Meeting with church members in Belgrade, Serbia, Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, made an appeal that Adventists continue to be actively involved in the mission of bringing the gospel to all people.

Everyone is invited by God to serve in His mission, Paulsen emphasized.

During his pastoral visit to a part of the world where the church is seeing membership growth, Paulsen met with two key religious leaders, stressing mutual respect and recognition between communions.

In a visit to Serbian Patriarch Pavle, head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Paulsen heard the patriarch underline the historic past of the Serbian people, and his concern that Orthodox churches in Kosovo are destroyed with little hope of being rebuilt.

Mutual respect must continue between the Adventist Church and the Orthodox Church in Serbia in order to protect religious liberty, Paulsen said. The conversation between the two leaders was informal, amicable and cordial, and covered brief exchanges on world affairs and also the Adventist position on health.

Paulsen also visited Stanislav Hocevar, Roman Catholic archbishop of Belgrade. The prelate’s numerous questions about the faith and theology of the Seventh-day Adventist Church gave Paulsen an in-depth opportunity to explain the church’s understanding of Bible teachings.

“Many people came to meet the world church president,” said Radisa Antic, president of the church’s South-East European region. “Our believers especially appreciated Pastor Paulsen’s focus on church unity and developments in the world church. They went home enriched,” Antic said.

Other areas that Paulsen visited included Novi Sad, where he addressed a large group of church members in the newly inaugurated church, as well as Athens, Greece, and Paphos, Cyprus, where he addressed the opening session of the “Building Bridges of Understanding” conference on Adventist-Muslim relations. [See ANN report, March 4, 2003]