Story by Tiffany Doss
“We are here, because talking saves lives,” said Jose Rojas at the opening of We Stand For All, a forum at Potomac Conference’s Sligo church in Takoma Park, Md., designed to discuss if the church should have a role in social justice—a question that has become more prevalent following a rally on the National Mall where nearly 1,000 Adventists stood together for prayer and peace.
Yesterday Allegheny West Conference's Hilltop Community Worship Center and the Westside Community Health Advisory Committee convened a Safety Forum for the public at the church at 2622 Sullivant Avenue, Columbus, Ohio, 43223.
The forum came as a response to the serial rapes and gang tagging that occurred in the neighborhood in late May. “With summer coming, we want to discuss ways the community can stay safe when more people are outside,” according to Jason Ridley, Hilltop’s pastor and Dru Bagley, chair of WCHAC.
Napoleon Bell, a former police officer and a former director for the City of Columbus Community Relations Commission, moderated the Forum.
Violet Greene, a longtime Allegheny West Conference member, recently turned 110 years old. Greene celebrated her June 4 birthday at the Hyde Park Health Center in Cincinnati where she resides.
Tara Groves, activities director at the center, says that she baked bread every week until she turned 100 years old. She added, "Violet is very spiritual and believes that God has blessed her with long life because she honored her mother and father."
Story by Allegheny West Conference Staff
Mamie H. Clemons, the “prayer warrior” of the Hillcrest church in Pittsburgh, recently received the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) Legacy Award from the Rankin/Mon Valley, Pittsburgh, Pa., area NCNW. The organization held a luncheon this spring at the Hosanna House in Pittsburgh.
Clemons was one of five women who received the Legacy Award. Legacy awards are presented to women who show the spirit of civil rights leaders Mary McLeod Bethune and Dorothy I. Height. Bethune was the founder of the NCNW, and Height was the fourth elected national president of the NCNW. She served until 1998, when she became chair and president emerita.
Story by Tim Allston
According to “American Congregations at the Beginning of the 21st Century,” a Duke University 2006-2007 National Congregations Study, the percent of regular adult participants younger than age 35 in the average congregation dropped from 25 to to 20 percent.
In his July 2008 Ministry magazine article, “Reaching Out: Making a Difference With Young Adults," A. Allan Martin, the teaching pastor of a young adult ministry at the Arlington church in Texas, cites Paul Richardson of the Center for Creative Ministry, with headquarters in College Place, Wash. Richardson reported that the median age for the Seventh-day Adventist community in North America, "including the un-baptized children in church families, is 58 … Among native-born white and black members, the median age is even higher."
The frightening implications of this figure are seen when that median age, 58, is compared to the median ages of the United States and Canada, respectively, which are 36 and 37!