Adventists in the News

Division to raise US$50 million for ‘big city’ outreach; Buenos Aires top target

May 17, 2012 São Paulo, Brazil
Mark Kellner/Adventist Review

Concluding a spring meeting for the South American Division, Seventh-day Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson put his foot down, literally.

First, however, the sole of Wilson's foot was dabbed with rubber-stamp pad ink. Then, joined by division and union leaders here, each similarly "inked," he stepped down on a map of South America. Each leader repeated the process.

Adventist Church President Ted N. C. Wilson and South American Division President Erton Köhler, second and third from left, pose with map showing footprints, symbolic of claiming a territory for Jesus. Leaders are raising $50 million for outreach in key cities around South America. [photo: Mark Kellner]

This visual demonstration had a scriptural basis, declared SAD President Erton Köhler: Just as God promised to Joshua and the children of Israel the land wherever Moses' successor trod (Joshua 1:3), Adventists were claiming the division for Jesus. Each of the 17 unions had its own map, all bearing the footprint of a leader.

Backing up the dramatic display was an even more dramatic commitment: the South American Division expects to raise US$50 million to fund outreach in dozens of locations in 2013. Buenos Aires, the heart of a 13-million population metropolitan area, will be the chief priority, but every other union has identified a big city as an outreach target.

The Argentinian capital is of special interest, for the city is one where only 9.1 percent of the population consider themselves "evangelicals," while 18 percent aren't interested in any religion at all. Ten challenges have been outlined by the Argentine Union, including the establishment of a clinic, a vegetarian restaurant, Adventist schools and churches in the federal capital, or central city. "Mission Caleb," a youth outreach program, hopes to enlist 3,000 young people, and the church plans to distribute 300,000 DVDs titled "The Last Hope."

These efforts, along with outreach to former Adventists, a special project at Radio Novo Tempo (New Times), and 167 small evangelism campaigns, culminating in a satellite series by Pastor Luís Gonçalves in September 2013, are expected to lead at least 3,000 people to baptism in the city, along with the establishment of four new congregations.

Similar goals are planned for many other cities, including Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Manaus in Brazil; Asunción in Paraguay; Cochabamba and La Paz in Bolivia; Santiago and Valparaiso in Chile; Montevideo, Uruguay; Quito and Guyaquil in Ecuador; and Lima and Trujillo in Peru, among others.

In an impassioned message to division leaders, Wilson recalled Jesus looking out over Jerusalem and weeping – not for the buildings, but for its people.

Wilson asked, "Are you weeping for the cities of the South American Division? [Jesus] wasn't weeping for the city itself, He was weeping for the people of the city. Because you see, the city is made up of thousands and thousands of people."

During a day of stirring reports about evangelistic outreach and literature distribution – South American church members placed 25 million copies of "The Great Hope" in the hands of residents in nine countries on March 24 – Wilson recalled his own effort that day in São Paulo, and said he’s advertising the success in many places.

"Let me tell you, the world is amazed at what South America has done," Wilson declared.

He added, "But these big cities, many of them have no idea about Jesus. So the General Conference and the world divisions have focused on mission to the cities, bringing hope to the cities. The hope of Jesus' soon coming."

At the same time, Wilson said, evangelism must be grounded in our own personal connection to the One we're seeking to introduce to others.

"All of these plans, slogans and visuals ... will mean nothing if you and I do not know personally that person [Jesus], the One who saved us. The One who will come to take us home. The main reason we do this for all of the cities of the world is to introduce them to Him."

Second regional event held to thank religious liberty advocates

May 15, 2012 Manado, North Sulawesi, Indonesia
Gay Tuballes-Deles/ANN staff

A recent festival of religious freedom cements the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Indonesia as a leading proponent of free expression of religion in the country.

Some 2,000 people gathered at the Aula Mapalus Kantor Gubernur Sulawesi Utara auditorium in Manado on May 5 to recognize the combined efforts of government and faith groups in preserving freedom of belief in the Southeast Asian country.

Faith representatives receive recognition for their efforts in promoting freedom of belief in Indonesia at the Second Festival of Religious Freedom, sponsored by the Adventist Church in Manado this month. Religious groups share a climate of tolerance and respect in the North Sulawesi city. [photo: Jonathan Catolico]

Herbert Fletcher University to operate through affiliation with Griggs, Andrews universities

May 9, 2012 Miami, Florida, United States
Libna Stevens/ANN staff

A new Seventh-day Adventist distance-learning institution inaugurated this week in Inter-America expands the education options of students in the region, particularly for those whose work, family or financial situation put strains on further study. 

