Delegates to the 58th session of the Seventh-day Adventist world church made significant change to the church's top leadership structure by electing Rosa T. Banks as associate secretary.
Delegates to the 58th session of the Seventh-day Adventist world church today made significant change to the church’s top leadership structure by electing Rosa T. Banks as associate secretary. Banks is the third woman elected to a senior position in the world church in the past few days. She has worked in the North American region of the church since 1989 in human resources. Earlier in the week the world church session elected Ella Simmons as a general vice president and Daisy Orion as an associate treasurer.
Along with Banks there will be quite a few new faces at the church’s headquarters, many from the South American region of the church. They fill key spots in Ministerial, Women’s Ministries, Trust Services and Youth Ministries.
There have been minor changes as incumbents fill many of the other positions. Because the Health Ministries department has been downsized, director Dr. Alan Handysides said the department has to seek expertise on certain subjects from outside sources. Along with the in-house associate positions filled by Kathleen Kuntaraf, Peter Landless, Stoy Proctor, Quintes P. Nicola and Thomas Zirkle, several other associates will work with the world church department on a consulting basis. These consultants come from Loma Linda University Medical Center. They are: Patricia Jones, James Kyle, Joan Coggin and Craig Jackson.
The new associate director for Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries is Gary Councell. That position is being funded by the North American region but will work on behalf of the world church to reflect a growing need for chaplaincy services.
In the Ministerial Association, three incumbents returned to the position of associate secretaries: Sharon Cress, Peter J. Prime and Nikolaus Satelmajer, and Jonas Arrais from South America was voted to be an associate secretary.
Other associate directors to the world church include: John Fowler, Andrea Luxton and Luis Schulz in the Education Department; Charles B. Simpson and Wilfredo Sumagaysay in Trust Services; Racquel Arrais in Women’s Ministries; Almir Marroni, Publishing; Van Hurst and Erton Carlos Kohler to Youth Ministry; John T. Banks and Reger Smith Jr, Communication Department; Jonathan Gallagher and James Standish in Public Affairs and Religious Liberty.
The Adventist Church’s world headquarters, also known as the “General Conference,” also filled positions on the General Conference Auditing board, which includes five ex-officio members and 13 persons with financial expertise. The ex-officio members include the church president, secretary, treasurer, vice president and the General Conference Auditing Services director.
Other board members are: Jeremiah Lima from East Central Africa; Wilfried Detlefsen from Euro-Africa; Timur Osin from Euro-Asia; Hyden Gittens from Inter-America; Jack Krogstad from North America; Joseph Fan from North Asia-Pacific; Scilas Barbaosa-Filho from South America; Roger Marshal from South Pacific; John Stanley from Southern Asia, Gilles Carel Beesoo from Southern Africa-Indian Ocean; Anwar Hutabarat from Southern Asia-Pacific; Frensly R. Panneflek and Kwame Manu-Debrah from West-Central Africa.
Because configuration of Auditing Services does not necessarily follow traditional church region boundaries, said Pastor Lowell Cooper, a vice president of the world church, area officers may cover overlapping areas.
Elected leaders for Auditing Services include: Eric A. Korff, director; associates: Daniel E. Herzel, Douglas D. Reeves, Maxwell P. Blakeney, Emmanuel Manu, Norbert Zens, Paul Johnson, Paul Douglas, Mark S. Hyder, Robyn Kajiura, Jeremy Smith, Kim Tae Sung, Geraldo Bokenkamp, Mark Pannekoek, Michael Prasado Rao, Coenradd J. Haupt, Ruel A. Baculanta, and Terence de Villiers.