Following a special meeting of church leadership, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Finland has a new president and a new secretary.
Following a special meeting of church leadership, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Finland has a new president and a new secretary.
Pastor Atte Helminen, age 35, is now president of the Finland Union Conference, or region, of the Adventist Church. Anne Leskinen, 33, a manager with Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia and active as a youth leader in the Helsinki church, is now secretary of the church region. Anna-Lisa Halonen continues as treasurer.
Current president Pastor Erkki Haapasalo is awaiting a new assignment. Former regional secretary Sibrina Kiliokoski resigned her position last fall.
“The nominating committee placed a call for me to take over the leadership,” Helminen told ANN in a telephone interview from his home in the center of Helsinki, 125 miles south of the church’s office in Tampere. “It was kind of a shock, but I’ve grown to accept the idea.”
Along with the leadership change, Helminen reported that there would be an “almost completely new executive committee” for the church, including a layperson, Dr. Täivi Paivilatinen, a surgeon, as vice chairman. He said this would allow someone else to run executive committee meetings, freeing the president for a more participatory role in the discussions.
“They’ve done this in Sweden and some other countries,” Helminen said of the move. “It’s a very good gesture for lay people; they can have a great influence in the church.”
Helminen, who has pastored the Annakatu Street church in Helsinki as well as its experimental Café SEED, will step back from those roles while commuting part of the week to Tampere. He expects an appointment this summer to take over the café ministry, while relying on the Annakatu elders for congregational leadership.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been in Finland since 1909 and has approximately 5,500 members meeting in 73 congregations.