Top church leaders and educators from the Inter-American Division’s 12 universities donned academic regalia to attend the official launch of Herbert Fletcher University in Miami, Florida.

Israel Leito, president of the Adventist Church in Inter-America, passes a ceremonial mace to Herbert Fletcher University President David Siguelnitzky during the university’s inaugural launch on May 7 in Miami, Florida. The distance-learning institution offers students in the region an alternative to traditional university study. [photo: Libna Stevens]

In North America, half of Adventist pastors 10 years from retirement age

May 8, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Ansel Oliver/ANN

A recent review of pastoral demographics in the United States reveals that nearly 50 percent of Seventh-day Adventist ministers will reach retirement age within 10 years, a discovery that is prompting ministry officials to examine potential scenarios to address the coming dilemma. 

Namely, will the denomination hire a new crop to replace retiring ministers, or will it urge much of its experienced, aging workforce to continue working longer than previously planned? Each option has its own advantages, and church leaders say they’re exploring a mix of both possible solutions.

Retirement age is considered 66.5 for the year 2022, according to the U.S. Social Security Administration.

Ivan Williams, director of the North American Division’s Ministerial Department, along with other church leaders, are looking at how to prepare for an upcoming boom in pastors reaching retirement age. Here, he presents at a ministerial council in Ontario, California, last year. [file photo by Gerry Chudleigh]

The choice of whether to retain ministers past retirement age into their late 60s and early 70s keeps experienced ministers on staff, church leaders say, but it leaves several generations between pastors and the young adults and teens they minister to. Yet this demographic is small – leaders say the median age of an Adventist in North America is 56.

How leaders address the situation could affect everything from hiring requirements and remuneration policies to seminary tuition and the cultural needs of the region’s diverse congregants. All aspects of developing and supporting ministers could be up for analysis.

“We’re going to be looking at how we can have top-level quality pastors in this opportunity that’s presenting itself,” said Dave Gemmell, an associate director of the Ministerial Department of the church’s North American Division (NAD).

What’s certain is that leaders will explore how to renew recruiting efforts, sponsor more graduate students for theological training and develop the recently formed Board of Ministerial Education. Until recently, NAD was the only one of the denomination’s 13 world divisions without one. The board would offer additional formal training for practicing ministers.

“We have a good system of education, but we haven’t historically had oversight of that in North America,” said Ivan Williams, director of the NAD Ministerial Department.

A caveat

Church leaders noted that the above statistics on retirement age do not include “regional” conferences, church administrative units that oversee historically African-American congregations in the Central and Eastern U.S. There are nine regional conferences within the division’s total of 58 conferences and one attached field. About 25 percent of NAD members belong to regional conferences, according to statistics from the office of the NAD executive secretary.

Statistics for this survey were gleaned from records in the NAD Retirement office. Regional conferences operate under a separate retirement structure and comparable stats aren’t available as of yet.

The entire division has about 3,460 ordained ministers and 230 commissioned ministers. There are about 920 licensed ministers, typically college theology graduates who have yet to enter the seminary or seminary graduates yet to be ordained.

The 1.1 million Adventists in NAD live in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda, and the North Pacific islands that comprise the Guam-Micronesia Mission.

Hiring the trained

Addressing future staffing challenges in the U.S. also presents opportunities to examine other factors in hiring pastors. Ministerial leaders say they would like remuneration practices to better reflect a candidate’s training. Currently, wages are similar for a pastor who has a doctorate in ministry compared to a pastor who doesn’t have a college degree. That fact could lead NAD officials to consider making an adjustment in salary policies.

“I think [they] should,” said Denis Fortin, dean of the Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.

Denis Fortin, dean of the Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University, says trained pastors are needed to minister to professionals in their congregations. Church leaders are reviewing how to best train the next wave of future pastors. [AU file photo by Darren Heslop]

But that decision is ultimately up to leaders at divisions, unions and conferences. Fortin says a trend in the past decade is the increased hiring of pastors who don’t have a master’s degree in theology, and sometimes no college degree at all. A seminary professor said a study several years ago found that on average about four pastors in each local conference did not have a college degree.

