Who We Are, How We Serve
The Columbia Union Conference coordinates the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s work in the Mid-Atlantic United States, where 150,000 members worship in 860 congregations. We provide administrative support to eight conferences; two healthcare networks; 81 early childhood, elementary and secondary schools; a liberal arts university; a health sciences college; a 49 community services centers; 8 camps; 5 book and health food stores and a radio station.
We Believe
God is love, power, and splendor—and God is a mystery. His ways are far beyond us, but He still reaches out to us. God is infinite yet intimate, three yet one,
all-knowing yet all-forgiving.
Story by Tiffany Doss
Evangelism is a lifestyle. This motto drives many Potomac Conference Far West End church members to seek opportunities to help their Rockville, Va., community. Recently 21 eager sewing students spent an afternoon learning how to make pillowcases to be donated to a local nursing home. The ministry, dubbed “Bed of Roses”—as each pillowcase illustrated flowers—yielded nearly 120 cases to be distributed to residents on Mother’s Day.
Editorial by Terry Forde
A small child about five years old was preparing to go home following a minor procedure at Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, Md. The surgery had been successful, and the child was seated in a wheelchair, his parents standing beside him. The nurse was starting the discharge process.
Instead of speaking directly to the parents, the nurse knelt down so that she was eye-to-eye with the child. Carefully, she began to go over the instruction sheet with him, using words that he could understand. She helped focus his attention by showing him what was written on the instruction sheet, and skillfully and methodically, she engaged him in the explanations of each point.
Story by Elaine and Jim Buchanan
Wanting to help speed up the building project for his church, member Gary Kasekamp, 74, embarked on a cross-country bike trip this summer.
Mountain View Conference’s Cumberland (Md.) church members have been in the process of building a church and community center facility for four years. The outside is basically finished, but the inside still consists of 2 x 4s. Dedicated to staying out of debt, members save money for each phase of the project, then complete it. They still need $300,000 to complete the project.