Columbia Union News

Story by NAD Staff

Don C. Schneider, former president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America (NAD), passed away this morning, May 23, 2019, in Texas, where he was living with Marti, his wife and partner in ministry. He was 76.

Schneider served as NAD president for 10 years. He was elected to the office in 2000 at the General Conference Session in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Prior to this, he served as Lake Union Conference president for almost six years.

Images by Muriel Bello

In December Columbia Union Conference leaders held a luncheon to affirm and express appreciation to the women clergy who serve in the Columbia Union. About 40 attendees (pictured above), including 20 women pastors, several conference presidents and ministerial directors and union officers gathered to talk about the outcome and implications of the vote at the 2018 Annual Council meetings, how women pastors are being treated at their home churches, what questions they have and receive and how the union can help.

The Columbia Union ended a two-year emphasis on evangelism in fall of 2018. Throughout this time, churches across the union hosted meetings and placed an emphasis on evangelism in our communities, celebrating 1,287 baptisms and professions of faith in 2018 alone.

As part of this emphasis, Columbia Union President Dave Weigley preached two series of meetings, one in Mountain View Conference’s Cumberland and Frostburg church district in 2017 and another in Chesapeake Conference’s Hagerstown (Md.) church in 2018. “It was so encouraging to see so many people from the community attend these meetings; there is a hunger for the Word of God in our world today,” he says.