This practice of filling pastoral slots with Bible workers who have completed a several-week training course actually violates the North American Division Working Policy. Section L 05 states that “educational requirement for entrance into the ordained ministry shall be the completion of the seven-year ministerial training program,” specifying that college graduates “shall attend the Andrews University Theological Seminary.” Exceptions are allowed for “age” and “unusual circumstances.”  

Seminary leaders say an increasingly educated membership deserves educated pastors.

“Why would the ministry not need good, solid education when other professions in North America require good, solid education, whether it’s a lawyer or someone in the medical field?” Fortin said.

One potential way to enforce the current hiring policy, Fortin said, could involve requiring a theological education before ordination or commissioning.

Who’s at the seminary now

Fortin said the seminary graduate program has about 350 to 400 students enrolled, depending on the semester, and about 100 graduate each year. Church leaders estimate that about 200 pastors per year will be needed to fill future vacancies.

Walt Williams, an NAD Ministerial Department associate director and director of the seminary’s InMinistry Center, said more second-career students are entering the seminary, many of whom are attractive hiring options to conferences seeking a candidate with more life experience.

The seminary continues to experience an ongoing shift in demographics. Nearly 20 percent of the seminary’s current enrollment of graduate students is women, up from 15 percent a decade ago, Fortin said.

Also, ethnic demographics of seminary graduate students have shifted slightly. Caucasians still make up the seminary’s largest ethnic group at about 35 to 40 percent, but Fortin said that figure is down from about 50 percent in the last decade. About one-third are Black, 15 percent are Hispanic and 12 percent are Asian, Fortin said.

Funding education

Another consideration up for review by NAD officials is which party will pay for a seminary student’s tuition. Williams said he has noticed a shift in the last 10 years: where conferences once hired college theology graduates for an internship and then sponsored the candidate at the seminary, they now increasingly hire seminary graduates.

Part of that shift may have resulted from an incentive program to motivate conferences to hire seminary graduates. Several years ago the division began offering increased subsidies to conferences to hire unsponsored graduates fresh from the seminary. Some conferences are increasingly waiting to earn the incentive rather than risking sponsorship on an undergrad, with graduates frequently getting nothing to offset their debt.

“Now you have more theology majors going straight to the seminary without that one- or two-year break of an internship, which was very valuable,” Williams said.

In many cases, it has also increased the debt load of more graduates. Now, only about one-third of seminary students are sponsored by conferences.

Division leaders want to reverse that trend. NAD now subsidizes the seminary’s graduate program with about $3 million annually based on 200 students, with another $1 million of subsidies for unions and conferences to sponsor graduate students.

“We want more sponsored students,” said Tom Evans, NAD treasurer. “We don’t want conferences going to the seminary and hiring graduates at the last minute with the graduate having paid for everything.”

NAD Ministerial leaders say most of the conference hiring rate hinges on the economy. Williams, the ministerial associate director, said hiring has picked up some in the past year for the first time since the recession, but also proffered, “the floodgates have yet to open.”

Still, most graduates find jobs. Fortin said seminary research suggests that about 85 percent of newly minted pastors are hired “within a year or two.” Some of those positions are in chaplaincy and not in the traditional pastoral role at a congregation, he said.

Williams said he hopes that conference leaders continue to employ and train young pastors with a long-term focus in mind.

“Any farsighted conference that I’ve been in tends to hire younger pastors,” he said. "It’s going to take such courage to plan for the future."

“But I understand the challenge of administrators who have older pastors on staff who want to remain employed.”

Church a fixture in society, ‘not just a destination,’ Adventist mission expert says

May 7, 2012 Miami, Florida, United States
Libna Stevens/ANN staff

Seventh-day Adventist leadership pledged at the church’s first Urban Ministries Summit in Inter-America to better connect with the more than 36 million people living in three of the region’s largest cities: Mexico City, Mexico; Bogota, Colombia; and Caracas, Venezuela.

Experts from the world church’s Office of Adventist Mission and international authorities on urban evangelism met in Miami last week to train more than 100 church leaders from the Inter-American Division on best metropolitan ministry practices.

