December 1, 2007 In this issue Off ering to take Hope to Lae Cambridge celebrates 100 years Partnerships needed General Conference president Pastor Jan Paulsen (centre) and retiring South Pacifi c Division president Pastor Laurie Evans (right) congratulate SPD president-elect Pastor Barry Oliver. New leaders nominated for SPD WAHROONGA, NEW SOUTH WALES he South Pacifi c Division (SPD) will Pastor Lawrence Tanabose was voted have new leadership from January to this position on November 14. He has next year. Pastor Barry Oliver was served as president of the Trans-Pacifi c T nominated president of the SPD at Union Mission (TPUM) since 2005 and the annual meeting of the SPD executive prior to that was general secretary for the committee on November 13. TPUM. A Solomon islander, it is believed The change in leadership was precipi- Pastor Tanabose will be the fi rst Pacifi c SAH cancer tated by the retirement of current SPD islander to serve as an administrative of- president Pastor Laurie Evans, who has fi cer of the SPD. served as president for the past 10 years. The nomination of division offi cers was Pastor Oliver has served as general secre- overseen by General Conference (GC) support tary for the SPD during that same period president Pastor Jan Paulsen. A division and his nomination as president created president is also a vice-president of the GC the need to also nominate a replacement and, as such, the recommendation of the awarded general secretary. (Continued on page 7) ISSN 0819-5633 4466 CCover.inddover.indd 1 220/11/070/11/07 110:36:400:36:40 AAMM editorial We are all in danger of falling prey to our prejudices. The price of racism rief. She had felt it before. She churches and our schools but there is a ten- neighbourly. Likewise, we must make our had lost her husband, her country; dency to dismiss the unknown, to conform own decision to place aside hatred. The and suffered fear and doubt in her to stereotypes and conditioning. lawyer answers correctly as to who acted Gfi ght for survival, for freedom. But it Our region is made up of a multitude as a neighbour: “The one who had mercy was a grief she thought she had banished— of different nations. Whether we are from on him” (Luke 10:37*) left behind in Sudan with the violence and Australia, New Zealand, Samoa or Fiji, or We need to recognise all people as our destruction. It was not meant to be this any other nation, we all have preconceived brothers and sisters—Jesus died for them way, here in “the lucky country.” No parent attitudes toward different groups in society. all. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave should have to bury their child. It is not just a condition that affects white nor free, male nor female, for you are all one For years, she had struggled to be reu- people. We are all in danger of falling prey in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28). Ellen White nited with her children and now, one had to our prejudices. wrote, “No distinction on account of national- been taken from her. This was the terrible As Christians, it is our duty to break ity, race, or caste, is recognised by God. All cost of a danger lurking unseen among our down these divisions. Unfortunately, Chris- men are of one family by creation, and all are society, which seems so advanced—far tians have promoted and aided prejudices one through redemption. Christ came to de- above petty hatred. As family and friends for too long. African-American theologian molish every wall of partition, to throw open crowded into the Dandenong Seventh-day James Cone notes, “In the old slavery days, every compartment of the temple, that every Adventist church, Matha Ojulo mourned the Church preached that slavery was a soul may have free access to God.”4 for her son, murdered teenager Liep Gony, divine decree, and it used the Bible as the Individually, it is not just our relationship with whom she had barely been reunited basis of its authority.”2 It is time we looked with others that can be affected by preju- after fl eeing war-torn Sudan. into our own hearts and made a change. dice but also our relationship with God. It Liep had recently graduated from Nuna- “Everybody thinks of changing humanity, is our decision to make. Do we overturn wading Christian College, one of our Ad- but nobody thinks of changing himself,” our sinful nature, our conditioning and ventist schools in Melbourne.1 This was a said Leo Tolstoy.3 our fear? It is our battle and the challenge boy from our community—not a faceless Every Christian knows the golden rule— that Jesus