How Diverse is the Columbia Union?
Did you know that there are 41,317 multilingual members among the Columbia Union Conference’s 148,068 members? (See how demographic shifts are impacting our churches here.)
Of this number:
31,140 speak Spanish
2,699 speak French
1,870 speak Korean
1,247 are Indian
1,052 are Haitian
1,340 members are Ghanian
928 are Brazilian
461 Are Filipino
247 are Indonesian
135 are Chinese
57 are Ethiopian
24 are Hungarian
22 are Romanian
Read these articles from the January/February 2019 Visitor:
Interview by Alexis A. Goring
Edwina Neely, a member of Potomac Conference’s Rockville (Md.) church, recently wrote Children Are Gifts, a book for parents. It includes illustrations about younger children, as well as principles that apply to parents with children of all ages.
During her 30 years of working in education, Edwina was employed as a teacher, childcare center owner and in the Potomac Conference Elementary Education Department—all of which provided the experience she needed for her book. She credits God for helping her finish the book, published by WestBow Press.
In the interview below, read more about this book and its relevant message to parents:
Story by V. Michelle Bernard
2018 proved to be an interesting year in Seventh-day Adventist Church news, with a strong interest in the General Conference Administrative Committee’s proposed new system of compliance and uniformity in the world church.
This year, when news happened, the Columbia Union Visitor provided the local angle. See which stories our readers visited the most in 2018.
Story by Doug Walker
“Why the Pursuit of Happiness is a Bad Idea” was the provocative opening talk presented recently at the 40th annual G. Arthur Keough Lectureship sponsored by the Washington Adventist University (WAU) Religion Department, located in Takoma Park, Md. This year’s Lectureship featured keynote speaker Jennifer A. Herdt, the Gilbert L. Stark Professor of Christian Ethics and Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Yale University Divinity School.
Story by Benin Lee
Story by Jerry Woods
WGTS listeners helped the ministry end 2018 strong with a successful year-end fundraiser. Over the course of the four-day event, over 2,000 listeners took the station to more than 110 percent of the total goal. In addition, listeners also helped to provide over 26,000 meals to people in the Washington D.C. area through local food banks.
The Bible is chock full of stories about people of all ages that can relate to and experiences that make us laugh and cry. Such stories teach us about God's great love and plan of salvation. They also teach practical life lessons that keep us grounded and prophecy that keeps our focus heavenward.
Editorial by Jorge Aguero
The reason for both Jesus’ birth and the Seventh-day Adventist Church have something in common. His birth was not to divide history into two time periods—B.C. and A.D., nor was the birth of the church created to divide Sabbath keepers from Sunday keepers. The commonality is that the birth of Jesus was prophesized by Old Testament prophets and the Adventist church was born of a prophetic movement.
Story by Betty Klinck
Adventist HealthCare Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, Md., has been ranked in the top 7 percent of hospitals nationwide for the quality care it provides patients who undergo coronary bypass graft surgery, the most common type of open heart surgery in the U.S.
Last month, the hospital received a Three-Star rating–the highest possible quality rating–from the Society for Thoracic Surgeons. The organization analyzes many national cardiac surgery data categories to determine which hospitals meet the stringent Three-Star criteria.