When Rudi Meier was elected to the presidency of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency in October 2010, he told the employees that he planned to bring the agency closer to the church and boost morale, which he perceived as being very low. To the Board he said that he wanted to move the Agency more into development work and away from relief efforts. Those were his plans for saving ADRA.

Attendees of the Southern Union Conference Executive Committee yesterday report that there was virtually no discussion of women’s ordination. Instead a draft decision was shared from the twelve conference presidents and two college presidents in support of the General Conference’s position.

In its meeting Tuesday, March 27, the Potomac Conference became the fifth North American Division conference or union to vote an action on women’s ordination during the month of March.

According to Dan Jensen, assistant to the Potomac Conference president for communication, it was voted unanimously “to request the Potomac Conference Standing Articles & Bylaws committee to begin a review process of its bylaws that would enable us to ordain women.”

Members of the Mid-America Union Conference Executive Committee voted March 8 to ordain women in ministry. It is the first union in the North American Division to take such a step.

The vote came at a regularly scheduled meeting of the committee; however the action taken was not originally on the agenda, according to President Thomas Lemon.

In a letter that is both affirming of women ministers and apologetic to the General Conference Executive Committee, North American Division President Dan Jackson wrote to his Executive Committee today to give a first-hand account of the continued dispute between between the North American Division and the General Conference over the issue of commissioned ministers being elected conference presidents.

Mayormente vivimos en América. Vivimos en Europa. Compartimos la lengua de Cervantes, Rubén Darío, Isabel Allende, Vargas Llosa y Laura Esquivel.

Estudiamos en el seminario. Somos abogados, ingenieros y filósofos. Trabajamos en la Asociación General. Estamos sin trabajo. Nos hemos jubilado. Buscamos un lugar en el que hacer un post-doc.

Hemos dejado la iglesia. La iglesia nos ha dejado.

Nunca dejamos la iglesia. La iglesia no nos deja tiempo para nada más.

Nos hemos ido y hemos vuelto.

Somos de izquierdas, de derechas, de centro y también anarquistas.

We live in Africa. We live in Australia. We live in Lincoln, Nebraska.

We are seminary students. We are lawyers.  We are Sabbath School teachers. We work at the General Conference. We’re out of a job. We’re retired. We’re looking for a post-doc position.

We run from the church. We run the church.

We are all the 99% Wall Street occupiers. And some Tea Party members, too.

We love the church. We left the church.  We love to talk about the church. We defend institutions. We love the people.

For the official Seventh-day Adventist church organization, 2011 was a year marked by major realignments in the world field and grand plans for the future contrasted by struggles with employees and divisions.

Journeys is your book about a motorcycle trip across the US visiting Adventist churches? Why did you go?

When the Northern California Conference announced that they would allow three pastors a year to take a sabbatical of up to three months, I thought that would be a great opportunity to do what I have wanted to do for some time—visit churches all across the country. And wow, I’ve always wanted to ride my motorcycle across the country. So I submitted the proposal, and it was granted.

It was a time for the sharing of ideas and questions, for networking lunches, academic presentations, and community building as Adventist scholars of religion recently gathered in San Francisco for their annual meetings. Charles Scriven and Alexander Carpenter have already shared some thoughts about the sessions. There has been a lively conversation from readers, too. I would like to add some details and impressions.