News Articles

Southwestern Adventist University president Ken Shaw has announced that he has accepted an offer to serve as the 27th president of Southern Adventist University in Collegedale, Tennessee. His transition will take place at the end of this academic year.

The Southern Adventist University Board of Trustees voted unanimously on February 28 for Ken Shaw, EdD, to become the 27th president of the university. He will assume office on June 1. For the past seven years, Shaw has served as president of Southwestern Adventist University in Keene, Texas.

During the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD) Executive Committee meeting on February 25, 2021, G. Alexander Bryant, NAD president, shared an outline of the division’s quinquennial strategic focus “Together in Mission.” This focus, which the committee voted to accept, will incorporate the General Conference theme “I Will Go,” with special divisional emphasis on media, multiplying, and mentorship.

On Feb. 25, 2021, the North American Division Executive Committee met to vote on a quinquennial strategic focus and approve an April 29 business meeting to hold NAD vice president, director, and associate director elections. NAD president G. Alexander Bryant chaired the meeting, disseminating the proposed strategic focus.

Adventist churches and ministries – including some of the 1,358 centers supported by Adventist Community Services – sprung to action to serve the immediate needs of their communities since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that was officially declared on March 11, 2020.

On Thursday, February 25, 2021, the U.S. House of Representatives once again passed the LGBT anti-discrimination bill “The Equality Act” (H.R. 5). While the Seventh-day Adventist Church firmly believes that everyone is created in the image of God and should be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect, the Church remains concerned that the Equality Act as drafted would further erode the religious liberty of faith communities and their members. Encouraging to the Church is the diminished support of the Equality Act and the growing support of the Fairness for All Act, which was reintroduced on Friday, February 26.

On November 21, 2020, Adventist Surangel Whipps Jr. won the presidential election in Palau, becoming the 10th president of this beautiful Pacific nation. Whipps was sworn in as president on January 21, 2021, during the inauguration ceremony at the Palau National Capitol.

From February 7-13, 2021, Jimmy Shwe, a pastor and coordinator of the Karen Seventh-day Adventist Church outreach under the Adventist Refugee and Immigrant Ministries in North America, guided the division’s more than 50 Karen congregations in a virtual, bilingual week of “United Prayer.”

In response to the recent Texas winter weather disaster, the Oakwood University Church (OUC)  and Breath of Live (BOL) Television Ministry conducted a “water drive,” collecting more than 30,000 bottles of water as well as other essential items including socks, undergarments, gently-used clothing, feminine products, and cleaning supplies. The items traveled by truck on Feb. 22, 2021, from Huntsville, Alabama, to the Houston, Texas area.

In response to the inclement weather and its devastating effects, Texas Health Hospital Mansfield’s executive team converted sections of the professional office building into warming stations and recharge zones for team members, their families, and even their pets.