BY SCOTT STEWART, assistant director of public relations at Columbia Union College

fter more than 20 years of prayer, paperwork for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and negotiations with competing entities, WGTS-FM (91.9) has moved its antenna from its Columbia Union College campus location in Takoma Park, Maryland, to a public radio facility in Arlington, Virginia, greatly expanding its potential for spreading the gospel.

WGTS-FM, Washington D.C.'s "family-friendly music station," is a self-supporting subsidiary of Columbia Union College (CUC). The station broadcasts uplifting, positive, and inspirational music throughout the Washington D.C. region. In addition, the station airs announcements about spiritual and academic programs on campus, as well as the weekly worship service from Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, broadcast live each Sabbath.

"The new signal reaches about 2.5 million more listeners than our previous signal, giving us a coverage area with about 4.5 million total people," says general manager John Konrad (pictured above). "Based on the calls and e-mails we're getting, we're already adding grateful new listeners from miles around."

More than anything, Konrad is excited about the increased potential for ministry. "We had more than 200 hundred calls in just the first few hours from listeners all across the region, clear up into West Virginia," he reports.

"With the old signal we were the seventh most-listened-to non-commercial Christian station in the United States, according to the Spring 2003 Arbitron ratings. Though we are not in it for the ratings, it's reassuring to know that we are reaching so many people with the message of Jesus Christ and family-friendly programming through a format that draws so many enthusiastic listeners."

WGTS 91.9 has attempted to increase its coverage area since about 1980. But due to FCC rules, proximity to other frequencies, and contention from other stations, the process wasn't completed until February 26. Now its signal matches other full-power stations in the region, and its ministry potential has more than doubled.

Konrad estimates it will cost about $50,000 more per year to lease the tower and pay for the cost of the digital line that carries programming from the studio on the CUC campus to the new transmitter site. However, he believes the improvements can also increase operating revenues by ministering to so many new potential donors.

"We also will need to add to our staff, which will provide opportunities to enhance our training program for CUC students," he says. "Increasing the number of potential listeners enhances our ability to fulfill our mission of introducing and nurturing a relationship with Jesus Christ through today's adult Christian music."

One listener responded to the station's ministry by writing, "It is such a blessing to hear soothing Christian music on my way to work, and not the noise and screaming that some other Christian stations offer."

And another wrote: "Thank you, WGTS. You're my radio station. I appreciate so much for ministering the love of Jesus to our area."

Bomb Attacks Impact
Adventists in Spain

Seventh-day Adventist Church members in Spain are mourning the loss of at least two of their fellow believers, who are among the nearly 200 killed in coordinated bomb attacks in and around Madrid on March 11.

One member, 27-year-old Nicoleta Diac, was identified on March 12. The other, Emilian Popescu, married with two children, had not yet been identified, according to Pastor Adrian Bocaneanu, president of the church in Romania, who was in Spain for evangelistic meetings. However, Popescu has not been heard from since the attacks, and his papers were found at a blast site.

"Yesterday (Sabbath) on two different live transmissions from Madrid, a crew from the only news channel in Romania, Realitatea TV, featured members of the Adventist churches in Madrid who have been injured by the blasts or were on board one of the death trains," Bocaneanu wrote in an e-mail to church leaders. "They also carried a report on church meetings on Sabbath and the way the church responded to the crisis."

Pastor Ulrich Frikart, regional president of the Adventist Church, said, "The Seventh-day Adventists of the Euro-Africa [church region] feel indignation, abhorrence and sympathy about the terrible attack of Madrid. Our deepest interest goes to the families and relations of the victims. We are mourning with the Spanish people, and our church members and pray for those who are affected by this absurd act of terrorism. These sad occurrences put us in mind of our Savior, Jesus Christ, and of His soon return."

Church leaders also had reports of seven members hospitalized with injuries from the bombings. The attack, whose source has not yet been positively identified, is being called one of the worst terrorist attacks in Europe's modern history.

The attacks came while the Adventist Church was holding special meetings for the large Romanian population in Spain, with Pastor Bocaneanu as speaker. Bocaneanu said local pastors and members are forming prayer groups and offering help to victims.

There are 10,000 Seventh-day Adventist church members worshipping in 80 congregations in Spain. Approximately 4,000 Adventist members are in Madrid, while there are more than 72,000 church members in Romania. - Adventist News Network

Adventist Church Responds
to Same-Sex Unions

BY MARK KELLNER, assistant director for news and information, General Confernce of Seventh-day Adventists

esponding to a rising international debate of same-sex unions, the General Conference Administrative Committee, on Tuesday, March 9, reaffirmed the traditional definition of Christian marriage as being between one man and one woman.

"An increasing number of nations are now debating the topic of 'same-sex unions,' thus making it a world issue. The public discussion has engendered some strong emotions," the church's statement says in part.

"That which for centuries has been considered to be basic Christian morality in the marriage setting is now increasingly called into question, not only in secular society, but within Christian churches themselves," the statement says. "We reaffirm, without hesitation, our long-standing position."

That position, drawn from the Bible, is summarized in the church's Fundamental Beliefs statement: "Marriage was divinely established in Eden and affirmed by Jesus to be a lifelong union between a man and a woman in loving companionship."

The church restated its belief that "homosexuality is a manifestation of the disorder and brokenness in human inclinations and relations caused by sin coming into the world. While everyone is subject to fallen human nature, 'we also believe that by God's grace and through the encouragement of the community of faith, an individual may live in harmony with the principles of God's Word,'" quoting the 1999 "Seventh-day Adventist Position Statement on Homosexuality."

At the same time, the statement notes, "we hold that all people, no matter what their sexual orientation, are children of God. We do not condone singling out any group for scorn and derision, let alone abuse."

The statement comes amid a flurry of "same-sex unions" in various parts of the world, particularly in North America. Church leaders said it is important to reaffirm and restate the Seventh-day Adventist Church's official view so that members and the public could have a clear reference on the subject.

According to Angel Manuel Rodríguez, director of the Biblical Research Institute, based at the General Conference, "This reaffirmation is useful in the sense that the Biblical understanding has been questioned and rejected in some sectors of Western culture. When that happens, it is the responsibility of the church to witness to Biblical truth."

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