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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Ohio Conference Transitions Headquarters to Dayton

Nearly 400 delegates at the recent Ohio Conference constituency voted to make the $3.2 million office building in Dayton the principle headquarters for conference business. In September 2017, local business owners gifted the building to the conference.

The conference spends $80,000 annually to operate the office in Mount Vernon, which increases each year due to the aging of the building. Funds generated by leasing a portion of the new building to Kettering Adventist HealthCare could save the conference up to $1 million in overhead. “These funds could help Ohio churches and schools fulfill their mission, vision, and ministry,” says Michael D. Gilkey, newly elected treasurer and CFO.

Blue Mountain Academy Opens Hospital Produce Stand

Story by Dave Morgan

Aaron Weber, the Pennsylvania Conference Blue Mountain Academy’s (BMA) director of operations, reports that the school’s agriculture program has recently impacted the local community like never before. “BMA agriculture was invited to pilot a Farmer’s Market in downtown’s Reading St. Joseph’s Hospital (Pa.),” Weber shares. “On May 1, BMA opened a produce stand in a renovated room close to the hospital’s main entrance. During the growing season—and potentially year-round—they are open each Tuesday from 12:30-5 p.m. Hospital administrators are not only making this produce market available to patients participating in VeggieRx, a healthy food incentive program, but are encouraging staff to shop there and are advertising the stand to the community.”

Sharing the Word

Photo by Ben Grey from Flickr

Editorial by Andre Hastick

Each day you and I use thousands of words; we share sentences to express our thoughts and feelings. Our intended messages, however, can sometimes get lost in translation. It is estimated that in the Scots language, spoken in the winter wonderland of the northern United Kingdom, there are more than 400 words for “snow.” I live in Maryland, where we make a big deal about any winter precipitation. In fact, it seems like our only term for snow is “School’s closed!” If Scots-speaking people tried to teach me about their snowfall without me experiencing it personally, their lesson would probably get lost in translation.

Praying God's Heart

Interview by V. Michelle Bernard

Through her book, One Thing I Ask, Debbie Luther Howell wants to lead Christians back to knowing God through His Word.

Through her book, One Thing I Ask, Debbie Luther Howell wants to lead Christians back to knowing God through His Word. “I want them to have a passion for the Bible because when they open its pages they sense His very presence,” says the member of the Chesapeake Conference’s New Hope church in Fulton, Md. Read our interview with Howell below:

Visitor Magazine: How has praying through the Bible impacted you personally?