News Articles

Welcome to the video stream and news coverage from the 2021 North American Division Year-End Meeting! Watch here, and check out links to written news coverage and YEM reports as they are available.

The fifth day of the North American Division’s year-end meeting on Monday, Nov. 1, 2021, opened with an inspiring rendition of “Victory Belongs to Jesus” presented by the students of G.E. Peters Elementary School in Adelphi, Maryland. Maurice Valentine, NAD vice president for media, followed with a devotional talk. Valentine spoke on the story of the lame man of the Bible being healed, then leaping for joy and telling everyone he met about his Healer. 

Southwestern Adventist University was recently awarded a $4 million Hispanic-Serving Institution Title III F STEM Grant from the U.S. Department of Education, provided by the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), for their STEM Excellence project proposal. This comes just a year after receiving a $2.5 million Title V grant awarded in October 2020. 

Elysia Ockenga will be the nursing program director for Union College beginning in January 2022. She has been teaching nursing at Union for the last 12 years.

Day four of the North American Division Year-End Meeting began with a powerful devotional by Wendy Eberhardt, NAD vice president for ministries, whose message, entitled “In All Your Ways,” focused on Proverbs 3:3-6. “We’ve gotten used to our routine, our [busy] calendars, and we forget Who we depend on,” Eberhardt said.

“Despite the pandemic, our church has carried out its mission with resilience; our members have been faithful to their mission … during the past 20 months,” said Kyoshin Ahn, executive secretary of the North American Division. Ahn’s words marked the beginning of the secretary’s report at the NAD Year-End Meeting in Columbia, Maryland, on October 31, 2021.

Friday evening vespers at the 2021 North American Division Year-End Meeting, hosted by Jose Cortes Jr., NAD associate ministerial director, and Calvin Watkins, NAD vice president for evangelism, featured missional stories of compassion and multiplication from around the division. From Canada to the Mexico border, from the east coast to the west, members, pastors, and church administrators shared compelling stories of reaching people in a hurting world through vibrant, Christ-centered ministries that are changing lives.

The 2021 North American Division Year-End Meeting, themed “Together in Mission: I Will Go,” based on the NAD’s new strategic focus, opened its business session at 3 p.m. on Thursday, October 28 with 142 executive committee members attending through a virtual platform.

During the year-end meeting divine worship service on October 30, 2021, G. Alexander Bryant, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America (NAD), stated that we are not just called to focus on the final message to the world. “The truth is, God has call this people to proclaim both messages, the message of Christ’s soon return and the message of righteousness by faith, the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what the Three Angels’ Messages teach us,” he said.

“In spite of the challenges we have faced — we've had COVID-19, we've had the Delta variant of COVID-19, we've had racial injustice and inequality, we've had economic fallout, we've had all these things happening — God has continued to bless His church, and the mission of the church has gone forward,” said G. Alexander Bryant, president of the North American Division (NAD), as he opened his report after thanking the NAD staff, church members, pastors, educators, and the leaders of conferences, unions, and the division for their dedication and service.