
was re-elected today, Monday, July 6, to serve another five years as president of the vast
growing membership.
Pastor Leito was confirmed by the GC Session delegation after his name was submitted by
the Nominating Committee of the world church.
6 Newcomers Among 13 Division Presidents
By Stephen Chavez, Wilona Karimabadi, and Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review/ANN
General Conference (GC) session delegates elected six new presidents to the Seventh-day
Adventist Church's 13 world divisions and kept seven incumbents on Monday.
General Conference president Ted N. C. Wilson said officers at Adventist world church
headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, would work closely with division presidents to
fulfill the church's mission of preparing people for Jesus' return.
"Every division president is [also] a vice president of the General Conference," Wilson
reminded delegates during a discussion after the division presidents were elected Monday.
The six new division presidents are Leonardo R. Asoy (Southern Asia-Pacific
Division), Mario Brito (Inter-European Division), Michael Kaminskiy (Euro-Asia
Division), Ezras Lakra (Southern Asia Division), Glenn Townend (South Pacific
Division), and Elie Weick-Dido (West-Central Africa Division).
These new leaders replace incumbents who retired, were not re-elected, or, in the case of
the Euro-Asia Division's Guillermo E. Biaggi, moved to the General Conference as a
general vice president.
12 Directors Elected to GC Departments
By Wilona Karimabadi, Kimberly Luste Maran, and Marcos Paseggi, Adventist
Review/ANN, with information from Adventist.org
General Conference (GC) session delegates elected 12 of the 15 department directors of
the General Conference on Monday.
Eight directors were incumbents, and two of them replaced officers who are retiring.
The retiring department directors are Jonathan Kuntaraf of the Sabbath School and
Personal Ministries department, and John Graz, director of the Public Affairs and
Religious Liberty department.
Five department directors remain unannounced by the nominating committee, including
for Publishing Ministries, Stewardship Ministries, and Planned Giving & Trust Services.
Delegates on Monday also elected Claude Richli, Hensley Moorooven, and Gerson Santos
to serve as associate secretaries in Secretariat.
3 New and 3 Incumbent GC Vice Presidents Elected
By Sandra Blackmer, Michael Campbell, and Andrew McChesney, Adventist Review /
ANN, with information supplied by Adventist.org
A slimmed-down leadership team of six general vice presidents has been elected to the
General Conference and charged with helping implement three mission-oriented goals that
the Seventh-day Adventist Church intends to prioritize over the next five years.
The line-up includes three new officers-Guillermo E. Biaggi, Thomas L. Lemon, and
Abner De Los Santos-and three re-elected officers-Geoffrey G. Mbwana, Ella S. Simmons,
and Artur A. Stele.
"There will be a very strong emphasis on mission," General Conference president Ted N.
C. Wilson said Monday as he assured delegates that the smaller team would be able to help
steer the church's work.
The shuffle is significant, reducing the number of general vice presidents from nine to six,
a level last seen in the 1990s. A record four general vice presidents announced their
retirement months before the General Conference session.
With the election, two sitting general vice presidents also will leave office, Delbert W.
Baker and Pardon K. Mwansa.
Some delegates were surprised by the announcement of the smaller team, which was made
at the General Conference session on Sunday. Wilson said he had explained to the
Nominating Committee that the General Conference could do with fewer general vice
presidents because their workload had shrunk over the past five years. He named as
examples the General Conference's transfer of two institutions-Pacific Press Publishing
Association and Oakwood University-to the North American Division and the closure of
Review and Herald Publishing Assocation's printing operations last year.
Several delegates still questioned the decision on Sunday and Monday, with one saying it
was odd to reduce leadership at a time when the Adventist Church is experiencing
unprecedented growth. A vote on the nominations was postponed until Monday so
concerned delegates could speak with the Nominating Committee.
Simmons, the first woman to serve as a general vice president of the Adventist Church
who was first elected in 2005, said change in organizational leadership structure is always
a part of growth.
"We just need the wisdom of God to know what change is for His honor at any given
time," she said in an interview.
The four general vice presidents who earlier announced their plans to retire are Lowell C.
Cooper, Armando Miranda, Michael L. Ryan, and Benjamin D. Schoun.
