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.

Learn More

Blog by Rob Vandeman

We love to read the Psalms and rightly so. While Psalms may be the most popular book of the Bible, the Psalms are often the most misunderstood and misinterpreted. Many of us choose a few favorites and ignore others that strike us as bizarre or even cruel. Yet all the psalms were written for our benefit. To understand and appreciate the whole collection, we need solid principles of interpretation that will guide us to a proper reading and application of this riveting part of God’s Word.

There are several principles that we should keep in mind as we read the psalms. Not only will they help us understand God’s message in the psalms, but the principles will also allow us to see them in all their richness. As we meditate on the psalms we think, feel, imagine and choose in increasingly godly ways.

In order to illustrate each of these principles, we will apply them to Psalm 131:

    A song for the ascent to Jerusalem    A psalm of David

    1. My heart is not proud, O Lord,
    my eyes are not haughty;
    I do not concern myself with great matters
    or things too wonderful for me.

    2. But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
    like a weaned child with its mother,
    like a weaned child is my soul within me.

Durante la reunión de fin de año de la Unión de Columbia, los miembros del Comité Ejecutivo analizaron el documento sobre la Unidad en la Misión votado a principios de octubre por el Consejo Anual de la Asociación General. Muchos expresaron su preocupación por la intención, el propósito, las suposiciones que implica el documento, y cómo impactará la misión de la iglesia en esta región.

Dave Richmond, un miembro de la Asociación de Pennsylvania dijo que el documento desdibuja las líneas entre las creencias fundamentales y las pólizas. “Da la impresión que nuestras pólizas están al mismo nivel de nuestras creencias fundamentales”.

Story by Heidi Whetmore

As Spencerville Adventist Academy (SAA) sophomore Autumn Uhrig watched a YouTube video one morning, something piqued her interest. Millions of people who can’t speak rely on text-to-speech devices to communicate. Most devices have the same vocal sound for all users, regardless of age or gender. Uhrig learned of VocaliD, which, according to their website, is “the human voicebank of the world.”

VocaliD records human voices, mixes them with sounds a non-speaking person can make and blends them to make a unique humanized voice in which the machine talks for them. Uhrig wanted to do her part in helping someone find their voice. She visited the website, recorded a couple of sentences and waited to see if there was anyone her age who needed assistance. Months later she received an email that a young girl, Tesa, was a good match for her voice. Uhrig now needed to record 3,488 sentences to get the job done.

 Adventist HealthCare

Story by WAH Staff

Hospital and community leaders, caregivers and partners of Adventist HealthCare gathered on Dec. 2 for a blessing ceremony just ahead of the pouring of the foundation for the new Adventist HealthCare Washington Adventist Hospital in the White Oak area of Maryland, set to open in 2019.

The ceremony, opened by Erik Wangsness, president of Adventist HealthCare Washington Adventist Hospital, celebrated not only the physical foundation pouring, but also recognized Adventist HealthCare’s foundation built upon the longstanding legacy of Adventists bringing holistic, whole-person healing to their communities.