BY MARK KELLNER, assistant director for news, General Conference Communication Department

ulminating a quarter century of informal contacts, theologians from the Seventh-day Adventist Church and the Salvation Army met for four days of theological dialogue January 5-8.

"As with relationships with other Christian world communions, we recognize there are more things that unite us than divide us," declared Col. Earl Robinson, secretary of the Salvation Army's Office for Spiritual Life Development and International External Relations. Both delegations, the seven-member Salvationist and the eight-member Adventist, were grateful for the opportunity to develop "a better understanding of each other" and an awareness of ways in which the two "might partner together in Christ," Col. Robinson added.

Bert B. Beach, director of interchurch relations for the General Conference, said he was very pleased that the long-sought dialogue came about. "It was most important to see the very similar approaches to the gospel message that we have--very compatible lifestyles and Christ-centeredness in the Salvation Army and the Seventh-day Adventist Church," Beach told Adventist News Network. "Adventists have always had considerable respect for the work of Salvationists, and I hope that in the future we would increase our knowledge of each other and our cooperation in meeting many of humanity's crying spiritual and material needs."

The dialogue between the two worldwide Christian movements brings together two organizations that were both founded in the nineteenth century: Seventh-day Adventists in America and the Salvation Army in London, where it was originally called the Christian Revival Association, and later, the East London Christian Mission.

Each organization had a married couple as formative influences: Ellen and James White for the Adventists and Catherine and William Booth for the Salvationists. And each group traces its roots back to the Methodist movement started by John Wesley.

Representing the Seventh-day Adventist Church were Beach; William G. Johnsson, Adventist Review editor; Niels-Erik Andreasen, Andrews University president; Andrea Luxton, associate education director for the General Conference; Angel Manuel Rodríguez, director, and George W. Reid, former director, Biblical Research Institute; John Graz, director of public affairs and religious liberty for the world church; and Woodrow Whidden, professor of historical theology at Andrews University.

In addition to Col. Earl Robinson, the Salvationist delegation included Col. Benita Robinson, associate secretary for international external relations; Maj. Karen Shakespeare, assistant training program director, William Booth College, London, England; Maj. Lester Fergusson, a Salvation Army pastor in Nassau, Bahamas; Maj. Edwin Okorougo, principal of the Salvation Army Training College, Lagos, Nigeria; Roger Green, professor and chair of Biblical and Theological Studies, Gordon College, Wenham, Massachusetts; and Lars Lydholm, information director, the Salvation Army, Copenhagen, Denmark.

During the course of the meeting Adventists presented papers and talks introducing the Adventist Church and its fundamental beliefs, as well as the Wesleyan roots of Adventist theology. Also presented was a paper on Adventist biblical interpretation, or Adventist hermeneutics. Salvationist delegates said these papers were interesting and informative, and they offered many questions and comments about the papers' contents.

From the Salvation Army side came papers on the way the movement is organized and governed; Salvationist doctrine; a survey of Salvation Army history; and an introduction to the Salvation Army's wholistic mission. These papers introduced Adventist leaders to an organization that, from very small beginnings in London, became a global mission active in many of the same nations that host Adventist churches.

The dialogue sessions are expected to continue in 2005 at the Salvation Army's Sunbury Court Conference Center near London. Among possible topics for discussion are the relationship between the gospel and social services; the formative roles of Catherine and William Booth for Salvationists, and Ellen and James White for Adventists; the church and the sacraments; and theological anthropology.

"This was a very interesting and very friendly dialogue between two groups who are involved in helping others, and who have respect for each other," commented Graz, who is also secretary-general of the International Religious Liberty Association. "Traditionally, it takes some time to break the ice, but in this dialogue we felt very comfortable with each other from the start, part of the same extended family."
                                                           --Adventist News Network

ADRA Australia Receives $10M Grant
The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) has applied successfully to the Australian government for a $10 million grant over five years.

The grant is to provide food security and home-based care for HIV/AIDS victims in Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia.

