Dear Glendale Academy (GAA) Students, Parents, Guests, Members, and Friends
WELCOME! We count it a great blessing to have you here with us today. We pray that all whom God has drawn to this place will sense God’s presence, grace, peace, and rest.
Today we continue our celebration of Adventist Heritage Month by focusing on Adventist Education. Some of you may not know, but every church in the Southern California Conference is, by mandate, a constituent church of both an elementary school and academy. We’re double constituents, paying subsidies to both Glendale Adventist Elementary and Glendale Adventist Academy. We’re represented on the School Board. We’ve been involved with both elementary and the academy for decades now, often taking critical leadership roles and committee appointments.
Adventist Education is obviously parochial, but it’s not without its rigors. Our schools are accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and through the Pacific Union Conference Education Department. Students have gone on to a variety of notable colleges and universities, including Ivy League and University of California system schools. The curriculum assumes students will pursue college, and we have some of the highest rates of college completion in the nation.
The idea that humans need spiritual inputs, disciplines, and spaces was not new when Adventism was forming. But Adventism’s holism, the idea that we’re simultaneously physical, mental/intellectual, social, and spiritual beings needing care in all categories, seems to be more unique, pushing Adventists not only into religious and theological education but medicine and public health, nutrition sciences, physical activity, and time in nature, as well as learning the disciplines that liberal arts education demands.
We began this month with a historical survey, naming the events that led to the Great Disappointment and the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863 (October 3), then pivoted to the Southern California Conference 125th Celebration on October 10th. (We still have the memorial folders and pins if any of you are interested!) The 17th was on the development of Adventist theology, and the 24th, Chase Wilder brought the Black Adventist experience into focus. We heard a powerful call to prophetic work, using our voices to speak truth to power, to address the injustices systemic and otherwise in this crazy world of ours. Today’s program is our last in this series.
A special note of appreciation to Pastor Jonny Moor, Chaplain and Bible Instructor at Glendale Academy, organizer of today’s visit and program, and to Niko Lee, our lead musician this Sabbath, a professional willing to work collaboratively with our young people.
May God Be the Teacher of Us All,
Pr Greg