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The Adventist-Evangelical Conferences of 1955-1956 initiated by Protestant polemicist Walter R. Martin constituted a watershed development in the history of interfaith relationships between Adventists and evangelical Christians.
A pioneer writer and scholar-evangelist, John Nevins Andrews exercised wide influence in the early Seventh-day Adventist church, serving alongside James and Ellen White and Joseph Bates as one of the inner circle of leaders involved in founding the movement. He held a variety of important leadership positions including General Conference president, editor of the Review and Herald, and local conference president. He also served as a long-term member of the General Conference Executive Committee. John Andrews is remembered most for his scholarly defense of Adventist doctrines, especially the seventh-day Sabbath in his celebrated History of the Sabbath, and for his pioneering role as the first official overseas missionary for the church.
North American Division Biography Groundbreakers Missionaries
British-born Francis George Clifford served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for over forty years as a pastor-evangelist, departmental leader, and senior church administrator in two world divisions.
A multi-talented church leader, Robert R. Frame gave forty-seven years of service to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the latter half of the twentieth century.
Thomas S. Geraty served the Seventh-day Adventist Church for almost forty-five years as a teacher, pastor, missionary, and educational administrator in three divisions and at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Chinese Union Mission Biography Educators Missionaries Couples
A descendant of prominent early Seventh-day Adventist pioneers from the southwest corner of Western Australia, Ephraim Giblett began his forty-four years of service to the Church in the South Pacific as a colporteur in Queensland before moving into gospel ministry in 1939. He served for nineteen years in pastoral-evangelism in both Queensland and North New Zealand before being called to serve as a departmental leader in three local conferences for a further twenty-one years. In post-retirement years he served as a much-loved volunteer church pastor.
New Zealand born Laurence (Laurie) A. Gilmore served the Seventh-day Adventist church in the South Pacific for thirty-five years as missionary, pastor-evangelist, and conference and institutional communication director.
An historic and controversial theological consultation, the Sanctuary Review Committee (SRC) involved approximately one-hundred and fifteen international Bible scholars and church administrators who convened at Glacier View Ranch, forty-seven miles northwest of Denver, Colorado, from August 10-15, 1980.
Gertrude Mary Green gave fifty-four-and-a-half years of her sixty-three-year nursing career to missionary nursing, teaching and nursing administration in China and the Far East.
Chinese Union Mission Biography Educators Medical Workers Missionaries Women
Bert B. Haloviak, notable Adventist historian, served at General Conference headquarters in the Office of Archives and Statistics (now known as the Office of Archives Statistics and Research or ASTR) for 35 years, including 12 as director.
George Alexander Irwin served the church as a pastor and administrator at local, union, and General Conference levels for a period of twenty-four years from 1889 until his death in 1913. His presidency of the General Conference occurred during a period of developing conflict between the church and Dr. John Harvey Kellogg that led to a major church reorganization in 1901. He is remembered for his careful management through times of transition and his generosity in the support of disadvantaged students.
New Zealand born Henry Kirk served as a teacher in mathematics at the Australasian Missionary College in New South Wales, Australia. For a brief time in the early 1920s he held the position of principal at the college and later became principal of New Zealand Missionary College at Longburn.
Pioneer Missionary, pastor and church administrator, Frank T. Maberly served the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific for thirty-eight years. He gave ten years to mission service in Papua New Guinea followed by twenty-eight years in various roles in Australia. His pioneering mission work in the late 1940s among the Enga population opened the Wabag region of the Central Highlands of Papua New Guinea and laid a secure foundation for the remarkable growth of the Church in this region.
South Pacific Division Biography Groundbreakers Missionaries
A widely respected research chemist, teacher, and progressive educational administrator, Eric Alfred Magnusson served the Seventh-day Adventist church in the South Pacific at Avondale College, Cooranbong, NSW, Australia, for twenty years, ten leading the Science Department at the college, followed by for ten years as the college principal.
A Norwegian-born American, Ole Andres Olsen served the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a minister and senior administrator for forty-four years, becoming one of the most experienced international leaders of the movement’s second generation. He was elected as president of the General Conference at the age of forty-three and served four terms (1888–1897), providing diplomatic, spiritually sensitive, forward-thinking leadership through a difficult period of doctrinal conflict, deep financial depression, and rapid expansion that exposed the inadequacies of the denomination’s organizational structure.
A historic theological consultation involving nine scholars and church administrators from Australia and eleven from the United States, the Palmdale Conference convened in the high desert town of Palmdale, California, during April 23-30, 1976. The purpose of the consultation was to consider a highly disputed question causing widespread pastoral problems in churches both in America and in Australia: the meaning of the Pauline expression, “righteousness by faith.” Did the biblical phrase refer only to justification or did it also include sanctification? The issue lay at the heart of a vigorous debate over sinless perfectionism and the doctrine of Christian assurance.
Highly esteemed author and editor Robert (Bob) H. Parr served the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the South Pacific for 37 years in full-time employment as educator, pastor, and church administrator, and in retirement as part-time writer and prison chaplain. He is best known for his 14 years as editor of the Australasian Record, the 16-page church weekly, and the Signs of the Times, the church’s outreach journal, during the late 1960s and 1970s.
Maui Pomare was the first Maori New Zealander to qualify as a physician.
South Pacific Division Biography Groundbreakers Medical Workers
A highly influential writer, scholar and administrator among Seventh-day Adventism’s second generation of leaders, William Warren Prescott served the church for a total of fifty-two years, holding numerous senior leadership roles in education and publishing and at the General Conference. He was a member of the General Conference Executive Committee for forty-two years.
David Sibley gave 41 years of service as an evangelist and deeply respected administrator for the church in the South Pacific. For ten years he was a successful evangelist in both small-town and big-city settings in South New Zealand, Tasmania and Victoria before being called into conference leadership in Tasmania. During a period of 23 years he served as president of three local conferences and concluded his ministry with eight years as union conference president.