Post by Adventist Review.
The unofficial blog of the USC community in Barbados
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
Monday, 2 December 2013
Saturday, 16 November 2013
The Jews of Adventism: Growing in number, ancient and modern sabbatarian faiths connect.
"Every Sabbath a growing number of Seventh-day Adventist congregations are taking on a distinctive appearance: men wearing skullcaps and prayer shawls, alongside women, recite prayers in the Hebrew language of their forebears. In many places the Torah, a parchment scroll of the first five books of the Bible—authored by Moses—is read from the platform. A Jewish flavor permeates the proceedings, even the potluck suppers.
And while the congregations are thoroughly Adventist—using the same Sabbath school quarterly (edited by Clifford Goldstein, a Jewish Adventist) and holding the same doctrines as other congregations around the globe—there’s something different here. Worshipping one God and His Son, the Messiah, dozens of Jewish Adventist congregations are demonstrating the connection between the Sabbathkeepers of ancient Israel and many of God’s followers today.
From the bustling metropolis of Buenos Aires, Argentina, to the American Jewish neighborhoods of Los Angeles, Miami, and New York City, to Israel’s teeming streets and beyond—Seventh-day Adventists are reaching and receiving Jewish believers in both Jesus and the three angels’ messages. Richard Elofer, a longtime worker in the field of Jewish Adventist outreach who heads the church’s World Jewish Adventist Friendship Center, based in France, estimates there are between 4,000 and 5,000 Jewish Adventists active in the church today.
That may not seem like many, but it’s far more than have ever been recorded before, Elofer said. The difference, which he has seen during 23 years of working to reach Jews, is a ministry approach that understands the Jewish mind-set and adapts the Adventist message to be understood by those who may be unfamiliar with any Christian beliefs.
“The change I have seen is tremendous,” Elofer told Adventist World. “In the 1990s we had no Jewish Adventist congregations in the world; today we have about 40 of them, 25 just in the United States..."
Click here to read more in the original Adventist World article.
Thursday, 14 November 2013
State of the Church
State of the Church - Ted Wilson from GCComm on Vimeo.
IN UNPRECEDENTED STATE OF THE CHURCH ADDRESS, WILSON TAKES MESSAGE TO VIEWERS
November 14, 2013 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Author: ANN staff
Seventh-day Adventist Church President Ted N. C. Wilson today released a State of the Church address in which he updated the denomination on its mission and membership growth and highlighted concerns, including lack of involvement and disunity.
The most prominent annual speech of the Adventist Church president has traditionally been delivered as the Sabbath sermon during Annual Council, a nearly week-long meeting of the denomination’s Executive Committee. But Wilson took his message directly to video viewers in what is believed to be the first such address for an Adventist Church president.
Wilson said “revival” should be the church’s top priority, quoting Adventist Church co-founder Ellen G. White, who once wrote, “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.”
He also reviewed several initiatives that have been launched since he became president in 2010, including the 777 prayer initiative, which reminds members to pray for revival at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.; The Great Controversy Project, which has distributed more than 140 million copies of White’s book “The Great Controversy”; and the recent launch of a worldwide comprehensive health ministry.
“God is doing so much in this church that at times it just overwhelms me,” he said.
Wilson went on to explain what he said were four “spiritual maladies” affecting some people in the Adventist Church:
• A loss of Seventh-day Adventist identity among some pastors and members.
• A “growing tide of worldliness” in many Adventist Churches.
• The “danger of disunity.”
• Spiritual apathy and lack of involvement.
“Too many of our pastors and members either have failed to recognize, or have forgotten, the divine prophetic calling God has given us as a church,” Wilson said.
Regarding “worldliness” entering the church, Wilson said, “Standards that were once cherished by Seventh-day Adventists in the areas of diet and dress, recreation and amusement, and Sabbath-keeping, are fast becoming things of the past.”
Wilson lamented that the church’s historic commitment to healthful living wasn’t adhered to by many members. “When the Adventist health message, which so many honest-hearted people in the world are embracing, is made of none effect, or considered to be legalism or fanaticism, rather than a glorious gift from a loving Creator, something is tragically wrong.”
Regarding church unity, he again quoted White, who said “Unity is the strength of the church.”
Wilson said God has given the Adventist Church a “divinely inspired organization and “mutual agreements called church policies” that help hold the church together “as a worldwide family.”
He later added, “I pray that every one of us will lay aside our personal opinions for the good of the body of Christ, and that we will, together, march forward to the kingdom of God.
Regarding spiritual apathy, Wilson said church members would not grow spiritually without active involvement in church life and service activities. “We have to examine our lives to make sure that God is working in us in a vital way—and I speak to myself, as well.
“Brothers and sisters, I appeal to you, as I appeal to my own heart, to make a full, complete, total consecration to Christ,” Wilson said, before ending his address with a prayer asking God to bless Adventist Church members and others seeking the “truths of the Bible.”
Click HERE to watch Wilson’s 41-minute video address.
Click HERE to read a transcript of Wilson’s address.The most prominent annual speech of the Adventist Church president has traditionally been delivered as the Sabbath sermon during Annual Council, a nearly week-long meeting of the denomination’s Executive Committee. But Wilson took his message directly to video viewers in what is believed to be the first such address for an Adventist Church president.
Wilson said “revival” should be the church’s top priority, quoting Adventist Church co-founder Ellen G. White, who once wrote, “A revival of true godliness among us is the greatest and most urgent of all our needs.”
