- “A black and white picture of the sanctuary right now looks like something from WWII,” commented Mark Ferrell, pastor of the San Francisco Central Seventh-day Adventist Church (SFC). We were standing on the balcony, overlooking the worst of the damage from the June 29 fire that destroyed the primary worship space of the church that […]
- My journey into the Seventh-day Adventist faith did not begin with a sermon or a Bible study. It began quietly, almost imperceptibly, 10 years before I ever stepped into an Adventist church. At the time, I did not realize that God was preparing my heart through subtle shifts in lifestyle, circumstance, and conviction. Yet looking […]
- The Pacific Union College nursing program is pleased to announce that, alongside its latest ranking of No. 7 for producing the highest-paid nurses nationwide, it has now been ranked No. 2 on Nurse.org for the accessibility, online and in-person offerings, length, and academic quality of its fast-growing RN-to-BSN program. Accredited by the Accreditation Commission for […]
- “Let your light so shine so you can thrive.” At the midpoint of the North American Division’s 2026 tHRive Human Resources Conference, Doug Bing, Washington Conference president, challenged attendees with a lesson from science. He shared a concept he learned while reviewing his daughter’s senior project as a biology major at Walla Walla University. The […]
- Forgoing vacation time during spring break in March 2026, six students and a professor from the School of Computing at Southern Adventist University competed in the annual SkillsUSA State Competition, where Southern earned first, second, and third place honors in the web design and development category. The university has taken top honors each time it […]
The leadership of the Crossville Seventh-day Adventist Church would like to publicly state their objection to any civil government’s request or encouragement that their citizens participate in acts of worship or religious observance that contradict their own sincerely held convictions and beliefs. Furthermore, as proponents of liberty of conscience apart from interference of governmental powers, we stand in opposition with the statement made in the presidential proclamation given on May 4, 2026 encouraging Americans to observe the (Shabbat) Sabbath from Friday sundown May 15 to Saturday sundown May 16 to recognize the sacred Jewish tradition of rest and gratitude to the Almighty.
The above declaration crosses an important boundary that protects religious liberty and freedom of conscience. Setting this precedent now will allow civil government in the future to direct religious expression of its citizens regardless of differences in their personally held beliefs. By necessity, worship must arise voluntarily from personal conviction, not from government endorsements or legislative decrees. State sponsored religious practices, which are not otherwise willfully and independently adopted by its citizens, have historically then required oppressive governmental mandates in order to secure external religious obedience which is incompatible with one’s voluntarily chosen faith and religious practices. For the reasons stated above, we respectfully protest the presidential proclamation of May 4, 2026.