ANN Bulletin - February 19, 2008 - unOFFICIAL ADVENTIST FORUM

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do.
And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with
– even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department.
Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. Romans 14.1: The Message

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#158997 - 02/27/08 07:19 AM ANN Bulletin - February 19, 2008
magilly46 Registered: 10/29/02 Posts: 164 Loc: BC	Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters February 19, 2008 In This Issue: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Puerto Rico, Jamaica: Adventists forgo church for community ministry February 14 Miami, Florida, United States Thousands hit streets in crime-ridden communities United States: Adventist representative testifies before Congressional hearing February 14 Washington, D.C., United States Standish vouches for broadened workplace religious freedoms; New York state law at anti-discrimination forefront Sabbath observance rooted in Africa, says Adventist historian February 15 Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States Black History celebration at Adventist university highlights Christian history in Africa Adventist humanitarian organization ranked among most trusted charities February 14 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States Charity Navigator gives ADRA four stars three consecutive years Church's first leadership development conference trains future Adventist leaders February 19 Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia Quality leadership will strengthen world church, vice president says -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Puerto Rico, Jamaica: Adventists forgo church for community ministry February 14, 2008 Miami, Florida, United States ... [ Nigel Coke/Freddy Sosa/IAD Staff/ANN Staff ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lorenzo King, second from left, pastor of the Sydenham Adventist Church, reads the Bible with residents of the Homestead community on Saturday February 9. Hundreds of Adventists gave up Saturday church services to distribute Bibles, pray with and encourage members of the crime-ridden community. [photo: Nigel Coke/ANN] Seventh-day Adventist churches in separate efforts on two Caribbean islands closed many of their doors for one Sabbath this month to minister to communities in the wake of violence. Hundreds of Adventist Churches closed in Puerto Rico February 2 and in Jamaica February 9 as worshipers distributed messages of hope to their communities. More than 27,000 church members in Puerto Rico handed out a free 20-page magazine entitled "A Look At the Puerto Rican Family," which promotes strong families and speaks against drug addition and violence against women and children. The distribution effort, which comes in the wake of a wave of increasing violence plaguing the island, was the largest by the church in Puerto Rico, church leaders said. Many who attended morning worship services still participated in the distribution that afternoon. At a cost of nearly $70,000, church leaders planned to reach some 250,000 families, or approximately 750,000 people through canvassing and promotion in local media. "We are convinced that amidst the drama that we live in, we as a church need to put our hands on the plough to try to find solutions," Pastor Jose A. Rodriguez, president of the church in Puerto Rico, said during a January 29 press conference to promote the event. Rodriguez said the magazine is to educate Puerto Ricans and guide them toward a future free from violence against women and children. The magazine also contains messages to strengthen the family, promote respect for life, and speaks out against drug addiction and delinquency. In Jamaica, hundreds of Adventists from 75 churches gave up church worship last Saturday to distribute more than 2,000 Bibles. Church members met and prayed with residents of 18 communities, including Spanish Town, the country's former capital, now an area notorious for gang turf-war, extortion and robbery. "We felt there is a need in the community for people to read the word of God," said Pastor Everett Brown, president of the church in Central Jamaica. "I was surprised to see how receptive and anxious the people were for the Bibles and prayers. We believe that this drive has opened up opportunities for future visits. "The church will have to assist the social needs of these communities through its resources and diverse ministries," he added. Spanish Town's St. Catherine District Prison was also a recipient of several hundred Bibles. "We have given Bibles to the correctional service because we want them to know that we care for them and that God loves them too," Brown said. There are nearly 36,000 Seventh-day Adventists worshiping in 325 churches in Puerto Rico. Nearly one out of 12 people in Jamaica is a Seventh-day Adventist in a population of some 2.8 million. United States: Adventist representative testifies before Congressional hearing February 14, 2008 Washington, D.C., United States ... [ Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adventist Church Legislative Affairs representative James D. Standish, Esq. joined five other witnesses on February 12 for a U.S. Congressional hearing on a bill meant to broaden workplace religious freedoms. [photo: David E. Hittle] American workers can unswervingly follow their consciences and fulfill job requirements under newly proposed workplace freedom legislation, said James D. Standish, Esq., Legislative Affairs representative for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, during testimony before a United States Congressional hearing. "Enough American workers have been humiliated and marginalized for no crime other than remaining faithful to their understanding of God's requirements," said Standish, who joined five other witnesses for the February 12 hearing on the reintroduced Workplace Religious Freedom Act. "Our national values and our common humanity dictate that we provide the modest, commonsense protection [under WRFA], and that we delay no longer." WRFA-like provisions, adopted by the state of New York in 2002, have led to a "dramatic" drop in workplace religious discrimination claims, which meanwhile spiked 83 percent nationwide between 1993 and 2006, Standish said. Current