The former president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in The Bahamas and the West Indies Union, Pastor Silas McKinney, was laid to rest in a state recognized funeral this weekend. High-ranking government officials and church leaders were in attendance. Pastor McKinney died on July 16, 2016 after battling an illness for several years. He was 89.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in North Mexico is mourning the loss of two of its members who died this week during a Master Guide camping retreat at a national park in the trails of the Sierra Juárez Mountains. The bodies of Narcizo Mora Marín, 39, and of Jhoana Díaz López, 16, were found after an exhaustive search operation by park officials and rescue organizations.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in West Venezuela brought nearly 1,000 of its church leaders, ministers and laypeople to the city of Maracaibo last weekend to inspire congregations to deepen their relationship with God, get them involved in the life of the church and inspire them to connect with their communities in the midst of challenging situations.
A new study linking alcohol consumption to at least seven kinds of cancer reinforces the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s stance to shun all alcohol, a top Adventist physician said Tuesday. The study, published in most recent issue of the scientific journal Addiction, found that drinking even low or moderate amounts of alcohol causes cancer of the oropharynx, larynx, oesophagus, liver, colon, rectum, and breast.
Seventh-day Adventist believers in France expressed solidarity and compassion after a hostage-taking in a Roman Catholic church left an 86-year-old priest dead and another person seriously injured. “When a church is desecrated, it is the believers who are suffering,” French Adventist leaders said in the statement released by the church’s Inter-European Division, whose territory includes France.
The leader of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Germany’s Bavaria region called on church members to reach out to their communities in a special way after three violent attacks in less than a week left the country reeling. Adventist believers joined people across Germany in expressing shock and sorrow after an 18-year-old German-Iranian student killed nine people at the Olympia Mall in Munich on Friday evening.
Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders and ministers met for a Bible Conference in Montemorelos University earlier this month to study the gift of prophecy in Scripture and in history. The four-day event, organized by the White Research Center and the Theology Department in Montemorelos, brought local church leaders and more than 500 pastors from across the Inter-American Division, July 6-9, 2016.
President of the Adventist Church in the Atlantic Caribbean Union Pastor Leonard Johnson received the Queen’s New Year Honor award during a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace in London, England, on June 22, 2016. Johnson was awarded the Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) medal—an award granted to men and women of high office, or who render extraordinary or important non-military service in a foreign country.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church will release the largest cinematic production in the denomination’s history in October: a dramatic depiction of the birth and development of the early Advent movement. “Tell the World,” produced by church-owned Hope Channel in Australia, brings to life the story of Adventist pioneers with an unprecedented cast of 95 actors, 157 crew members, and 1,000 extras.
President of Colombia Juan Manuel Santos signed a historic decree earlier this month to make every July 4 a National Day of Religious Liberty and Freedom of Worship in the country. More than 100 religious leaders including Adventist leaders witnessed the signing at Casa de Nariño, or the president’s residence and government headquarters in Bogotá, on July 4, 2016. President Santos commented that it was the shortest decree he had ever signed in six years, but one that carried great symbolism and importance, as the country moves toward peace after 52 years of armed conflict.
An all-time record 1.26 million people joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 2015 as the number of daily accessions matched those first seen when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the early Christian church, according to the Adventist Church’s new 2016 Annual Statistical Report.
Seventh-day Adventist leaders appealed to local church members to assist those affected by a truck attack that killed at least 84 people and injured many others, including seven Adventist believers, in the French city of Nice. A large truck plowed through a huge crowd of people watching a Bastille Day fireworks celebration on the night of July 14, leaving a 1 ½-mile (2-kilometer) trail of bloodshed before police shot the driver dead.