Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters
July 1, 2008

In This Issue:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Church Chat: Freedom of belief still an 'urgent' matter in Russia, Adventist religious liberty leader says
Vitko on the reality of freedom of belief in his country; 'We are waiting for the future'
July 1 Moscow, Russia

Environment an 'Adventist' issue?
Adventist Church president urges members to lead healthy, responsible lives
July 1 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Ecuador: Adventists worshipping in first One-Day Church
Portable church kits to meet needs of growing congregations
July 1 Valle Hermoso, Ecuador

Last Adventist military support facility to close this month
Ministry to enlisted members to continue through people, not buildings
June 25 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Church Chat: Freedom of belief still an 'urgent' matter in Russia, Adventist religious liberty leader says
July 1, 2008
Moscow, Russia ... [ Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Viktor Vitko, Adventist Church religious liberty director for Russia, says this weekend's religious liberty festival in St. Petersburg will help prioritize freedom of belief in a country where the Orthodox Church is replacing communism as the "ideological common ground." [photo: courtesy ESD]

In Russia, Protestant denominations are biding their time.

"We are waiting for the future," says Viktor Vitko, the Seventh-day Adventist Church's religious liberty leader for Northern Asia and Eastern Europe. Vitko believes Russia -- which recently elected a new president, Dmitry Medvedev -- is on the cusp of change, and he wants Adventists to help steer the country toward more freedom of belief.

Events such as this weekend's Religious Liberty Festival in St. Petersburg are a vital means of keeping freedom of belief an "urgent" topic of discussion among citizens and leaders in the country, says Vitko, who directs the church's department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) for the region.

Despite the separation of church and state mandated by Russia's constitution, Vitko says citizens do not yet enjoy full-fledged religious liberty. Seeking a post-Soviet ideological anchor, many Russians, he says, are finding stability in the country's dominant Orthodox religion. Some two-thirds of Russians now count themselves Orthodox, roughly twice as many as when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

But Vitko worries most Russians are seeking a sense of nationalism, not moral guidance. With the Orthodoxy and the state seemingly in lockstep, Vitko says even existing religious liberties could vanish if Adventists and other minority Protestant denominations don't work to maintain positive relations with officials.

The July 4 to 5 festival falls on the 6th anniversary of the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is expected to draw more than 1,000 attendees, including government and Orthodox Church representatives, human rights workers, scientists, journalists and religious liberty proponents, Vitko says.

The 61-year-old's technical education and degree from church-run Zaoksky Theological Seminary have informed his religious liberty work over the years -- he has held PARL directorships at several local church offices since 1995 and has worked at Euro-Asia church headquarters for five years. To help usher in this weekend's event, Vitko outlined some of the church's religious liberty efforts and concerns in an interview with ANN. Excerpts, translated by Vladimir Iyevenko, follow.

Adventist News Network: This isn't the first religious liberty festival you've helped organize in Russia. What goals are on the table this time?

Viktor Vitko: We hope that this festival will draw the attention of the city's residents, of government authorities and of other leaders and organizations in St. Petersburg. We hope our discussions show that issues of religious freedom are urgent and that many people are striving to improve human rights and freedom of conscience in Russia. We will also show a special film during the festival to honor the opening of a monument in the Levashovo wasteland near St. Petersburg, where, in the 1930s under Stalin, many people including several Adventists were tortured and executed. We want the authorities and the residents in St. Petersburg to remember this, and to know that religious liberty is still a problem in this country.

ANN: The Russian constitution mandates separation of church and state. Why have you indicated that some freedoms remain stymied?

Vitko: We have observed over the past several years, unfortunately, the clericalization of power by the Russian Orthodox Church. According to prominent Russian experts, the Orthodox Church is striving to reestablish a unified society under the banner of clericalism, controlled by the political elite. Orthodoxy provides the ideological common ground for society, the same role which the ideology of the Communist Party once provided in this country. That's the reality in Russia today.

ANN: How does the Adventist Church navigate such a strong religious tradition in the country to work for more freedom of belief?

