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You may find the following article to be of interest. https://spectrummagazine.org/views/compassionately-and-competently-addressing-mental-health-issues-in-the-church/ I made the following response to the article: "The SDA response to this issue has a fundamental problem that must be faced. The local pastor is typically the one in overall charge of the congregation. In that role, the pastor has an administrative function related to membership. That pastoral expectation may prevent the pastor from being helpful to the person with mental health issues who is expressing them in an inappropriate lifestyle. A professional counselor cannot have a dual role in relating to the person. An SDA member of one congregation is expected to obtain permission from the local pastor to seek professional help from another SDA pastor who may be in a better position ot help the person. Such may violate professional principles of confidentiality. I have seen a male SDA pastor become personally offended by a female wanting to seek help from a female pastor and express that offense to the woman seeking help. This needs an immediate change and our female pastors need to work to bring this change about." Gregory Matthews

December 3, 2025 The current issue(December 2025) of the Adventist Journey, contained ain interesting article by Paul Douglas, titled "Mission Emphasis Informs Treasurer's Report at Annual Council, beginning on page 6. * It reported that on a worldwide basis 35.7% of the tithe was used for pastoral support, and 29.2% was used for operational expenses. * on a basis of a worldwide median calculation, 30.7% was used for operational support and 36.4% for pastoral support. My understanding of the above leads me to conclude that we need to restructure our use of tithe, reduce our operational expenses and increase our support of pastoral ministry. I would want to work to reduce our operational expenses to no more than 50% of that provided to pastoral support . In other words, 2/3 of tithe to pastoral ministry and 1/3 to operational, at the most. It would be a good start. I do not believe that we need to have every aspect of our organizational structure on every level of the organized Church. AAs an example, I can agree that we need to have ACM and Religious Liberty represented on the Division level. But, I do not think it is needed on the GC level. Yes, I know that people can always fine "busy work" to do. Further, think that we may need to re-think exactly what is needed at the levels that we establish organizational support. IOWs, we may, at some levels, be spinning our wheels in not providing exactly the support that is needed. But, that is for another time and discussion.

D-Day veteran Charles Shay, who saved lives on Omaha Beach, dies at 101 in France https://apnews.com/article/charles-shay-dies-d-day-native-american-aab17ffceda65c5c3050eca29d7e4168?