Woman Elected Secretary of Church in Sweden

Audrey Boyle Andersson is the new secretary of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Sweden and the first woman to hold the number-two church administration post in that country. For Andersson, a native of England who has had a marketing and communications consultancy in both countries, the new position represents “a coming together of my two passions. One is to work for the Lord and the other is work with developing communications and media.” She hopes to use media to reach the 8.8 million people in Sweden, and then have “local churches and real people” establish contact with those interested. [ANN Staff]

Attorney Defines Religious Freedom at U.N. Meeting

Mitchell Tyner, an Adventist world church attorney who specializes in religious liberty issues, addressed a meeting of the United Nation’s “Non-Governmental Organizations Committee for Freedom of Religion and Belief” in New York on Sept. 25. Tyner’s remarks “helped clarify” both the nature of religious freedom and why it is important. Freedom of conscience, he said, is the keystone of self-determination, which is a concept even secularists can embrace as good public policy. [ANN Staff]

Adventist Journalism Program Honored

Representatives from the National Institute of Teaching and Research of the Brazilian Education Ministry, recently awarded the highest grade in evaluating the Journalism Department at Brazil Adventist University, Campus Engenheiro Coelho. This evaluation guarantees that the journalism program will be accredited, and places it among the best in Brazilian universities.

Adventist Speaks to Parliamentarians

As moderator of the first morning session of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Human Rights and Freedom of Religion and Belief on Sept. 17 in Brussels, Belgium, Adventist Church United Nations liaison Jonathan Gallagher said the treatment of minorities was a clear indicator of the state of freedom in any nation. He explained that “both from conviction and by circumstance, the early Adventist Church recognized the vital importance of religious freedom as fundamental to all liberties. In developing a philosophy of human rights and religious freedom, and in becoming motivated to promote these ideas, Adventists were well ahead of the curve.”