2016 Updates
In a meeting with the United Nations’ new top envoy for religious freedom, the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s UN liaison said Adventists are committed to promoting and defending freedom of worship for all people, regardless of their faith tradition.
For more than 100 years, the Adventist Church has actively sought to engage people of influence in society, both to share who Adventists are, and to support the mission activities of our church. This work is deeply rooted in both the theology and mission of Adventism.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church entrusts the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department with the work of interfaith relations and forming relationships with a variety of political and religious leaders. Since this department was formed in 1901, it has worked to share the values and beliefs of the Adventist Church with people of influence in society and to dispel misconceptions and misinformation about our faith community.
An interview with Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Director for the Adventist World Church, Ganoune Diop.
.A dedication ceremony is held for the facility that will house the church’s first nursing school in the country.
Keynote speaker and former world church PARL director, John Graz, urged attendees to resist complacency and to speak out against religious persecution around the world.
For the first time in its history, the Adventist Campus of Saleve’s Faculty of Theology in Collonges sous Saleve France, held an intensive one-week class on religious liberty and public affairs.
Natalia Gherman of Moldova met with Adventist leaders at the world church headquarters and discussed shared humanitarian goals.
Ambassador Palan Mulonda, Zambia's ambassador to the United States of America, visited the Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters July 27 to visit with church leaders and to attend a luncheon in his honor.
Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders have raised concerns with senior Russian officials about new legislation that would severely restrict missionary activity in Russia by outlawing home churches and the free distribution of religious literature.
Ganoune Diop, the top religious freedom advocate of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, spoke to a high-level United Nations conference about human sexuality in light of the Bible’s teachings, emphasizing the need to treat every human being with dignity and respect. Photo: UN
Seventh-day Adventist believers across Russia were observing a day of fasting and prayer on Tuesday over proposed legislation that would severely restrict missionary activity in the country by, among other things, banning religious gatherings in homes and requiring people who wish to share their faith online or through religious literature to first secure proper documents.
The São Paulo event is the first of eight similar events that will take place in countries across South America in the coming years. Organizers are focused on developing strong, well-trained networks of religious liberty advocates throughout the South American Division. Photo: Felipe Lemos/South American Division
More than 200 religious freedom advocates from across North America attended the 2016 International Religious Liberty Summit at the Newseum's Religious Freedom Center. The event focused on ways to engage government leaders and the media, and to mobilize efforts on behalf of persecuted religious minorities around the world. Photo: Maria Bryk/Newseum
"Lasting peace is possible only if we teach our children the weapon of dialogue, the only winning weapon we have," said one speaker at the first Festival of Religious Freedom in Ticino, held Saturday, May 2, at a Seventh-day Adventist Church in Lugano, Switzerland.
The International Religious Liberty Summit, which is jointly sponsored by the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and the Newseum’s Religious Freedom Center, will bring together public leaders and religious liberty advocates to consider current challenges to religious freedom around the world, and explore ways to collaborate on shared goals.
Ganoune Diop, director of the world church’s religious liberty department, emphasizes that religious freedom is a God-given right.
As the heads of state from 54 African countries gathered for a summit, a Seventh-day Adventist leader urged them to recognize “respect for human dignity” as a foundational principle of good governance.