workplace religious discrimination protections under Title VII of the U.S. Civil Rights Act amended in 1972 require employers to provide "reasonable accommodation" of an employee's religious beliefs unless such leeway inflicts "undue hardship" on the employer or other employees. Accommodation typically falls under two categories: the keeping of holy days, such as the Sabbath, and the wearing of religious garb, including the yarmulke, turban and hijab. If passed nationally, WRFA would cork legislative gaps that allow courts to interpret those key phrases however narrowly or broadly they see fit, Standish told attending members of the U.S. House of Representatives' subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions. Unambiguous standards of protection under WRFA are crucial to safeguard workers from "arbitrary" firings or job denials, he added. New Jersey speech pathologist and observant Jew Judy Goldstein testified that she was denied a job at a public high school based on an employer's refusal to accommodate her Sabbath observance. Zainab Al-Suwaij, executive director of the American Islamic Congress, addressed a related concern. Al-Suwaij, who fled her native Iraq after participating in a failed uprising against Saddam Hussein in 1991, was denied a job in the U.S. when she refused to remove her hijab during work hours. Both Goldstein and Al-Suwaij testified that each would have been employed under WRFA provisions. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Robert Andrews (Democrat-New Jersey) asked the panel whether broadened employee rights under WRFA would increase the potential for unreasonable court cases. Other subcommittee members questioned whether courts should rule in favor of employees who refuse to perform the "essential functions" of their jobs -- for example, a Muslim truck driver who refuses to deliver alcoholic beverages. "WRFA does not give employees a 'blank check' to demand any accommodation in the name of religion and receive it," said panelist Richard T. Foltin, Legislative Director and Counsel for the American Jewish Committee's Office of Government and International Affairs. Standish agreed. No documented reason exists to suggest WRFA will justify "sham" religious claims, he said. Panelist Helen Norton, an associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Law and former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights in the Department of Justice during the Bill Clinton Administration, said WRFA might wrongly be interpreted to protect a worker who refuses to fill a prescription for contraceptives because birth control conflicts with his religious beliefs. Michael J. Gray, partner at the international law firm Jones Day, expressed similar concerns. He said WRFA might skew the current "balance" between "reasonable accommodation" and "undue hardship" by accommodating "reverse religious discrimination." Under WRFA, he said, the rights of Ku Klux Klan members or gay antagonists to create "hostile work environments" might be protected. The law is already adequate, Gray added, citing a January 18 ruling largely in favor of Adventi st UPS driver Todd Sturgill. Foltin called such concerns "fanciful swatting at phantoms" sidetracking Congress from the issue at hand: "the very real need to remedy the harm faced by religiously observant employees every day." WRFA's broad, bi-partisan support -- the bill is co-written by Representatives Carolyn McCarthy (Democrat-New York) and Mark E. Souder (Republican-Indiana) -- is evidence of its significance, Standish said. He later told ANN that he hoped the day's "positive negotiations" would lead to legislation that "actually gets passed." Sabbath observance rooted in Africa, says Adventist historian February 15, 2008 Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States ... [ Elizabeth Tidwell/ANN Staff ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Early groups in Africa may have observed the seventh-day Sabbath long before European missionaries introduced Christianity to the continent, said Bertram Melbourne, an Adventist pastor and Interim Dean of Howard University School of Divinity in Washington D.C.. Melbourne was one of 11 presenters for the conference "Conversations on 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa and the Diaspora," a three-day event at Adventist-owned Andrews University celebrating Black History Month February 7 to 9. [photo: Elizabeth Tidwell/ANN] A study of Black history reveals that Christianity in Africa might more closely reflect an Adventist view of the seventh-day Sabbath than previously thought, according to one Adventist historian. Bertram Melbourne, an Adventist pastor and Interim Dean of Howard University School of Divinity in Washington D.C., said the Basotho tribe of 15th century southern Africa worshipped a God called Molimo O Diatla Di Maroba Rammolobi, or "God with scars in His hands, the Father of salvation." Some groups even observed the Biblical seventh-day Sabbath as a day of rest, Melbourne said February 9 at a weekend conference at Adventist-owned Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States. It was not until European missionaries came to evangelize Africa that the practice was abandoned, he added. Melbourne joined 10 other scholars at the conference in celebration of Black History Month, marked in the United States each February. Under the focus of early African people and traditions, the group presented insights gained during more than 15 years of study on Sabbath observance in Africa. University officials said they hoped the conference would both affirm the roots of Sabbath-observance and help dispel misconceptions surrounding Africa, which presenters said is often stereotyped as little more than a "mission field" within Christian traditions. "God is often presented as the God of white people," said Andrews seminary student Wol Vol Wol, who attended the conference. He added that many people from his native Sudan "don't know He is a God of all people. "We do not own God. We need to place God in the hands of the people and let them see that He is a God of everyone," Wol said. Several presenters said such open-mindedness would help the church spread its message more rapidly and effectively. "The church approaches evangelism from a negative perspective, emphasizing differences instead of things we have in common," Melbourne