Large cities such as Caracas, Venezuela – home to more than 7 million people – are the focus of urban evangelism ministries across the church’s Inter-American Division. [photo: Abel Marquez]

New Armenian programming joins some 80 languages offered by Adventist World Radio

May 4, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Shelley Nolan Freesland/ANN staff

Adventist media officials say two new Adventist World Radio FM stations in Armenia will connect with residents of the world’s oldest official Christian country.

AWR recently began broadcasting programs in Armenian, the latest in a line-up of more than 80 languages offered by the radio arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A radio station in the capital city of Yerevan and another in Vanadzor will carry programming on spirituality, health and family.

An Adventist World Radio media team is heading up new Armenian language programming in the country. The Mkhitaryan family, at right, has previous broadcast experience from their involvement with earlier radio work in Vanadzor. [photo courtesy AWR]

“Many young people are moving to the capital for jobs and education, and the nation is facing hard economic times, especially in the villages and small towns,” says Vigen Khachatryan, Media Center director for the church’s Trans-Caucasus Union Mission, based in Tbilisi, Georgia.

“Radio programs can help the church’s outreach efforts in Armenia,” Khachatryan says, adding that the historically Christian nation is more open to spiritual issues than many secular European countries.

Knarik Petrosyan, a student at Yerevan State University, is heading up a production from a studio built by AWR. The team includes businessman Tigran Stepanyan, who serves as presenter and programmer, and the entire Mkhitaryan family. Hovik is a journalist and his wife, Gegecik, is a teacher. Their son, Joseph, is 10 years old. The family has broadcast experience from their involvement with earlier radio work in Vanadzor.

“The most challenging problems in Armenia are smoking, alcohol, decrease of family values, atheism and poverty,” Khachatryan says. “Our programs will offer hope, help in overcoming secularism, more complete family principles, assistance with stopping smoking and drinking, and more.”

Within the next few months, Armenian programming will also be available online – on demand at awr.org and as podcasts through awr.org and iTunes. AWR officials say online access is particularly valuable, as there are more than 4 million Armenians living outside of their home country.

Armenia is home to a population of some 2.5 million people, about 800 of whom are Adventist church members.

Veteran advocate Thames on sway of private citizens, faith groups, NGOs

Apr 30, 2012 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Bettina Krause/IRLA with Mark Kellner/Adventist Review

When veteran religious liberty advocate Knox Thames addressed the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom last week, he held a piece of rubble from a Seventh-day Adventist church building in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, demolished some years ago by government authorities. 

Thames, who directs Policy and Research for the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, said he has seen first-hand the results of the current global religious liberty crisis while representing the U.S. Department of State worldwide.

Expanding religious liberty worldwide requires citizen participation, panelists at the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom said April 24. From left, Knox Thames, director of Policy and Research for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom; Ambassador Robert Seiple, president of the Center for America's First Freedom; and Richard T. Foltin, director of National and Legislative Affairs for the American Jewish Committee. [photo: Ansel Oliver]

Two decades after Bosnian war, humanitarian reflects on ADRA relief work during siege

Apr 30, 2012 Fuzine, Croatia
Tihomir Kukolja

Note: The Huffington Post originally published this article. 

The international community is this month remembering the beginning of the siege of Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which started on April 6, 1992. During the 1,425 days of the siege 11,541 people were killed, of whom 1,500 were children. Early in 1993 I had the privilege of spending one month in Sarajevo as a guest of the humanitarian agency Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), and to share a taste of what it meant to live in an open concentration camp. Moreover, I witnessed the hard and sacrificial work of 120 ADRA volunteers that made a major difference in the lives of the people who fought daily for their survival under the longest siege of the 20th century.

Now, 20 years later, ADRA's relief work in Sarajevo and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the 1992-1995 war should not be forgotten. Apart from the relief work of the U.N. agencies, ADRA was by far the most powerful and respected relief presence in Bosnia and Herzegovina thanks to its strict ethnic and religious impartiality. This is why I am gladly giving my contribution to its remembrance by revisiting the memories of my visit to Sarajevo in early 1993.

A sudden burst of sunshine heralds the arrival of a new day. "Who would say this is war?!" says Detlef Riemarzik, a photo journalist from Germany. The two of us are sharing a room in the home of Radomir and Mira Nikolic. Radomir is an Adventist pastor and the director ADRA in Sarajevo.

