Record Number of British Adventists to Attend GC Session
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Seeking fellowship, networking opportunities and a glimpse of how the world church works, a record number of Seventh-day Adventists from Britain, will join thousands of other members at the church's quinquennial business meetings in St. Louis, Missouri this week. |
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Seeking fellowship, networking opportunities and a glimpse of how the world church works, a record number of Seventh-day Adventists from Britain, will join thousands of other members at the church's quinquennial business meetings in St. Louis, Missouri this week.
Several of the more than 1,000 expected members organized special trips to the event. One unusual "travel agent" is Pastor Sam Davis, who used to be a minister for the Adventist church in South England but is now pastoring the multi-ethnic Sandton church in Johannesburg. He will be taking a group of 123 people to the meetings -- 41 from South Africa, 30 from Holland, and 52 from England.
"I've been organizing these trips for years," he said. "I was only planning to take a small group from South Africa but when others heard about it they wanted to come along as well! People see the [world church meeting] as the biggest event in the church calendar and most people want to go at least once in their lives."
"I think people want to feel the experience of being part of the global Adventist family," Catherine Boldeau, communication director for the church in South England agreed. "It's a great networking opportunity. Many of our members here, particularly those from the West Indian and African communities, have relatives who live in America and this is an opportunity for them to fellowship and share quality Christian time with them. As for the meetings themselves, I don't think our members are really sure what to expect, but many of them are excited to see how the international Church will carry out its business on such a large scale."
Most of those attending the meetings will be coming from the church in South England whose members make up more than two thirds of the 24,500 members in Britain. Along with those attending the meeting as visitors, 11 Adventists from Britain, will join 2,000 delegates who make decisions on critical church issues. The British delegates comprise approximately 12.5 percent of the Trans-European region's delegation, a regional official estimated.
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