said. In outreach efforts, the church should first "build on similarities," he added. "Our idea of mission can be somewhat ethnocentric at times," said Brian Ibanez, a junior economics major. "We feel that we need to be a light to the world, but we forget that they might have a light already." The church must rid itself of an "us" and "them" mindset, said Harold Lee, chairman of the Sabbath in Africa Study Group. Instead, Adventists should view all people, cultures and faiths as "one body, preparing souls for Heaven." Conference speaker Charles Bradford, retired president of the Adventist Church in North America, stressed the importance of learning from the past and using such knowledge to better the future. Bradford, author of the book "Sabbath Roots: The African Connection" and founder of the Sabbath in Africa Study Group, also told students they cannot simply be a mirror of the Adventist Church, but rather, should play a central role in the church's mission. Andrews University representatives responded to concerns raised over the weekend by committing to ongoing discussion on other cultures and worldviews and deciding to consider adding a Black Studies program to Andrews' curriculum. Adventist humanitarian organization ranked among most trusted charities February 14, 2008 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States ... [ Nadia McGill/ADRA/ANN Staff ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the third year in a row, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International has earned a coveted four-star rating from the largest independent evaluator of charities in the United States. Only nine percent of the more than 5,000 charitable organizations Charity Navigator evaluates annually to ensure a judicious use of donations have received at least three consecutive four-star ratings, a Charity Navigator executive said. The organization announced ADRA's rating in a January 30 letter. "ADRA outperforms most charities in America in its efforts to operate in the most fiscally responsible way possible," said Michael Smith, interim president and chief operating officer for Charity Navigator. "This 'exceptional' designation from Charity Navigator differentiates ADRA from its peers and demonstrates to the public it is worthy of their trust." Charity Navigator's zero to four ranking system measures a charity's financial health in two areas: how responsibly it carries out daily operations and how well positioned it is to sustain those operations. ADRA president Charles Sandefur said ADRA was both honored and humbled to receive Charity Navigator's highest rating for a third straight year. "This continued external recognition affirms just how much we appreciate and value our donors," Sandefur said. "We treat them and their contributions with the utmost respect, making sure that as much of their gifts as possible go directly towards ADRA's humanitarian services." ADRA is present in 125 countries, providing community development and emergency management without regard to political or religious association, age, gender, or ethnicity. For more information see http://www.adra.org or http://www.charitynavigator.org. Church's first leadership development conference trains future Adventist leaders February 19, 2008 Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia ... [ Taashi Rowe/ANN ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Responding to the urging of church leaders around the world, the Seventh-day Adventist world church held its first leadership development conference in Slovenia from February 11 to 12. "Our church leaders see leadership development as one of the major issues that [our churches] will face in the immediate future," said Michael L. Ryan, facilitator for the meeting and a vice president for the world church. "Providing more leadership development resources can help the church become more effective in accomplishing its mission," he added. Ryan, director of leadership development at the world church, said the conference brought together 17 people who focused on starting a leadership development resource network, creating a list of presenters to head up leadership conferences and identifying needed curriculums for certain key leadership positions. Providing resources to develop more prepared leaders in the church is crucial in a church that is growing as fast as the Adventist Church is, especially in places that do not have a strong culture of Adventism, Ryan said. In some regions with large membership growth in the last 20 years, "you've just found yourself with more than 700,000 Adventists who weren't Adventists before and who haven't been to our schools," Ryan said. "So you need a church treasurer, a head elder and someone who will serve as a pastor, but we have not yet put people into those pipelines. "As we train quality leadership, we will become a stronger church," he added. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- news.adventist.org ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news and information issued by the Communication department from the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. It is made available primarily to religious news editors. Our news includes dispatches from the church's international offices and the world headquarters. Reproduction Requirements: Reproduction of information in this article is encouraged. When reproducing this material, in full or in part, the words "Source: Adventist News Network" must appear under the headline or immediately following the article. The words "Source: Adventist News Network" must be given equal prominence to any other source that is also acknowledged. Ground 7 News Podcast: Ground 7 News is a review of news and information issued by the Communication Department from the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. Reproduction of the ANN podcast is encouraged. When rebroadcasting this material, in full or in part, the words "Source: Adventist News Network" must be mentioned before and after the podcast. ANN Staff: Rajmund Dabrowski, director; Ansel Oliver, assistant director; Taashi Rowe, editorial coordinator; Elizabeth Lechleitner, editorial assistant; Natacha Moorooven, proofreader. Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara and French translations by Stephanie Elofer. Y
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