Middle East Messenger
By Sven Hagen Jensen
Sven Hagen Jensen, M.Div. (Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, USA) has worked for the church for over 50 years as a pastor, editor, departmental director, and church administrator in Denmark, Nigeria and the Middle East. Jensen enjoys reading, writing, nature and gardening. He is married to Ingelis and has two adult children and four grandchildren.
First Published: January 29, 2020
The Middle East Messenger was the official organ of the Middle East Division from 1945 to 1980.1
With the formation of the Middle East Division, beginning in 1952, the Messenger was issued quarterly as an eight-page publication.2 From 1963 to 1970, the paper was issued bimonthly. With the reorganization of the Middle East Division in 1970, the Messenger became the official organ of the Middle East Union.
The paper provided the workers and members in the division with inspiring editorials, notices of departmental promotions, and news reports from the General Conference as well as from the organizations in the division and the fields. The paper frequently featured Middle East College because it was the center of higher education in the division.
The paper began as the Union Messenger in 1945. Beginning in January 1948, it was titled the Middle East Messenger. It was succeeded in 1980 by a quarterly paper called the Middle East Union News.3 Files are found in the Adventist Digital Library at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
The following served as editors: G. Arthur Keough (1948–1949); Flora Oslund (1956–1958); R. H. Hartwell (1960–1962); R. C. Darnell (1963–1967); Richard L. Penn (acting, 1968–1969); R. C. Darnell (1970).4
Sources
Middle East Messenger, January 1, 1952.
Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1966. S.v. “Middle East Division.”
Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. 2nd rev. ed. Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996. S.v. “Middle East Messenger.”
Notes
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Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, (1966), s.v. “Middle East Division.”↩
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Middle East Messenger, January 1, 1952, 1–8.↩
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Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia, 2nd rev. ed., (Hagerstown, Md.: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1996), s.v. “Middle East Messenger.”↩
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These are recorded as editors in the papers to be found in the Adventist Digital Library. There is no mention of editors in the papers from 1952–1955. There are no known available issues of the Middle East Messenger from the time it became the organ of the Middle East Union.↩