Sandra Roberts Adds Testimony to “Voices of Unity”
The Adventist Voices of Unity Facebook page features a steadily growing collection of video messages in which church leaders provide their reasons for supporting regional autonomy in ordination practices.
Among the most recent additions to the page is a brief but significant statement by Sandra Roberts, president of the Southeastern California Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, and the first woman president of a church entity (not counting Adventist colleges, whose presidents are not required to be ordained). It is among Roberts’ first public statments specifically addressing ordination in SECC (women in that conference have been equally credentialed alongside their male counterparts for several years), and more significantly still, addressing her own status as an ordained minister and president of a conference.
Roberts says in the video:
You know, working in a conference that ordains women, and personally having that privilege of being an ordained pastor, it affirms the ministry that we are called to do and we’re already doing. It is wonderful to be part of the body of Christ—where we do believe in the priesthood of all believers—to have that affirmation, and to be able then to give that to other women and men side-by-side as we work together in ministry, so there’s no difference. I think it’s wonderful to have that culture, that opportunity, and that privilege to work side-by-side with equal recognition.
It’s a phenomenal experience, it’s a phenomenal mission, and it is a phenomenal work of God. So, for the sake of mission that we’re called to—in our conference, we frame it by saying “We are called to expand the kingdom of God”—so let’s just do this, because we need to get our mission done.”
Watch this video and several others on the Adventist Voices of Unity Facebook page.