Seven GC Officers Elected
Kimberly Luste Maran and Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review/ANN
Delegates quickly re-elected six General Conference officers and promoted a seventh to
five-year terms in Secretariat and Treasury on Sunday.
The officer who was promoted-J. Raymond Wahlen II, to the No. 2 position of
Undertreasurer-replaces Juan Prestol-Puesán, who was elected treasurer on Friday.
The undersecretary, Myron Iseminger, was re-elected to his position on Friday.
The officers expressed eagerness for their continuing assignments.
"It is a privilege to serve the world church in this capacity," Karen J. Porter, re-elected as
associate secretary of the General Conference, told the Adventist Review after the vote. "I
pray for wisdom and guidance from above as we move together into the next
quinquennium."
Seton Survived Ebola, but 12 Missionaries Gave Their Lives
By Gina Wahlen, Adventist Review/ANN
To stay open and take great risks, or to close the hospital doors to those in desperate need
of medical care?
That was the question facing Dr. Gillian Seton and her team at the Cooper Adventist
Hospital in Liberia, during the height of the Ebola crisis.
Seton, a 2008 graduate of Loma Linda University Medical School, had just recently
arrived in Liberia when the crisis hit.
"There were already outbreaks in several villages," she told a crowd of several thousand in
the Alamodome during the Sabbath afternoon program organized by the General
Conference's Office of Adventist Mission. "Hospitals were closed to the north and south of
us, and that's about the time we realized that we couldn't stand alone on this," she said.
GC Delegates Drop E-Vote
By Adventist Review/ANN staff
Delegates voted on Sunday to not use electronic voting at the General Conference (GC)
session after repeated tests of the system failed to yield accurate results.
General Conference president Ted N.C. Wilson took to the stage after lunch on Sunday to
lead delegates in a final test of the e-vote system.
"I would encourage everyone who has this device to use it," he said.
Delegates were asked to stand and hold up their voting devices for a physical count. Then
they were asked to stand and press "1" or "2" on their devices for an electronic count.
Wilson said the variance in the count was significantly larger than the 51 votes-or 2
percent of all delegates-that the General Conference's Steering Committee had agreed
earlier in the day would be acceptable.
A vote was called for using voting cards to abandon the e-vote system. The motion passed.
GC officers gave assurances that a secret vote via a paper ballot system would be used on
key issues, including the Wednesday discussion of whether divisions will be allowed to
authorize ordination for women in their territories.
"We will not ask you to vote on sensitive items by asking you to hold up your card,"
Wilson said.
He also told delegates that each of their votes was a "sacred responsibility."
"You are to vote on your own conscience between you and God," he said.
5K
Fun Run is a family affair that underscores the Adventist health message.
By Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review/ANN
A festive mood permeated the predawn air as 2,500 Seventh-day Adventists attending the
General Conference session in San Antonio, Texas, traded the comfort of their beds for a
5K Fun Run.
The "InStep for Life" run, which covered a downtown loop close to the Henry B. González
Convention Center, where part of the session activities are taking place, gathered church
workers and their families to support physical exercise as a key component of a healthy
life.
"My reason to be here is very simple: I just want to be healthy," said Jonathan Kuntaraf,
68, director of the Sabbath School department of the General Conference.
"Presently, exercise is the best indication of a long life," added Kuntaraf, who plans to
retire after the end of the General Conference session on July 11.
John Bradshaw, speaker and director of the It Is Written
television ministry, said he could not imagine not being part of the race, and then he
quipped with a big smile, "I just wonder how fair it is to let the Kenyans run," a nod to a
country famous for its long-distance runners.Vicente Sanchez, a San Antonio police officer
assigned to assist in road closings near the finishing line, expressed disbelief at the sight.
"If I were not on duty, there is no doubt, I would be sleeping. But to see all these families
together, from all over the world . . . it is just impressive!" he said.
The first runner across the finish line was Elpidio Sanchez Rocha, from Mexico, with a
time of 18 minutes and 46 seconds. The winning woman runner was Yanory Hernandez of
Downers Grove, Illinois, with a time of 20 minutes and 43 seconds.
