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Adventists Call Female Ordinations 'Serious Mistake'

By Adelle M. Banks, Religion News Service
RNS photo by Edwin Manuel Garcia/courtesy Adventist News Network
Leaders count ballots. RNS photo by Edwin Manuel Garcia/courtesy Adventist News Network
Oct 19, 2012
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Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on Tuesday said recent decisions by two regional bodies to allow ordained female pastors were "serious mistakes," and women who are ordained won't be recognized — at least for now.

“They directly challenge two world Church decisions on the matter of ordination,” reads a statement, passed by a 264-25 vote during the Annual Council meeting in Silver Spring, Md. “They create doubts about the importance of collective decision-making as a basic feature of denominational life.”

The decisions by the Maryland-based Columbia Union Conference and the California-based Pacific Union Conference came as the worldwide church is in the midst of a broad study of the “theology of ordination” that is expected to be considered at the denomination’s 2015 General Conference Session.

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Leaders count ballots. RNS photo by Edwin Manuel Garcia/courtesy Adventist News Network
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