In place of its 2014 Fall meeting, the San Diego Adventist Forum is encouraging attendance at the international Adventist Forum Conference in San Diego, October 3-5. 2014.  The program is reproduced in the current newsletter.  Please see the Adventist Forum website (www.spectrummagazine.org) for additional information and to register for the meeting. 

From “Don't ask, don't tell” to “Thanks for asking me to be an elder”— How One Congregation Moved from Exclusion to Inclusion of its LGBT Community

 On April 13, Kendra Haloviak Valentine, PhD, Associate Professor of New Testament Studies & Chair of the Department of Biblical Studies at the La Sierra University HMS Richards Divinity School and Special Assistant to the President of the Southeastern California Conference for Women in Ministry, presented a lecture entitled “Ordination: Disentangling the Gordian Knot.”  The meeting was well attended and the audience included a number of pastors and a Union Conference official.  The following Q & A/Meet the Speaker session was filled to capacity and extended more than an hour over its scheduled time.