GC DELEGATES PLEDGE CHRIST-LIKE ATTITUDE
July 02, 2015 | San Antonio, Texas, United States of America
| Andrew McChesney, Adventist Review / ANN
Delegates at the General Conference session knelt down with
the Adventist Church's top officers as they promised to show
"Christ-likeness and humble respect for each other in our
words and actions" during the 10 days of the meetings in San Antonio, Texas, and beyond.
The church's top officers, a group of about 60 people including General Conference
leadership and division presidents, had previously approved a 120-word appeal to the
General Conference session that General Conference president Ted N. C. Wilson read to
the delegates on Thursday and asked them to support.
"The most important thing that we must carry from this General Conference session when
we leave . . . is that we are united in mission," Wilson said. "Today we will make an appeal
to you along with all of us: Humble your hearts before the Lord."
The full text of the appeal reads:
"We, General Conference and division officers, appeal to all 2015 General Conference
session delegates and attendees to accept each other as brothers and sisters in Christ
regardless of some differences of opinion that may be evident on certain subjects. We ask
for Christ-likeness and humble respect for each other in our words and activities during
the General Conference session and beyond. Our humble demeanour and attitudes,
through God's power, will speak volumes to those who are watching. We earnestly appeal
that we do all in our power to strengthen the church-this precious Advent movement. We
lean completely on Christ for the unifying spirit that we need in proclaiming the three
angels' messages in these last days of Earth's history."
At Wilson's request, the some 2,000 delegates stood to acknowledge that they accepted
the appeal. They then divided in groups of two or three to seal their commitment in prayer.
The 60 church officers knelt on stage, and the delegates knelt on the main floor of the
Alamodome stadium, the site of the General Conference session.
General Conference leadership has made a special effort to encourage humility and a
Christlike attitude at key business meetings in the run-up to the General Conference
session, where delegates will vote on much-discussed issues such as wording revisions to
the church's fundamental beliefs and women's ordination.
Wilson prefaced his reading of the statement with a screening of What Might Have Been, a
short film produced by the General Conference Ministerial Association about the General
Conference session in 1901. The film, based on a vision that church co-founder Ellen G.
White had, portrays how God had planned to carry out a deep spiritual renewal as
delegates were reconciled through humility and the confession of sins at the 1901
session. "One hundred fourteen years, and we are still here on Earth," Armando Miranda, a
general vice president of the General Conference, told delegates Thursday. "We need the
presence of the Holy Spirit," he said. "We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit in a special
way. And the Lord is willing to do this for us." Wilson urged delegates to "press together
as God has instructed us" and "to put away every contention."
"This General Conference session could be our last if we act according to God's will," he
said.
He noted that Adventists around the world have been praying for the 2015 General
Conference session and for the delegates as part of 100 Days of Prayer, a Ministerial
Association initiative that ends at this session.
"For the past 100 days, God's people around the world have been praying for you [and] for
me," he said. "Let's not disappoint them, or God, or the angels who are in our midst today.
What might have been, can be."
Wilson added: "I earnestly ask that the Holy Spirit will be in our midst this morning, this
afternoon, tonight, and throughout the session as we look forward to the Lord's soon
return. We want to go home!"
GC Delegates Approve Record 35 New Union
Conferences
By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Review / ANN
Moving to streamline the church's work at a time of
rapid growth, delegates opened the General Conference
session on Thursday by officially approving the addition of an unprecedented 35 new
union conferences to the Adventist world church.
The delegates easily approved the administrative units-most of which are located in Africa,
Central America, and South America-by holding up yellow cards in a vote in the
cavernous Alamodome stadium in San Antonio, Texas.
The vote was needed to officially confirm unions that have been organized since the last
General Conference session in 2010 or are slated to be organized in the near future. "The
high number of new unions is unprecedented in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist
Church," G. T. Ng, executive secretary of the General Conference, told the Adventist
Review earlier. "It is a reflection of the church growing with breakneck speed around the
world. "Most of the new unions came as a result of rapid church growth. The Adventist
world church has a membership of 18.5 million, compared to the 16.3 million reported at
the 2010 General Conference session.
In order to more efficiently nurture growing membership, it has become necessary to
divide existing unions, establishing two new entities instead, church leaders said. Zambia,
whose membership passed 1 million in April 2015, is an example of this, and its Zambia
Union Conference will split into two unions during a meeting on September 20 to 23.