Vitko: Our church combines its efforts with other protestant churches in Russia to host some joint events, and here in Euro Asia, conduct religious liberty conferences, in which scientists and official representatives take part in ongoing discussions with a purpose to block this trend toward clericalization that is very prevalent in this country. This weekend's festival in St. Petersburg will be one such event meant to help rebalance church and state relations.

ANN: How can you measure the effectiveness of such conferences? Do you see any tangible results?

Vitko: That is not an easy question. What we are doing most is raising awareness. We expect that the new Russian president will help move relations between church and state in Russia toward a model more fitting of a secular state. We hope that President [Dmitry] Medvedev will develop the process in the right direction. Of course we do not know -- will see what the future brings.

ANN: Western news reports indicate that the Russian government is reining in the country's media. Have the church's outreach efforts also been hindered?

Vitko: We can only make connections by using denominational channels of communication. We have very little contact with the state mass media. We rely heavily on the Internet for outreach and spreading news about the church. Unfortunately the public media is government controlled and not willing to publish any information about church events or reflect our point of view on issues. We are benefited greatly by the Slavic Center for Law and Justice, which helps raise public awareness of Protestant churches in Russia. This organization defends the rights of all religious organizations, and it sets legal precedents in the courts, which are reported on by the mass media. They also issue a journal, 'Religion and Law,' which publishes information about many denominations, including our church. So in that way we have a chance to publish articles reflecting the Adventist point of view.

ANN: As the church's religious liberty director for the region, you've repeatedly emphasized that talking to other religious groups is a vital part of fostering religious freedom. That being said, what is the Adventist Church's current relationship with the Russian Orthodoxy?

Vitko: In spite of the many distinctions, we have very good contact and we maintain very good relations with the Orthodox Church. Last year, John Graz [Adventist world church PARL director] visited Russia and we organized a visit with one of the heads of the Orthodox Church to discuss issues of religious freedom. We also have good relations established with the president of the Russian federation, with government officials, with their commissioner for human rights and other state representatives. Through those contacts, we are active in attending religious freedom events and collaborating with representatives from other Protestant religions. Our goal with these events is that the citizens of Russia and government officials will see that our churches can influence positively upon society and be valuable members in Russia.


Environment an 'Adventist' issue?
July 1, 2008
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States ... [ ANN Staff ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Seventh-day Adventists are being urged by their top leader to develop an approach to environmental issues that is consistent with the church's historical values.

World church president, Pastor Jan Paulsen, writing in the July issue of Adventist World magazine, says he hopes Adventists "will move toward a fuller discussion of Adventism and environmental responsibility."

Acknowledging that environmentalism "may sometimes take on a flavor or set of dynamics that is not the same as care for the environment," such as political and economic agendas, Paulsen says the church could emphasize connections between a clean environment and optimum health.

"When we peel back the layers that surround 'environmentalism,' we find ideas that resonate also with our own deeply held beliefs and values: care for God's world and care for our fellow human beings," Paulsen states.

Paulsen also states the church could focus on its historic stance on "whole person" care and vegetarian advocacy, which requires fewer resources to produce than a non-vegetarian diet.

"When we choose a simple lifestyle and exercise restraint in our wants, when we emphasize the spiritual above the material and choose relationships before 'things,' we are following in the footsteps of our Lord," Paulsen states.


Ecuador: Adventists worshipping in first One-Day Church
July 1, 2008
Valle Hermoso, Ecuador ... [ ANN Staff ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Adventists in Ecuador celebrate the opening of their new church, which took less than a day to build. The first One-Day Church constructed, it provides a do-it-yourself but durable permanent house of worship for the region's growing Adventist community. [photo: courtesy Maranatha Volunteers International]

Seventh-day Adventists in Valle Hermoso, Ecuador last month were the first recipients of a One-Day Church, a new Adventist Church and lay sponsored ready-to-assemble church that can be built within a day.

Maranatha Volunteers began construction on June 19 at 7:30 a.m. and finished by 4 p.m. Providing a framework and roof, the One-Day Church program leaves local members to finish the walls with readily available materials. By the end of the day, members had finished bamboo walls and had even brought in a platform, keyboard and 135 chairs.