Through the window of our room our eyes scan the authentic mixture of European and Asian buildings and roofs around us. The last patches of snow are visibly melting, revealing the ugly nakedness of the wounded city. The surrounding hills gripping Sarajevo in a deadly embrace appear cunningly still.

It is 8 a.m., March 1993 -- only a few days ahead of Easter. The rooms and corridors of ADRA's offices in Sarajevo resemble a beehive. The chief coordinating team is meeting to discuss the priorities of the day. Today 120 volunteers will be busy distributing humanitarian packages, preparing an additional warehouse for the arrival of 30,000 food packages from a number of European countries, and distributing hundreds of letters that have arrived into the city with the latest convoy. In the first year of the Sarajevo siege ADRA provided the city's only efficient postal service, delivering close to 50,000 letters to its citizens cut off from the rest of the world.

Detlef checks his cameras, lenses, film. Stepping out of the sheltered ADRA residence into the open is a hazardous adventure. A group of people at the street gate asks us for a handful of any kind of food. "Just a potato or two, please," pleads one of them. Then, suddenly a sharp, metallic, thunder-like sound splits the air. Mortars -- one, two, three -- hit the nearby houses. Heavy machine guns rattle. Sniper bullets shriek through the air. Metal fences and gates ring. Heavy dust rains upon the gardens, houses, streets. Detlef and I hide behind a wall. There, together with another 50 people, we wait for another round of deadly blasts to pass.

An hour later we find ourselves visiting Kosevo Hospital -- overcrowded with the wounded and dying. Mufita Lazovic, a doctor, takes us around. People who have been disabled for life are telling us their stories. Hasan and Hana Camdszic, husband and wife, were wounded by an air missile while sleeping in their bedroom. Hasan has lost both, and Hana one of her legs. A tank missile has permanently disabled Elizabeta Krasni. Wounded Munira Milanovic describes with the tears in her eyes how she survived the blast that instantly killed her husband.

"Children suffer the most," explains the doctor while escorting us out of the hospital. "Not long ago we had to amputate both legs from a 6-year-old boy. After the surgery he begged his parents to give him back his legs."

Only a few minutes' walk from the hospital lies Bare Cemetery with no more room to receive the daily increase in the number of the dead. Kosevo Football Stadium has been turned into its extension. In reverence we stoop down and observe the thousands of orderly aligned graves. Detlef reluctantly decides that he must take a few pictures -- for the record. Next to one grave, three men support a collapsing woman. She is sobbing, screaming, cursing. There lies the dead body of her 19-year-old daughter, buried only a few days earlier.

A couple of hours later we arrive at the main ADRA warehouse in the city. Hundreds of people slide patiently toward the entrance that leads to four huge storage rooms packed with thousands of recently arrived humanitarian parcels. It seems as if the endless hours of queuing do not bother people doomed to waiting.

Through the eyes of his cameras, Detlef captures every moment worth remembering: an elderly woman with shaky hands placing her food parcel into something that used to be a stroller for babies; two young men loading their received goods onto their bicycles; a man totally immersed into reading the only paper published daily in Sarajevo; two women in tears embracing each other; a cat with a broken tail gliding through a jungle of human legs; and a man in a long queue slowly drifting forward and shouting, "Thank you ADRA!"

In Sarajevo every moment, every movement and every picture tells another story.

We then join Senad Vranic, one of the 50 ADRA postmen in Sarajevo. Not long ago one of their postmen was killed on duty while delivering letters to the homes of people not far from where we are. Although a volunteer, like any professional postman, Senad brings the letters right to the doorsteps of involuntarily separated mothers, fathers, children, grandparents and friends.

"There are hazardous days, too! Sudden blasts, mortars, bombs, snipers! Not a safe place to be! Still, I go because I know how much hope these letters bring to people separated from those they love the most," explains Senad as we reach the gates of a small oriental-looking house occupied by a young couple. As we enter their home we hear an exciting welcome: "Our ADRA, our friends have come to us!"

It is getting dark and we are back at the ADRA offices in Tepebasina 7. Hedviga Jirota, a cheerful 82-year-old lady of whom none would ever guess her age, has prepared a delicious supper composed of various humanitarian ingredients: blended cheese from Czechoslovakia; macaroni from Italy; rice and tinned corned beef from England; hot powdered milk, enriched with white coffee powder from Germany. She invites Radomir, Mira, Detlef, myself and a few others to take our places around the table. Could we ever expect a more beautiful feast in the undernourished Sarajevo?

