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.
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.
Story by Edwin Manuel Garcia
Unbeknown to him, Fred Shoemaker’s first inclination toward Adventism included a conversation he initiated with his mother at the age of 6 or 7 when they attended the Church of Christ in Linden, Ohio, on Sundays. “You know, Mom,” he said, “this isn’t the seventh day; it’s the first day.” She didn’t disagree.
Years later when Shoemaker was studying for a doctorate in history, a fellow history graduate student, Jim Rohrer, challenged him to broaden his reading list beyond political history to also include religious history. That’s how he came across footnotes that mentioned the Millerites and the Advent movement.
Story by Tina Sheesley
The deliveries were extra special at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center on Feb. 29, as our Birth Center team helped local moms welcome leap year babies. On leap day 2020, Shady Grove doctors and nurses delivered 7 babies whose next birthdays won’t be on the calendar for four more years.