Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, meeting this week at the international church headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, have filled a number of key leadership positions for the world church.
Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, meeting this week at the international church headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, have filled a number of key leadership positions for the world church.
Pastor Harold Baptiste has been elected as a general vice president of the Adventist world church. Baptiste was chosen to fill the vacancy left by Pastor Calvin Rock, who retired last year.
Baptiste has served as secretary for the church in North America since 1995. He previously served 33 years in New York City as a pastor and church administrator. A native of Grenada, Baptiste earned a theology degree from West Indies College in Jamaica, and a master’s from Andrews University, in Michigan. He began his ministry in Guyana, South America.
Pastor Larry Evans, currently the assistant to the president of the church in North America, will become the world church’s undersecretary. Evans began his ministry in the early 1970s as a pastor for the Adventist Church in the Upper Columbia Conference, or region. He later served in various administrative posts for the church in different areas of the United States, including Oregon, Potomac, New Jersey, and the Georgia-Cumberland region. Evans replaces outgoing undersecretary Pastor Athal Tolhurst, who has announced his retirement.
Sociologist Dr. C. Garland Dulan was elected world church education director, filling the position left vacant by the retirement of Dr. Humberto Rasi. Dulan currently serves as an associate director in the education department. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from University of California, Riverside, and has served in both administrative and academic positions at a number of institutions of higher education, including La Sierra University, Oakwood College, and Southern Adventist University.
Officers were also elected for the church’s new divisions, or administrative territories, on the continent of Africa. Church leaders voted earlier this year to realign the church’s administrative structure in Africa, increasing the number of divisions there from two to three. At Annual Council, Pastor Geoffrey Mbwana, currently president of the Adventist Church in Tanzania, was chosen to head up the newly formed East-Central Africa Division. Southern Africa Division president will be Pastor Pardon Mwansa, who is currently president of the Eastern Africa Division. Pastor Luka Daniel will be president of the new Western Africa Division. He is currently serving as president in the Africa-Indian Ocean Division. These new administrative boundaries will take effect in January 2003.
