Who We Are, How We Serve

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.

Mission Values Priorities

We Believe

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.

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Story by Adventist Healthcare staff

Five Liberian amputees, who play on an international disabled soccer team that has won three world championships, received prosthetic legs and expert rehabilitation care this spring thanks to Adventist HealthCare Physical Health & Rehabilitation (Adventist HealthCare PH&R).

Adventist HealthCare PH&R and one of its partners, Medical Center Orthotics and Prosthetics (MCOP), donated new prosthetic legs and rehabilitative care to the five Liberian refugees, who have not had access to prosthetic legs or comprehensive treatment.

Story by Tim Allston

Loma Linda University’s (LLU) Adventist Health Study-2 (AHS-2), which includes 26,346 Seventh-day Adventist men, recently published updates about its findings on meat-eating’s link to prostate cancer, the second most common male cancer.

The research team found that men who adopt a vegan diet (no dairy or eggs) are a third less likely to develop prostate cancer.

Gary Fraser, MD, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at LLU and principal investigator of AHS-2, says they found that, “Vegan diets showed a statistically significant protective association with prostate cancer risk.”

Story by Tompaul Wheeler

For half a century, nowhere has embodied the phrase “so near, and yet so far” for Americans more than Cuba.

Cuba is only 93 miles from Key West, Fla., but for the average American, for decades it may as well have been on Mars. Home to 11 million people, the Caribbean island nation is the size of Virginia. Due to the travel and trade embargo imposed by the United States since the early 1960s, Cuba’s colorful and dynamic culture, and its turbulent political scene have been shut out from much of the world.

Editorial by Olive Hemmings

I recall one day sitting on the steep, red oak-stained, concrete front steps of our tiny, rural home in Jamaica on long, carefree days full of wonder and expectation. My twin brother, J. Olive, and I couldn’t have been more than 3 years old because our younger sister was not yet born. On this fine day, mother gathered food for dinner from lush crops surrounding the house and firewood to cook in our homey, outdoor kitchen.

The fowls “cackled” as they lay eggs, the dogs playfully barked, somewhere a cow mooed, and the sound of water gushed over rocks in the nearby stream, invoking a mysterious flow of cool, shadowy air as the sun bore down upon our little faces—unforgettable scenes  of childhood.

Story by Ricardo Bacchus / Feature photo courtesy Mount Vernon News

Heidi Shoemaker, founder of Clean Eating Cooking Class, is on a path to change and motivate men—as well as women and children—to eat healthier.

Shoemaker started her ministry in August 2014 at Ohio Conference’s Mount Vernon church. She wears many hats, one being the conference’s communication director. Now she’s been inspired to put on a chef hat and started cooking healthy recipes in a classroom setting.

Shoemaker explains, “In my own life, I began eating ‘clean,’ that is trying to avoid processed and refined foods and base my diet on real, whole foods.”