"It is not easy. Many eyes are upon us. They think that ADRA can do what others can't," reflects pastor Nikolic at the dinner table. "In fact, we could do more if we would only have more trucks, diesel, better international support," he adds.

By now it is almost midnight. Detlef and I are staring again through the window of our room. The engines of the U.N. planes shake the dark sky above the city. Tonight they are bound for eastern Bosnia where they will parachute several tons of food into the night. A sudden burst of machine guns echoes through the streets somewhere close by. We hear angry shouts, screams and more firing. A couple of distant explosions break in the night. And then everything is quiet.

The moonlit houses look strange with all the lights out. The city, which appears to have fallen into a deep sleep, with only a few distant and dimmed lights creeping through the blankets stretched over the darkened windows, remind me of the romanticized pictures of Bethlehem the night when Jesus was born.

I wonder if in 1993, in more than a metaphorical way, Jesus walks the streets of an imprisoned and wounded Sarajevo? I cannot help but love those 120 dedicated volunteers of ADRA, Muslims and Christians together, who against all odds feed the hungry, distribute humanitarian aid, deliver the letters and give medicines to the sick. No doubt they are fulfilling Jesus' commission: "Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Through them God is sending His message that He has not forgotten Sarajevo.

Click here for a photo essay of Sarajevo. 

-- Tihomir Kukolja is executive director of the Forum for Leadership and Reconciliation and director of Renewing Our Minds. He was born in Pozega, Croatia and studied Theology and Communication at Adventist-run Newbold College in England. He has worked as a pastor, journalist, radio producer, humanitarian and leadership development and reconciliation activist. 

Imprisonment, death, police raids not uncommon, panel says

Apr 26, 2012 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Mark A. Kellner, News Editor, Adventist Review

It's one thing to lose a job because of your religious beliefs. It's quite another to be deprived of your freedom -- or even your life.

Those are perhaps the most extreme challenges facing believers of many different faiths around the world today, and the situation can sometimes change without warning or even explanation, attendees at the 7th World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association heard this week during a panel discussion in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

From left, Vladimir Ryahovsky of the Slavic Center for Law & Justice; Kevin L. Kimball of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Rev. Susan L. Taylor of the Church of Scientology; and Tiffany Barrans, of the American Center for Law and Justice discuss the state of religious liberty worldwide during the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom April 25. [photo: Ansel Oliver]

Religious freedom ‘bears signature of God’s love,’ Wilson says

Apr 26, 2012 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Bettina Krause

Seventh-day Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson today challenged believers to grasp the opportunities for open discourse that a secular state preserves.

His comments came during a keynote address to the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom. The gathering has drawn hundreds of religious liberty advocates, government officials, scholars and legal experts to the Dominican Republic this week to examine the influence of secularism on religious expression.

Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson addresses the audience at the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom on April 26. Tensions between the "values of believers" and secular culture are an inevitable part of a free society, he said. [photos: Ansel Oliver]

Time will tell if a new a new freedom of conscience initiative will last

Apr 24, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
John Graz

Rome recently launched an “Observatory on Religious Freedom,” an initiative aimed at making Rome the “reference point for the defense of religious freedom in the world.”

This initiative is supported by the mayor of Rome, the Roman Catholic pontiff, Vatican officials and several international diplomats. According to news reports, the observatory is a conference “dedicated to the status and protection of Christian minorities in the world.”

I had mixed feelings as I considered this report. Four years ago, I shared a similar dream with my colleagues as we met together for an International Religious Liberty Association Meeting of Experts. I asked, “Where could we organize a World Forum on Religious Freedom in a city that has long associations with the cause of religious liberty?” We considered possibilities – perhaps Richmond, Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, America’s well-known “fathers of freedom”; La Rochelle, in France, in memory of the persecuted Huguenots; Geneva, Switzerland; or Toronto, Canada.

But we never considered Rome. We knew that throughout its long history, Rome has been more commonly associated with religious repression than with religious freedom.

For more than three centuries, the emperors of Rome pursued brutal campaigns against Christian believers and against the church. Even after the Christianization of the Roman Empire, religious persecution didn’t go away; only the identity of the victims changed. For the next millennium, non-Christians, dissidents and heretics became the targets of Rome’s repression.

