1. The Washington Post includes Pathfinders in an article about the growing interest in alternatives to the Boy Scouts of America.

2. Recently, the Pacific Union Conference officially recognized Pacific Union College religion professor Jean Sheldon, Ph.D., as an ordained minister.

3. Dr. Jay Sloop of Yakima, Wash., has disappeared in Kiev, Ukraine, where he was on a medical mission. The 77-year-old retired obstetrician was last seen about 6:45 a.m. local time Tuesday after he left a church compound for a morning walk, said Jay Wintermeyer, communications director for the Upper Columbia Conference.

The Society of Adventist Philosophers is inviting submissions for papers and panels to be presented at its annual symposium. The title of the November 21, 2013, conference will be: Essentialism: Adventism and Questions of Race and Gender. 

The keynote speaker this year is George Yancy, Professor of Philosophy at Duquesne University and the editor of the book Christology and Whiteness: What Would Jesus Do? 

The following "statement regarding equality and ordination" was voted at the Danish Union session, May 12, 2013.

According to the Seventh-day Adventist Church's belief in creation, as witnessed in the Bible, God has created mankind – man and woman – in His image and therefore equal.

 

Now a seasoned baker, Marcus Heisler remembers his first loaf of bread: “It looked like it had warts.” The basic white bread recipe may have been specific to bread machines, but not for Heisler’s appliance that he and his college roommate, Kirk Baker, had picked up on a whim at a yard sale. Seeing the machine’s condition, a friend offered them a backup bread maker, which they accepted.

Work of the Theology of Ordination Study Committee moved ahead this week with the issuing of two draft documents and announcement of plans for the coming months. The 64-page paper “Toward a Theology of Ordination” reviews Biblical texts and Ellen G. White statements about ordination with the intention of being an introductory document for the committee’s discussion. Secondly, a 700-word consensus statement on the theology of ordination gives a glimpse of what the committee intends to produce as a summary of its work.