Jill Biden, wife of U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, expressed sympathy for a family with two children who fled fighting in eastern Ukraine, and she thanked ADRA for assisting the family and many other people displaced by the violence. Biden visited a shelter at ADRA’s office in Kiev on Friday as her husband held talks with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko on measures to deal with the country’s sputtering economy.
An Adventist church choir in Jamaica saved the life of an accused robber who sought refuge from a mob that killed one of his friends, a local church leader said Thursday. The unidentified suspect ran into the Harrison Adventist Church in the city of Montego Bay after being chased by an angry crowd that accused him and three friends of robbing and stabbing a woman in a nearby shopping district on Tuesday night, said Glen O. Samuels, president of the Adventist Church’s West Jamaica Conference.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America will hold a special online symposium on Nov. 21, 2014, at 6:30 p.m. (Miami Time) for leaders of small groups from across the territory. The event will be hosted from the Inter-American Division (IAD) Headquarters in Miami, Florida. The two-hour online program will seek to reaffirm and strengthen the role each small group leader has in discipling church members to grow spiritually and fulfill the gospel mission, said Pastor Melchor Ferreyra, personal ministries director for the church in Inter-America and organizer of the event.
A U.S. federal court confirmed today that clergy can continue to claim the tax benefit for housing allowance, upholding a Seventh-day Adventist Church-backed appeal against a lower court ruling that would have ended the so-called parsonage allowance. The 7th Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Chicago, handed down its decision saying the plaintiffs—the Freedom From Religion Foundation—lacked standing to challenge the exemption, meaning that the group had not suffered damage personally.
Preparing children and adolescents for leadership in the church is something that Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in North Colombia take seriously as dozens of youngsters across the region participated in a talent showcase in Medellin, Colombia, on Nov. 1, 2014. The annual competition brought children and adolescents from across local churches in the seven regional fields in North Colombia to demonstrate their knowledge of biblical doctrines, and to preach and sing in front of a large congregation at Colombia Adventist University’s Auditorium.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America recently closed its second annual business meetings, setting its sights on more church growth and expansion, member retention, and continued efforts to train its members for discipleship and planning to celebrate the work of ministers across the region for 2015.
Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas Perry G. Christie praised the work of the Adventist Church for its positive role in the areas of education, youth and health, as he spoke to church leaders and members at the Hillview Adventist Church in Nassau, The Bahamas, on Nov. 2, 2014. Prime Minister Christie asked the Adventist Church to open a health and wellness center in his Caribbean island nation after hearing a local top church leader present a report on Adventist centers worldwide.
Students at the Chester Primary School in the Parish of St. Ann, in Jamaica are hailing a school-feeding program that sees the Seventh-day Adventist Church providing meals for the students twice per week. The program, which began in April at the government-run school of some 86 students, was inspired by Adventists who wanted to do something for the children attending school without breakfast in the Chester rural community.
Seventh-day Adventist Youth Ministries leaders are asking local youth leaders to reserve March 21, 2015, on their calendar for the community service initiative called Global Youth Day (GYD). Next year’s GYD will be the third annual event that sends hundreds of thousands of Adventist youth and young adults out of church for service projects in neighborhoods and communities worldwide.
Leaders of the North American Division have taken initial steps to relocate from the headquarters of the General Conference building in Silver Spring, Maryland, to another site in the nearby metropolitan Washington area.
Dozens of needy families from several communities in the city of Barquisimeto, Venezuela, benefited from a special program and dinner thanks to Seventh-day Adventists who donated a meal earlier last month. The activity was part of a church initiative to offer a day of kindness and compassion together with the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in West Venezuela to those in need throughout the region especially in October.
Top Romanian officials last week pledged their support for religious liberty in the Eastern European nation during a two-day symposium sponsored by the Conscience and Liberty Association. Titus Corlatean, Romania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, told attendees of the importance for religious denominations to be able to operate without restrictions on their traditions, beliefs or rituals.