There’s no doubt that the situation has changed dramatically. Since the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church has become more open to the right of individuals to choose their religion. Several Pontifical statements in recent decades have affirmed this ideal.

But as an institution, the Catholic Church’s conversion to the cause of religious freedom came late in the game – many years after the groundbreaking work of religious groups, including the Mennonites, Baptists and Seventh-day Adventists. The Catholic Church began to embrace religious freedom some 70 years after the IRLA was chartered by Adventist leaders, and more than 15 years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was voted in Paris on December 10, 1948.

So are latecomers to religious freedom now preparing to lead the way? And if so, is this is a positive development?

It depends. Religious liberty around the world today needs as many defenders as it can muster, regardless of their historical track record. If a church or organization expresses its unqualified support for the right of individuals to believe and worship freely, this can only be a positive development.

But questions still remain if Rome, through this new initiative, will truly defend the rights of everyone, no matter what their faith tradition. It must demonstrate that will be a passionate voice for people such as persecuted evangelicals and Jehovah’s Witnesses worldwide, as well as for the rights of “mainstream,” traditional churches.

Last year, we saw the Russian Orthodox Church – not historically known for its zeal in defending religious freedom for all – organize a symposium in Moscow focusing on the persecution of Christian minorities around the world. The IRLA chapter in Russia, which has held successful meetings and symposiums in Moscow every year since the collapse of the communist regime, welcomed this new initiative by country’s dominant religion.

Times may be changing. Voices that have historically been muted when it comes to the rights of religious minorities may indeed be preparing to become active religious freedom advocates.

Only time will tell if the Observatory on Religious Freedom will push Rome forward as an international "religious freedom capital." And only time will tell if Rome intends to champion a broad notion of religious freedom, which reflects the ideal articulated in Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

—John Graz is Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association, a non-sectarian organization, which was established in 1893.

Nearly 900 delegates meet in Dominican Republic for seventh world event

Apr 24, 2012 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic
Mark Kellner/Adventist Review

Addressing nearly 900 delegates and guests at the Seventh World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association, Denton Lotz, a noted Baptist minister and IRLA president, summarized the purpose of this three-day event: "We're here today because we believe that freedom of religion is basic to all human rights."

That view, sadly, is not shared in many parts of the world, something Lotz said made holding the sessions even more important.

"It's incumbent upon us to work together that we live together in harmony and concord," Lotz said to an audience of leaders from Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other communities. "We don't need religious wars."

IRLA Secretary General John Graz addresses nearly 900 delegates at the 7th World Congress in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, April 24. The congress is examining the challenges to religious freedom posed by secularism. [photos by Ansel Oliver]

That violence against believers remains a problem was evident from a session-opening video presentation noting the death sentences pronounced – but not yet carried out – on Christians in Pakistan and Iran on charges of "blasphemy," and the assassinations of Pakistani officials Salman Tasser, governor of Punjab province and minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti. Also cited was the extreme religious repression found in North Korea.

While the main congress theme, "Secularism and Religious Freedom – Conflict or Partnership" may seem far removed from lands where persecution is active, Lotz took a different view.

"Most people worldwide suffer from a lack of religious freedom. Seventy percent of the world lives in places of religious repression," he said.

Speaking to an audience that included Seventh-day Adventists, Mennonites, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Mormons and Scientologists, among others, IRLA secretary-general John Graz noted the world congress is a multifaceted event.

"This congress is about religious freedom, but it is not a religious event," Graz said. "We are all here together. We represent different faiths, different religions and different churches. We are different, but we are respectful of each other."

Denton Lotz, IRLA president, gives a keynote address on secularism and religious freedom.

With the theme of "Secularism and Religious Freedom -- Conflict or Partnership," speakers and delegates will attempt to negotiate the challenges of a world which is increasingly hostile to a variety of religious expression in the public square. While standing for separation of church and state, IRLA leader Lotz issued a call for religion to avoid following a secular society's lead.

"When religion becomes secular, I believe it is the greatest challenge to religious freedom, allowing secularism to define what a religion believes," Lotz told delegates. "When we allow the secularization of our faith to transcend the transcendent, it loses its meaning," he added.

According to Lotz, "Religion will die when it no longer focuses on God, but only on autonomous man. Religion will thrive when it focuses on God."

