An organization the size of the Seventh-day Adventist Church needs a vast infrastructure to keep the wheels turning smoothly. All of its important leadership positions are up for re-election this week as Adventists hold their quinquennial business meetings in St Louis. The president’s leadership team, including for the first time a female vice president, was dealt with in the first few days, but on July 4, a whole raft of positions from the lower tier is being put into place.

In this morning’s business session at the Edward Jones Dome, 10 names were presented to the delegates, and all were accepted without controversy. With eight of the 10 names simply being re-election of serving officers, lack of controversy is not surprising. However, it is interesting that the two new names both gave an indication of the growing diversity within the Adventist Church:

Daisy Jane Orion is the second woman elected to a high profile role in as many days. Originally from the Philippines, she has worked her way up through the financial structure of the Adventist Church. Starting as an accountant in the Manila Adventist Hospital, Orion has worked as a vice president of finance at one of the church’s division offices. In 1996 she was asked to move to the church’s headquarters to take on the position of director of planning for global mission. In this role she traveled around the world, visiting all of the church’s divisional offices. Introducing her to the conference delegates, Adventist world treasurer Robert Lemon described her as “quiet, but forceful.”

George O. Egwakhe is an African, from Nigeria, which is in the church’s West-Central Africa region. A man of wide experience in financial matters, he has worked as a vice president for finance at the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines and, until his election today, was serving as the treasurer for the church’s Southern Asia-Pacific region. “He has a very nice way of working with people,” said Lemon, “but he is also a tremendous technician.”

The names voted this morning are: Undersecretary, Larry R. Evans; associate secretaries, Douglas Clayville, Agustin Galicia, Vernon B. Parmenter, Claude Sabot: undertreasurer, Steven G. Rose; associate treasurers, George O. Egwakhe, Jose R. Lizardo, Daisy Jane Orion, Roy E. Ryan.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a family of 14.3 million baptized adult members in more than 200 countries of the world. An estimated 25 million people attend weekly worship services in the Adventist Church.