With the October 1 launch of its online home, Adventist World—the international magazine of the Seventh-day Adventist Church—now offers speedier access to articles and features that help connect the global church’s 15-million members.

Adventist World joins the church’s official paper, Adventist Review, which has been available on the Internet since September 1999.

“Adventist World online will provide an instant connection to the church for millions of readers around the globe,” said Bill Knott, the magazine’s editor and executive publisher. “In just two years, Adventist World has established itself as a source of news, information and inspiration to our Adventist Church family, and this will be enhanced with global Internet access to the magazine.”

Each month, Adventist World features 32 pages of articles covering church news, biblical topics, Adventist beliefs, health concerns and other items of interest to Adventists. The magazine’s print version is distributed free in a combined print run of 2 million copies. Likewise, Adventist World’s online resources will be available for free.

“We invested a great amount of time and effort to make the Adventist World Web site attractive and easy to use,” said Carlos Medley, online editor for the magazine. “It’s my hope that a global audience will enjoy and appreciate this new resource, one which will grow in capabilities and offerings as time goes by.”

Medley also said the online version would make Adventist World resources available in a “timelier fashion.”  In some parts of the world, he explained, it can take several weeks to distribute the print version. “This version arrives instantly,” he said.

Also benefiting from Adventist World online, said Medley, are people who are more comfortable with virtual media than they are with printed resources. “We are confident it will find its mark.”

Currently available in English, www.adventistworld.org will include French, Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, Bahasa and other language versions as the site develops.