The Columbia Union Conference, established in 1907 to coordinate the Seventh-day Adventist Church's work in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, is part of the worldwide Protestant denomination of 23 million members in more than 212 countries. At the union level, we connect and provide administrative leadership, governance and support services to our conferences, schools, health care networks and ministries. Each year, our organizations sponsor programs and projects that address human needs, improve quality of life and introduce people to Jesus. Read our Mission, Values and Priorities.
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 Valerie Morikone
Ginelle Edmondson recently became the new Health Ministries director of the Mountain View Conference.
Born in Guyana, South America, and raised in Queens, N.Y., she always expressed an interest in health. Feeling led to study nursing for her undergraduate career, Edmondson was drawn to public health and mission work. She graduated with a Master in Public Health from New York University (NYU), then traveled to study abroad in Cape Town, South Africa.
Rising coronavirus infection rates are causing many families and churches to reexamine their holiday plans. However, the socially distanced show must go on and many Adventist schools and churches are already preparing their virtual holiday programs.
Let us know about your church or school’s virtual program so all Columbia Union Conference members will have the chance to enjoy the holiday cheer.
Email the program title, time, date and link to vmbernard@columbiaunion.net, and we’ll share on our social media accounts and website.
by Lisa McDowell
After four months of online church services, the Dale Wright Memorial church members in Germantown, Ohio, organized their first drive-in worship service in the parking lot. Service participants, wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing protocols, stood under a small tent, while church members stayed in their cars, forming a semicircle around the tent. Worshippers tuned into the service on 88.3 FM, watched on their phones via Zoom or listened from their cars. Some members even brought lawn chairs and sat in front of their cars.
by Heidi Wetmore
Charis McRoy, a senior at Spencerville Adventist Academy, has enjoyed writing poetry to express her emotions and experiences ever since the third grade. Through the years, she decided to author a book on the Bible story of Esther. Remembering what she had learned about Esther in Sabbath School, she wanted to journey deeper into that Bible story.
Editorial by Terry Forde
Nearly 100 years ago, in 1921, Chinese essayist Lu Xun wrote, “Hope is like a path in the countryside. Originally, there is nothing –but as people walk this way again and again, a path appears.”
If you come across a path in a woods, or across a field, you may ask: “Where does this path lead?” or “Why is there a path here?”
Paths don’t just come out of nowhere. Sometimes they exist because people started walking there for a shortcut. Sometimes they exist because someone planned them out on a map and set about creating them. In either case, someone had to pave the way.