Other regions have advanced from union mission to union conference, indicating maturity
in finance and leadership. The 35 unions surpass the previous record of 22 unions added in
2010 and 22 unions added in 2005. Only 9 unions were added in 2000.
The new unions were presented to the delegates on the opening morning of the 10-day
General Conference session, which runs through July 11. The respective division
secretaries introduced the respective union presidents on the Alamodome's stage.
The majority of the new unions -22- are in the three church divisions in Africa, Rosa
Banks, a General Conference undersecretary and liaison to the three African divisions, told
delegates.
Among the new unions is the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, which was
formed in 2012 with the intention of strengthening the focus of reaching the Middle East
and North Africa.
"By uniting the former Trans Mediterranean Field and the former Middle East Union into a
new union directly attached to the General Conference, it has been possible to enhance the
efforts to reach the population in this part of the 10/40 window," said Harald Wollan,
associate secretary for the General Conference who serves as liaison to the Middle East
and North Africa Mission. "Under the able leadership of the current administration,
wonderful things are happening in this challenging part of the world."
Homer Trecartin, president of the Middle East and North Africa Union Mission, said it was
a challenge to unite pieces of various divisions into the new union, but the result is worth
the effort.
"It takes primarily Muslim countries, puts them in one group, and allows us to focus on
one part of the world," he said on the sidelines of the General Conference session.
The Trans-European Division also has a new union in Finland. The constituency in the
Finland Union decided to reorganize the church's work in that country for efficiency sake,
transforming from a union conference to a union of churches conference, Wollan said.
"By eliminating administrative entities, it becomes possible to operate with fewer
administrative positions, thus getting more pastors out in the field," he said.
Wollan said the establishment of new unions matters to every church member because it
helps the church better fulfill its mission of preparing people for Jesus' return.
"The church was organized for mission. The more streamlined and efficient the leadership
of the church, the better membership care and the more efficient it can become in
evangelism," he said. "We all share a responsibility in witnessing about the soon-coming
Savior."
World Church Welcomes Back Hungarian Splinter
Group
By Norel Iacob Adventist Review / ANN
An inspiring moment unfolded on the stage of the
General Conference session on Thursday when Raafat
Kamal, president of Trans-European Division, told of a historical reconciliation between
the Hungarian Adventist Church and the Christian Advent Community, a breakaway group
also known as KERAK.
"It is unbelievable that it could happen," KERAK president János Cserbik said in an
interview. "My first emotion on the platform was: a dream fulfilled."
The KERAK constitution always stipulated that the movement's members would return to
the church one day, he said.
That day came after 40 years of separation when he and Tamás Ócsai, president of the
Hungarian Union Conference, signed a document titled "Joint Declaration on Settling the
Past and Building a Common Future" on April 23. The church split in the Soviet era over
differences, mainly on how closely the church could be linked to the state.
"If you see them, embrace them and pray with them," Kamal urged session attendees,
referring to the architects of the achievement standing with him on the platform, including
Cserbik, Ócsai, and KERAK secretary Zoltan Bodolai. "God gave them courage . . . to put
behind the pain, the challenges."
The challenges were significant, Kamal said, noting that union presidents, division
presidents, and General Conference presidents had failed to reach this point. But the issue
is not completely resolved even now. About 400 of KEREK's 1,600 members don't wish to
return to the Adventist Church. Married couples have split over the issue, Cserbik said.
KERAK will continue to exist for a while to take care of these hurting members, he said.
For this reason, Cserbik said his second emotion on the platform was best expressed by the
question, "What if it goes wrong?" Together with the joy of reuniting with the church, he
said he feels the burden of the hesitating members.
Bodolai, the KERAK secretary, said he felt relieved. "Big fights are behind us," he said.
"The church welcomed us [today] with open arms, and we find new brothers and sisters
every day. I am grateful to God because He made this healing process possible."
Adventist and KERAK leaders met almost weekly over the past year and came to an
understanding that the most important form of unity is spiritual unity, Ócsai said.
General Conference president Ted N. C. Wilson underscored the importance of spiritual
unity when he prayed for the Hungarian church at the end of Kamal's report.