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.

Mission Values Priorities

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.

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Gale Walker, George Jones and Karen Jones have a wonderful experience serving breakfast to 67 women and children at a domestic violence shelter

Story by Benia Jennings

Ten years ago, the General Conference launched their enditnow campaign, which emphasizes ending the cycle of abuse on women and children. Intimate partner violence has been a long-standing issue for more than 100 years within the Allegheny West Conference Shiloh Cincinnati church’s surrounding Avondale community. As a result, church members took part in this initiative to stop violence that may affect congregation and community members alike.

Plichel on pixabay.jpg

Editorial by Bonnie Navarro 
Photo by Plichel on pixaby.jpg

Osceola McCarty was born in 1908. She lived with her aunt and grandmother in Mississippi. When her aunt returned from a hospitalization unable to walk, McCarty dropped out of school to care for her. She never went back. Instead, she became a washerwoman—getting up early in the morning to light a fire under her wash pot, wash the clothes on a scrub board, hang them on a 100-foot-long clothesline, and when they were dry, iron until 11 p.m. at night.

Shenandoah Valley Academy Volleyball

Story by Becky Patrick

Shenandoah Valley Academy (SVA) math teacher and volleyball coach, Becky Patrick, is committed to girls’ sports. Patrick recognizes that girls who participate in sports are more likely to have lower rates of teen pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse and possess more self-confidence. She has witnessed sports help girls focus more on their athletics than their aesthetics, and how teamwork has taught them to support and encourage one another: