Adventist President’s Parsonage Purchased

Silver Spring, Maryland, USA ... [ANN] In a decision described as long overdue, the General Conference Corporation Board has purchased a parsonage house to be used by presidents of the Seventh-day Adventist World Church.

“Many of us felt that such a decision was long overdue,” said Robert L. Rawson, treasurer of the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. “The public prominence of the office of the world church leader and ongoing issues of security have been matters for the church leadership to consider.” The decision to purchase the property was made on the advice of the General Conference and world division officers.

First occupants of the parsonage in Spencerville, Maryland, in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, are Pastor Jan Paulsen and his wife Kari, who moved from their townhouse to the new parsonage on January 22. They will be paying a monthly rent equal to that of their townhouse, and the difference between the monthly rent and the market rental value will be taxable income.

France: Marriage Will Be a “Testimony of Hope”

Clapiers, France ... [EANN Staff/ANN] The marriage of 94-year-old Madeleine Francineau and 96-year-old François Fernandez will set a new world record, say administrators at Le Foyer du Romarin, a Seventh-day Adventist retirement home in Clapiers, South France. The couple plan to marry February 1, and the total of their ages—190 years and 4 months—will set a new age record in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The couple “wishes to give a testimony of hope,” says Martin Haase, communication director for the Adventist Church in the Euro-Africa region. “Aging does not exclude tenderness, affection and love, and they hope that they will be able to live many happy years in their current place of residence.”