The Columbia Union Conference coordinates the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s work in the Mid-Atlantic United States, where 150,000 members worship in 860 congregations. We provide administrative support to eight conferences; two healthcare networks; 81 early childhood, elementary and secondary schools; a liberal arts university; a health sciences college; a 49 community services centers; 8 camps; 5 book and health food stores and a radio station.
God is love, power, and splendor—and God is a mystery. His ways are far beyond us, but He still reaches out to us. God is infinite yet intimate, three yet one,
all-knowing yet all-forgiving.
Story by Betty Klinck
Adventist HealthCare Washington Adventist Hospital is the first hospital in Maryland to offer an alternative approach to transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR), a less invasive procedure to replace a damaged heart valve without open-heart surgery. The new method, called transcaval TAVR, will expand the minimally invasive benefits of TAVR to more people with valve disease.
Historia de Celeste Ryan Blyden
Story by Hannah Luttrell and V. Michelle Bernard
Background
The Amish originated from the Anabaptists. The word “ana” is Greek for “again,” and the Anabaptists rejected the infant baptism that many of them had been subjected to, believing instead that the only valid baptism was one that was freely chosen after confessing belief in Jesus. Menno Simons was a former Catholic priest who embraced Anabaptism in the 1500s and became a prominent leader, with his followers becoming known as Mennonites rather than Anabaptists.
In 1693, there was a split after a prominent leader, Jakob Ammann, advocated greater separation from the world and stricter discipline with the shunning of disobedient members. His followers became known as the Amish. Later, schisms led to groups like the Old Order Amish and New Order Amish.