In a statement read to delegates, the country's president, Leonel Fernandez Reyna, offered "a most cordial welcome to the Dominican Republic, a land of freedom. The Dominican Republic is a place of freedom for Christians, Muslims, Jews and people of other faiths."

Plans start to reduce North American Division’s contribution in 2013

Apr 19, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Mark Kellner/Adventist Review

The formula for contributions by world divisions to the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists will change in 2013, if suggestions recommended by global church leaders on the concluding day of the movement’s Spring Meeting are adopted later this year.

Robert E. Lemon is treasurer of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. Here, he delivers the Treasurer's Report during Spring Meeting at the Adventist Church headquarters on April 18. [photos by Ansel Oliver/ANN]

By 2020, the North American Division would annually contribute 6 percent of its gross tithe receipts to the General Conference budget, down from 8 percent today. Other world divisions – of which there are 12 – may see their annual contribution increase to 3 percent of gross tithe, although that is less certain. A commission is being formed to study the matter and report back to the 2014 Annual Council, said Robert E. Lemon, treasurer of the Adventist world church.

“This request will allow the North American Division to carry out its missional goals and the funds will be used to advance the work throughout the division,” said Tom Evans, treasurer of the North American Division, in a statement. “The North American Division has been blessed in being instrumental in the growth of the world church since its inception,” Evans added.

Because an adjustment in the contribution percentage is a matter of policy, leaders explained, it can be voted only at an Annual Council, next slated to take place in October 2012 at the world headquarters. For now, church leaders have authorized the General Conference’s Treasury department “to prepare the budget based on these assumptions,” that the change would be made, said Ted N. C. Wilson, president of the General Conference.

In explaining the move, Lemon said the North American Division, or NAD, the region where Adventism was born, “needs to remain strong. … In addition to that, every part of the world considers NAD to be their territory and they come and raise funds in NAD. We have to understand the level of commitment NAD had given over the history of the church has given to mission.”

After the measure was approved, on a voice vote, Wilson said, “Let me underscore the appreciation on the part of the world field and the General Conference for the generosity on the part of the North American Division for decades. We do value it and appreciate it.”

Juan R. Prestol, undertreasurer of the Adventist world church, addresses a question from the floor at Spring Meeting at the Adventist Church's world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.

In other actions at Spring Meeting, the Executive Committee voted to approve a “Client Identification and Cost-Sharing Action Plan” for the General Conference Auditing Service, or GCAS, which would shift some audit work to local, outside firms, and require church units to financially participate in the costs of audits conducted by the GC organization.

The 35-year-old GCAS operation is currently tasked with financial compliance audits of many church operations around the world, from divisions to remote clinics staffed by one or two people, said Lemon. While the North American Division pays for its audits, the General Conference pays for most of the rest, leaving an $8 million annual shortfall. In view of this, reorganization would ease the dollar drain, he said.

“This is a very comprehensive and needed action, but it's complicated,” Wilson noted during discussion of the measure. Passed on a voice vote, further plans are to be discussed at Annual Council.

In other financial news, Lemon reported the General Conference operated in 2011 at $10 million below budget caps, and received an additional $18.8 million in unexpected income due to foreign exchange rates and other considerations. The Spring Meeting leaders voted to allocate $15 million to a variety of outreach and development projects aimed at reaching non-Adventists and strengthening church members in their faith walk.

Executive Committee hears of plans for urban area outreach, Bible reading program

Apr 17, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Ansel Oliver/ANN

Top regional Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders today identified 24 cities that will receive targeted outreach efforts, the next step of a plan voted by church officials last year to focus on urban area ministry worldwide.

Presidents of each of the 13 world divisions read Genesis chapter 1 to launch the Revived by His Word initiative, a program to motivate church members to read the entire Bible between now and General Conference Session in 2015. Delegates of the denomination’s Executive Committee met for the first day of Spring Meeting on April 17 at the church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. [photos by Ansel Oliver]

Humble beginnings for Beiguan Church; Member donations fund construction

Apr 13, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Andre Brink/ANN

The young man looked left to make sure that he was perfectly lined up with his coworkers. Then he straightened his tie.

Adventist Church President Ted Wilson greets members of the Beiguan Church during a recent tour of China. The church has grown from 20 members meeting in a home to a 3,000-member community of Adventist believers. [photos: Suk Hee Han]