He also reviewed several initiatives that have been launched since he became president in 2010, including the 777 prayer initiative, which reminds members to pray for revival at 7 a.m. and 7 p.m.; The Great Controversy Project, which has distributed more than 140 million copies of White’s book “The Great Controversy”; and the recent launch of a worldwide comprehensive health ministry.
“God is doing so much in this church that at times it just overwhelms me,” he said.
Wilson went on to explain what he said were four “spiritual maladies” affecting some people in the Adventist Church:
• A loss of Seventh-day Adventist identity among some pastors and members.
• A “growing tide of worldliness” in many Adventist Churches.
• The “danger of disunity.”
• Spiritual apathy and lack of involvement.
“Too many of our pastors and members either have failed to recognize, or have forgotten, the divine prophetic calling God has given us as a church,” Wilson said.
Regarding “worldliness” entering the church, Wilson said, “Standards that were once cherished by Seventh-day Adventists in the areas of diet and dress, recreation and amusement, and Sabbath-keeping, are fast becoming things of the past.”
Wilson lamented that the church’s historic commitment to healthful living wasn’t adhered to by many members. “When the Adventist health message, which so many honest-hearted people in the world are embracing, is made of none effect, or considered to be legalism or fanaticism, rather than a glorious gift from a loving Creator, something is tragically wrong.”
Regarding church unity, he again quoted White, who said “Unity is the strength of the church.”
Wilson said God has given the Adventist Church a “divinely inspired organization and “mutual agreements called church policies” that help hold the church together “as a worldwide family.”
He later added, “I pray that every one of us will lay aside our personal opinions for the good of the body of Christ, and that we will, together, march forward to the kingdom of God.
Regarding spiritual apathy, Wilson said church members would not grow spiritually without active involvement in church life and service activities. “We have to examine our lives to make sure that God is working in us in a vital way—and I speak to myself, as well.
“Brothers and sisters, I appeal to you, as I appeal to my own heart, to make a full, complete, total consecration to Christ,” Wilson said, before ending his address with a prayer asking God to bless Adventist Church members and others seeking the “truths of the Bible.”
Click HERE to watch Wilson’s 41-minute video address.
Source: Adventist News Network
Wednesday, 13 November 2013
Barbados And The Barbados SDA Sec. School Congratulate Mayor-Elect Adrian Mapp
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| Adrian Mapp - Mayor-Elect of Plainfield, NJ |
USC's main feeder school in Barbados, Barbados SDA Secondary School, which is celebrating 60 years this year, is also now celebrating and congratulating one of its alums - Adrian Mapp - who was elected last week as the Mayor of Plainfield, NJ, a Metro-New York area community of 50,000.
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| Map shows location of Plainfield, NJ |
"Plainfield Mayor-elect Adrian O. Mapp was honored Saturday evening as the nation's first Barbadian-American Mayor.
The recognition came as part of the Barbadian-American Charitable Organization of New Jersey's annual dinner dance at L'Affaire.
Hundreds of Barbadian-Americans and their friends gathered to dine and dance as well as celebrate the 47th anniversary of Barbadian Independence and honor several of its members, including our Mayor-elect and his wife Amelia.
Master of Ceremonies Miguel Edghill detailed some of the charitable activities of the organization, which include scholarship support and disaster assistance.
The Rev'd Canon Leroy Lyons, recently retired rector of St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Plainfield, gave the invocation." ...Source: http://ptoday.blogspot.com/2013/11/mapp-honored-as-first-barbadian.html
Thursday, 31 October 2013
91-Yr Old Bajan USCian To Disengage From The Public Lecture Series Which Bears His Name
On the occasion of the 11th Annual Public Lecture of the George and Esther Simmons Book Collection held on Monday, October 28, 2013, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Port of Spain, Trinidad, under the patronage of His Excellency Gerard Latulippe, High Commissioner for Canada to the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. George Simmons announced that next year's 12th lecture would be his last as he feels it is the final one he is mentally and physically able to plan.
This year's lecture was delivered by Professor John Hare, Professor of Philosophical Theology at Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA. Using the philosophical work of Immanuel Kant as his springboard, Professor Hare reasoned that Providence, Grace and Justification show that morality depends on religion.
Click here to read more.
Click here for photostream.
Click here to read a profile of Dr. George Simmons which appeared in the local (Barbados) media last year.
Wednesday, 30 October 2013
Annual Week Of Prayer Goes Social
A special, September 26 edition of Adventist Review, pp. 14-15, carries all eight readings for the Week of Spiritual Emphasis under the title, "And They Followed Him." MORE (October Adventist World/NAD Edition, pp. 14, 15)"
Even though this is a NAD (North American Division of SDA) project and we here in Barbados are in the IAD (Inter-American Division of SDA), there are no SDA divisional boundaries on Facebook so anyone with a Facebook account can participate. USC Barbados will be echoing the NAD page during the week of prayer.
Click here to download PDF with readings for the week.
Tuesday, 29 October 2013
Bajan USCian Officiates 75th Annual Conference Of The Barbados Labour Party
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| Jan Hartley officiating BLP Annual Conference (click images to enlarge) |
In the full spirit of our school motto - “Beyond Excellence” - Bajan USCians are always proud to serve their country when duty calls - even in the political arena. This past weekend saw fellow alum Jan Hartley officiating at the 75th Annual Conference of the oldest political party in Barbados - the Barbados Labour Party. Jan is also very supportive of the local (Barbados) alumni chapter of her alma mater - the University of the Southern Caribbean.
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