Jan. 23, 2007 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Compiled by ANN Staff

Vietnam: State Grants Official Certificate of Religious Practice to Adventists ...After more than 30 years of seeking official recognition of religious activity, Seventh-day Adventists in Vietnam are now worshipping freely. Late last month, Vietnam’s Committee of Religious Affairs officially granted certificates of religious practice to Adventists, Baptists, and other religious groups, according to Vietnam’s Thanh Nien News. According to church sources, the certification guarantees religious groups the right to favorable conditions for religious practice, freedom to print and distribute literature, build and upgrade places of worship, and the legal leeway to organize meetings, seminars and other religious events. Adventists leaders in Vietnam hope the certification will signal a new era of religious liberty for the country’s 13,000 Adventists worshipping in seven churches and nearly 100 small groups. [ANN Staff]

World Church: Change of Venue for Church’s Annual Council ...  The Seventh-day Adventist church will be holding this year’s autumn meeting of its General Conference Executive Committee at its headquarters after all. Difficulties confirming housing in Kiev, Ukraine for the some 200 plus members and support staff of the Committee has led to a change of venue for the meeting known as Annual Council, said Larry Evans, undersecretary for the world church. Once every five years the church holds Annual Council outside the United States. “We are a world church and we want to demonstrate that in as many ways as we can. One way is to hold meetings outside of the United States,” said Pastor Evans. “It is more complicated and more difficult but in the long run it is a statement we want to make.” Evans says that in 2008 there will be another attempt to hold Annual Council at an international site. A more pared down committee meets in the Spring. This year the Spring Meeting will be at the church’s headquarters as well.  [ANN Staff]

United States: Adventist is Record Keeper for 2007 State of the Union Address ... Christina Anderson Smith of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, will make history tonight for being the first African American woman, not to mention the first Seventh-day Adventist, to take the official record for the State of the Union Address given by President George W. Bush. For the past six years Smith has served as an Official Court Reporter for the United States House of Representatives taking the official record for hearings and floor proceedings on Capitol Hill. Her duties include verbatim reporting and transcription of congressional proceedings, meetings, hearings and caucuses. Smith is an alumnus of Oakwood College (Class of 1982) and a member of the Emmanuel Brinklow Adventist Church in Brinklow, Maryland. [The Office of Communication, North America Division]

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