The Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee issued a statement Thursday supporting a favorable vote to authorize Seventh-day Adventist Church regional governing bodies, called divisions, to decide when and how to handle the question of women’s ordination. The vote comes in anticipation of the 60th General Conference Session called for July 2015 in San Antonio, Texas, where nearly 2,700 delegates will be asked: “Is it acceptable for division committees, as they may deem appropriate in their territories, to make provision for the ordination of women to the gospel ministry? Yes or No.”
Dave Weigley, president of the Columbia Union Conference, believes an affirmative vote would strengthen the unity of the church and further the mission in some areas of the world where appropriate, especially in the North American Division where he serves. “As I understand it, this is one of the options proposed and supported in a straw poll by 62 out of the 95 attendees at the final meeting of the General Conference Theology of Ordination Study Committee,” he said following the union’s week of Year-end Meetings, which ended today. “They spent 18 months trying to find consensus around our practice of ordination, and I believe that poll, though unofficial, provides a practical indicator of the best way forward for our church at this pivotal moment.”
Read the full statement here: On the Question of Women’s Ordination: We Stand in Support of Mission, Unity in Diversity and Healthy Christian Conduct
This article originally appeared in the Columbia Union Visitor and is reprinted by permission.
Title Image: Cynthia Poole-Gibson, associate superintendent of education for the Allegheny East Conference, reads part of the statement on the GC Session question. Photo credit: V. Michelle Bernard
Celeste Ryan Blyden is publisher of the Columbia Union Visitor.