Seventh-day Adventist lawyers from eight eastern African countries met for a four-day congress in Mangoshi, Malawi, April 11 to 14.  It was the first regional meeting of Adventist lawyers outside the United States, says Mitchell Tyner, a presenter at the conference and an associate general counsel at the Adventist Church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.

The congress was organized by Nceku Msimanga, legal counsel for the Adventist Church in the Eastern Africa region, which has its headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe.  Msimanga says the meetings provided an opportunity for Adventist lawyers to get acquainted with their fellow practitioners, most of whom have 20 years or more experience.  Participants also presented reports from their respective regions and discussed different topics, such as how Christian values impact legal practice.

With some 300 Adventist lawyers in eastern Africa, the region has the highest concentration of Adventist attorneys outside the United States. Seventy lawyers, including two judges from Malawi, attended the congress. They came from Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

“I was impressed by the willingness of this group to offer its services to the Adventist Church,” said Tyner. He adds that many of the lawyers in their own practices have helped church members with Sabbath, or Saturday, employment difficulties, as well as students facing exams scheduled on Saturdays. 

Future meetings of Adventist lawyers in eastern Africa will be held every two or three years, with the next congress planned for Tanzania.