Who We Are, How We Serve

The Columbia Union Conference, established in 1907 to coordinate the Seventh-day Adventist Church's work in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia, is part of the worldwide Protestant denomination of 23 million members in more than 212 countries. At the union level, we connect and provide administrative leadership, governance and support services to our conferences, schools, health care networks and ministries. Each year, our organizations sponsor programs and projects that address human needs, improve quality of life and introduce people to Jesus. Read our Mission, Values and 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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Joshua Roberts/AP Images photographed Lois and Leroy Peters, and their son, Leroy.

Story by Liz Anderson / Images by Ty Wright and Joshua Roberts/AP Images

"We Can't Live Like This"

Leroy and Lois Peters’ roller coaster experience with mental illness started when their son, Leroy, “snapped” following a humiliating incident while stationed at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Lois remembers the moment she and her husband learned that something was terribly wrong.

Photo via istockphoto

Editorial by Celeste Ryan Blyden

My mother was born and bred in Brooklyn, N.Y., during the Great Depression. She often went to bed hungry and rejoiced when she was given a penny to buy an orange for supper. At 14 she was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church and began a faith journey with Jesus that sustained her throughout life. She always had a sanguine smile on her face and praise to God on her lips. So, you’d never know that she buried two children, got divorced after 50 years of marriage and struggled to make ends meet.

Story by Betty Klinck

Adventist HealthCare’s two Advanced Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine centers have received national recognition for the quality care they provide to patients.

The centers at Adventist HealthCare Washington Adventist Hospital in Takoma Park, Md.,  and Adventist HealthCare Shady Grove Medical Center in Rockville, Md., have been recognized as Centers of Distinction by Healogics, Inc. They are two of only 427 centers across the country to achieve this honor.

Philadelphia Mission trip participants participate in an outreach event.

Story by Adventist Christian Fellowship and Philadelphia Central Korean church staff

The majority of Adventist young adults—approximately 70 percent by one estimate—do not attend Seventh-day Adventist institutions of higher learning. During the recent Philadelphia Mission Trip event, more than 70 young adults, mostly from the Columbia Union, worked to reach these and other students at Bryn Mawr College, Temple University and Drexel University, schools in the Philadelphia area.

Story by Evelyn Kissinger

From May 7–11, 2018, the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University will hold its annual five-day Natural Remedies & Hydrotherapy Workshop in the Seminary building (Tan Hall), room N150.

Participants of the workshop will learn the power of natural remedies and hydrotherapy; practical ways to implement natural remedies and hydrotherapy; and how to effectively share these principles with others.