WORLD NEWS & PERSPECTIVES
Hundreds Baptized
in Prophecy Code Meetings
BY RUTH STERN, marketing director for Amazing Facts Ministries
ore than 40 baptisms in the Silver Spring, Maryland, area have occurred, and nearly 200 more in the area and hundreds more worldwide are expected, as a direct result of "The Prophecy Code" satellite evangelistic series held at the General Conference headquarters March 4-26 with Amazing Facts president/speaker Doug Batchelor. Meeting attendance averaged about 800 during the week and more than 1,000 on the weekends, with both the auditorium and overflow room filled to capacity. Thousands of others watched the series live via satellite on the Hope Channel, ACN, 3ABN, and ADvenir, and still more streamed the messages online.
"Initially, a lot of people told me it might be a bad idea to hold the meetings in such a small venue," said Batchelor. "I wasn't concerned at all, because while there are those who attend locally, the majority of the participants are those who watch worldwide."
More than 23,000 people visited the www.prophecycode.org Web site while the meetings were being held, averaging about 1,000 visitors a day. Approximately 4,200 Bible questions were submitted, and 50 volunteers responded with roughly 4,000 e-mails in just one week after the close of the meetings. Hundreds of requests have been received for videos, DVDs, and audiotapes, as well as inquiries for information on future broadcasts of the series. The broadcasts, which are due to air again early this summer, will be closed-captioned for the hearing impaired.
Read an interview with Doug Batchelor.
Adventists Applaud U.N.'s Call
for Better Treatment of Human Rights
"We are deeply committed to fundamental human rights, especially freedom of conscience and religion, and support efforts to call nations to account when they violate these vital liberties," said Jonathan Gallagher, U.N. liaison for the Adventist Church, after attending the recent Commission on Human Rights held in Geneva.
During the Commission on April 7, United Nations (U.N.) secretary general Kofi Annan called for major changes to the way human rights are investigated and applied, saying that the current U.N. Commission on Human Rights has been "undermined by the politicization of its sessions," and its "declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole."
Annan proposed new methods of better implementing the existing rules, ensuring that states really did observe human rights. To accomplish this he recommended a new Human Rights Council at the highest U.N. level, which "must be a society of the committed. It must be more accountable and more representative." Its elected members "should have a solid record of commitment to the highest human rights standards."
The alternative is to continue a system that is generally recognized as having a massive "credibility gap" with nations well known as human rights violators sitting on the Commission as judges of others.
"The gap between what we seem to promise and what we actually deliver has grown," Annan concluded. "The answer is not to draw back from an ambitious human rights agenda, but to make the improvements that will enable our machinery to live up to the world's expectations. Our constituents will not understand or accept any excuse if we fail to act."
According to Gallagher, another key aspect of the Commission is the opportunity to speak one-on-one with ambassadors and country representatives. "While much of what we discuss cannot be reported, it is perhaps here that the access to diplomats is most useful," he says. "Many issues and problems can be solved through such 'quiet diplomacy,' and, at the same time, the Adventist Church is becoming much better known for its values and principles. We simply cannot afford to stay away."
The Adventist Church has special consultative status with the U.N., which permits the church to make statements to the Commission, attend U.N. conferences and meetings, and speak out on issues of importance such as religious freedom, health principles, and family rights.
--Public Affairs and Religious Liberty/AR.
CALIFORNIA: Training Youth for the "Call"
More than 1,200 Southern California Conference (SCC) senior youth and young adults attended the recent "Army of Youth: Trained for the Call" rally, and 350 youth leaders came to the event's training seminars. Army of Youth was the first event organized for senior youth and young adults ages 13 to 30-something by a recently appointed SCC Young Adult Ministries Committee. The day's program consisted of a morning youth rally and worship service held at a Nazarene church in Pasadena, and an afternoon youth leader training seminar at Vallejo Drive Adventist Church.
"The youth were asking for such an event to provide them with a venue to worship and receive God's Word among a larger number of other youth," said Ronald Pollard, committee chair. "The training seminars were conducted to help make SCC youth leaders aware of the latest youth ministry ideas and methods for their dynamic and challenging area of ministry."
NAD youth director James Black was the rally's keynote speaker. Youth choirs and praise and drama teams from area churches led in worship and praise services. Ministry team members of La Sierra University and Pacific Union College assisted by providing equipment, money, and labor hours. --Southern California Conference Communication Department/AR.
IDAHO: Pacific Press Launches New Web Site
Pacific Press Publishing Association (PPPA) in Boise has a new Web site that includes a searchable database of all its products-books, music, media, magazines, sharing materials, Sabbath school resources, and textbooks. All items are available for purchase online.
The redesigned site also includes a newsroom that offers media kits, up-to-date news on product releases, and information about the organization's corporate mission and history, as well as a place to view submission guidelines and job openings. Web site visitors can also search a database of PPPA authors and Chapel Music artists under the event planner's guide. Sections for retail stores and graphic service customers are also available.
PPPA vice president Susan Harvey says, "In redesigning our Web site, we have endeavored to make it a more customer-friendly and all-inclusive site so that visitors can easily find information about any product we publish, print, or distribute, or any service we offer, as well as all other aspects of our company's operation. We see our Web site as an extension of our mission to uplift Jesus through the materials we publish and distribute."
To visit the new site, go to www.pacificpress.com.
--PPPA Public Relations Department/AR.
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