Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, commented on March 29 regarding the decision of the Southeastern California Conference (SECC) to issue the same credentials to male and female pastors, saying he regretted the Conference action.

“The issue is not the rightness or otherwise, ethically, morally or biblically, of the position that there should be no difference between them,” said Paulsen. “My regret is that the SECC could not, out of deference to the larger international family of Seventh-day Adventists, have held in check their exercise of ‘freedom,’ knowing that the Church makes her decisions sometimes frustratingly slowly, but in a very deliberate manner with an eye to many issues. Moving together until we have agreed to give room to differ on specific issues is the price we pay for unity.”

The SECC executive committee took the action on March 16, with Conference president F. Lynn Mallery citing the need to treat “women ministers without discrimination” and that while they respected “the variety of views that members elsewhere have on this subject,” they hoped that “our fellow believers will also respect our moral conviction that men and women in this conference who are equally qualified and have had fruitful ministries should be treated in the same way.”

However, the action makes a unified position more difficult, Paulsen comments.

“Although I accept that it is not the intent, I feel that the action by the SECC reflects a mindset which sends unmistakable signals to the rest of the world Church. It makes the work of those of us who are committed to world-wide unity, and to combating provincialism when and where it becomes prominent in shaping the Church, more difficult.”