"Research indicates that a new type of famine-we call it the variant famine-is hitting some countries in Africa," says David Syme, ADRA Australia's executive director. "A person living with HIV/AIDS has diminished strength to produce food, and the capacity of their family to do so is also diminished because of the family's need to look after the person suffering from HIV/AIDS. Our project will help these families provide better care in the home and develop more efficient food production techniques."

ADRA received the grant from the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID). Applying for the grant was "highly competitive," Syme said, noting that "AusAID had only sufficient funds to grant six agencies, and it selected ADRA as one of those six."

Syme says AusAID selected ADRA because of the strength of the agency's overseas offices and its commitment to transparency and objectivity. "This is the first time AusAID has made a five-year funding commitment, and the first time it is funding a multi-country program," he said.

Receiving the grant also demonstrates the need to strengthen ADRA's financial capacity. "It cost us more than $15,000 to develop and submit our proposal to AusAID," Syme noted, "and the money came not from donations but from our declining interest income. Still, we're helping more than 80,000 poor and suffering African men, women and children, which would not have been possible without our faithful and regular supporters."                                         --Adventist News Network

Asian Christmas Music Evangelism
The Birmingham Oxhill Road Church in England shared the good news of the gospel by singing Asian Christmas carols in the Asian community during the month of December. Each home visited gave a donation, and a total of more than £1,000 was collected.

Several radio stations also invited the church's carol-singing team to perform live on their radio programs, including the BBC Asian Network (National Asian Radio).

A 20-minute bilingual television program produced by the church, featuring Asian Christmas carols, was broadcast on Christmas Eve on the Revelation Channel on Sky Digital throughout Europe.

Officially organized as a church in July 2003, the members are looking for more and better witnessing opportunities.
                                                     --British Union Conference News

Noted Australian Author Dies
Goldie Down, 85, author of 23 books and hundreds of stories printed in Adventist publications, died December 19, 2003, in Sydney, Australia.

Born in Sydney in 1918, she completed the Avondale College business course in 1942. In 1946 she married Pastor David Down and served with him in New Zealand, India, and Australia.

Among her books published in the United States were No Forty Hour Week, Kerri and Company, and Fear Was the Pursuer. Other volumes included 21,000 Miles of Adventure, published in 1964 after traveling through Bible lands; Missionary to Calcutta, about their experiences in India; and Gordon Moyes: The Man, the Media, the Mission, a biography of the head of Wesley Methodist Mission in Sydney, Australia. The premier of New South Wales attended the book launch for the latter book, which went through three printings and was sold all over Australia.

Suffering all her life from bronchiectasis, Down still assisted with evangelistic meetings, home-schooled their six children, and in later years taught creative writing and volunteered at Sydney Adventist Hospital.

She is survived by her husband, David; children Kendall, Glenda, Michelle, Selina, Edward, and Richley; 12 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren.

Botswana Union Organized
After 33 years of waiting, the new Botswana Union was organized January 15-17, 2004. Newly elected president Paminus Machamire conmmended the members "for your rare determination which compelled you to wait and work tirelessly . . . to receive this status." "Coincidentally," Machamire said, "we are being organized during the Year of World Evangelism, which must naturally make evangelism the core business of the Botswana Union." Machamire is a Zimbabwean and former vice president of the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. Other new officers of the Botswana Union are Kenaope Kenaope, secretary, and B. Herbert Stickle, treasurer.

Pardon Mwansa, Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division president, and Maithoko Mpoka, a member of the Botswanan Parliament, congratulated the local Adventist Church for attaining its new status. Structures, Mwansa noted, were not created merely to be an end in and of themselves, but to help carry out God's mission on earth. "The purpose," he said, "is to make it easy for all our people in Botswana to proclaim the good news."                                        --Adventist News Network

News Notes

Six Kingsway College (Oshawa, Ontario, Canada) students recently received the Ontario Volunteer Service Award, given in recognition of their volunteer work at Christian Record camps for the blind. Only 13 youth were cited among the more than 200 award winners. The six are: Brooke Adams, Gerald Brown, Devon Page, Kristin Pazitka, Joshua Salazar, and Kevin Willock.

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