leaves with us. Now, “go and do delinquent or some victim of a gang turf to love our neighbour—yet how often do likewise” (Luke 10:37). war. Yet the monster lurks within us all. It we put it into practice? Jesus advocated is like a cobra under the basket, waiting to radical action—not passive inaction. In 1. The Age, September 29, 2007. strike. The apple shines appetisingly but the the story of the Good Samaritan, we see 2. James Cone, Black Theology and Black Power, core is rotten and fi lled with worms. an example of two men from different Orbis, 1997, page 74. Racism is an ugly word that we all tend cultures, raised with constructed hatreds 3. Rusty Wright, Christianity and Racism, <http://www. to avoid. When it rears its ugly head the and prejudice. However, the hero of this probe.org/content/view/833/162/>. overwhelming chorus answers back with parable is the demonised “other,” the Sa- 4. Christ’s Object Lessons, page 386. “Not me, not me.” Yet as human beings maritan, who becomes the saviour of the *Bible quotations are from the New International we tend to have a distrust of things that Jew. There are so many lessons to be learnt Version. are different. We may know and get along from this parable, yet Jesus asks the lawyer with immigrants in our workplaces, our to draw his own conclusion on who was Jarrod Stackelroth Offi cial Paper of the South Editor Nathan Brown Mail: Signs Publishing Company Pacifi c Division Seventh-day Associate editor David Edgren 3485 Warburton Highway Adventist Church Editorial assistant Adele Nash Warburton, Vic 3799, Australia ABN 59 093 117 689 Editorial assistant Jarrod Stackelroth Phone: (03) 5965 6300 Fax: (03) 5966 9019 www.adventist.org.au Copyeditor Talitha Simmons Email Letters: [email protected] Editorial secretary Kristel Rae Email Newsfront: [email protected] Vol 112 No 46 Layout Nathan Chee Email Noticeboard: [email protected] Cover: Nathan Brown Senior consulting editor Barry Oliver Subscriptions: South Pacifi c Division mailed within Australia and to New Zealand, $A43.80 $NZ73.00. www.record.net.au Other prices on application. Printed weekly. 2 December 1, 2007 4466 EEditorial.inddditorial.indd SSec1:2ec1:2 220/11/070/11/07 110:37:060:37:06 AAMM news Mission off erings to take Hope to Lae LAE, PAPUA NEW GUINEA Pastor Darius, people brought into the Ad- ventist faith in the city often return to their he Mission Extension Offering on villages to start new congregations. December 8 will help fund the trans- “Hope Channel is an effective medium mission of Hope Channel to the Mo- to reach the population of Lae. It will enter Trobe Province in Papua New Guinea and pacify homes that are hostile to our mes- (PNG). sage,” he says. “Because of their animistic “It’s no surprise that electronic media has culture, the people of PNG take religion played a major role in nurturing a posi- very seriously and readily accept religious tive image of the Seventh-day Adventist broadcasts.” Church in PNG, and contributing greatly The Hope Channel in Lae will reach a Actor John Soti and cameraman Rayner Paul to its growth,” says communication director population of more than 200,000 people, and prepare to shoot a scene in O Papa God. for the Papua New Guinea Union Mission including the tower, transmitter, antenna equipment and standby generator for the (PNGUM), Pastor Matupit Darius. and setting up, the facility will cost around Aviation Service. “In the 1980s, the production of a series of PNGK50,000. Pastor Darius says, “We have Pastor Ray Coombe, director of Advent- videos on health and hygiene, widely distrib- secured a piece of land on a hill where the local ist Mission for the South Pacifi c Division, uted and aired on local television, enabled the television has its tower and hope the station says, “Last year, the mission extension offer- church to enter many homes that had been will go on air by the middle of next year. We ing collected in the South Pacifi c Division closed to our message.” also have a committee that has laid out plans totalled $A123,000 and was directed to the Last year, the PNGUM produced O Papa for raising money toward this project. We will new University church in Suva, Fiji. Now God, Why Na Em Olsem, a DVD on HIV/ be very grateful for the help we will receive on December 8, we have the opportunity AIDS, directed by the late Martina Darius. from the December offering. of extending God’s kingdom through the The PNGUM health department has sold “Our plan for Hope Channel in Lae is am- ministry of Hope channel in PNG. thousands of copies since it was launched.