"This is a community of believers who have waited for many years for a permanent house of worship, said Kyle Feiss, Maranatha's vice president for Marketing. "They saw the answers to their prayers realized in a few short hours."

Feiss said church members in Valle Hermoso seemed surprised with the pace of construction. "They did not believe that a church could be built in one day," he said.

The Valle Hermoso Adventist Church is a new church plant with relatively few members. But Bible workers have been studying with more than 75 people in the region, and 12 people were baptized at the church dedication the following Saturday morning.

The easily assembled, low-cost church kit is an effort to meet the needs of 200,000 Adventist congregations around the world that do not have a permanent church home.

In the coming months, Maranatha plans to construct and additional 66 One-Day Church projects in Ecuador and several One-Day School projects in rural parts of the country.

The structures are built with cost, quality, durability and portability in mind, said Maranatha supporter and businessman Garwin McNeilus, who helped launch the One-Day Church program. The basic building is easily adjusted to suit a variety of cultures and geographic areas, and the galvanized steel frame withstands termites, rust, heat and hurricanes.

A joint venture of Adventist-Laymen's Services and Industries and Maranatha with support from the Adventist Church, the One-Day Church is meant to meet the needs of some 200,000 congregations around the world that do not have a permanent church home.


Last Adventist military support facility to close this month
June 25, 2008
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States ... [ ANN Staff ]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The oldest of six church-run military support centers -- in Frankfurt, Germany -- will close at the end of the month. Adventist Church leaders say shutting down the largely unused centers will redirect resources to better support more enlisted members. [photo: Gary Councell/ANN]

Seventh-day Adventist Chaplain Gary Councell remembers a church-run military support center was once a spiritual oasis amid secular military life. For decades, soldiers could depend on food, a clean cot and fellowship with likeminded Adventists during the Sabbath hours at the hostel-like facilities.

In a decision seemingly at odds with the church's commitment to minister to its enlisted members, Adventist Church leadership in North America voted at its 2007 year-end meetings to shut down the church's last military support center.

But closing the "underutilized" and "costly" center will allow church leadership in North America to help even more soldiers by "redirecting resources from buildings to people," says Councell, who spent 32 years as a U.S. Army chaplain and now directs the world church's Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries at church headquarters near Washington, D.C.

"We have to be good stewards," Councell says. "We will continue to minister to soldiers overseas, but we will be investing those dollars in support of Adventist chapel worship groups, pastoral converge, continued religious retreats, worship aids, Sabbath school outreach and training in leadership."

Church leadership will also funnel some resources toward educating young members about the challenges to faith they'll face if they join the military, such as Sabbath observance, dietary issues and bearing arms.

Today, just one of the original six centers remains -- the oldest, in Frankfurt, Germany. Opened since 1952, the center will close June 30, North American church leadership decided.

While up to 30 Adventist soldiers a night would make use of the facilities in peak years -- from the 1950s to 70s -- Councell says the centers have been sparsely trafficked for years, hardly justifying the $100,000 -- plus a stipend for the directing chaplain -- each requires to operate per year.

But with increasingly more soldiers and military resources concentrated in Middle Eastern countries such as Afghanistan and Iraq, keeping support centers in comparatively peaceful regions such as Europe and Korea open isn't a wise use of limited finances, church leadership concluded.

ACM will support local lay soldiers in regions where few Adventist chaplains are stationed or in countries where security concerns hinder their work. One such lay soldier is using ACM study guides to run an Adventist military chapel worship group in Iraq now attended by 37 people, Councell says.

The centers were originally set up to remind Adventist servicemen that, "The church cares about you," says Dick Stenbakken, who retired in 2004 as ACM director, a post he held for 14 years. "We make no judgments about why you are here. We just want to support you."

While the methods may have changed, the message hasn't changed, church leaders say. Plans are in place to establish ACM field representatives in the northwest and northeast regions of the U.S., as well as church "homes" for military members assigned overseas. As the church caters its ministry to the changing needs of enlisted church members, it will better be able to "enhance [their] spiritual well-being," NAD church president Don Schneider said of the decision to close the centers.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


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. Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara and French translations by Stephanie Elofer.