| 4 September 2010 |
| Ted Wilson elected new president of Seventh-day Adventists |
Atlanta, Georgia/USA -- Ted N. C. Wilson (60), a vice
president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, was elected June 25 to serve a five-year term as president of the 16.3-million member global Protestant denomination. Wilson is the son of former General
Conference president Neal C. Wilson, who served in the post from 1979 to 1990.
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Wilson was appointed by the church's 236-member Nominating Committee and
confirmed by the General Conference Session delegation, which is an
international body of 2,410 appointed members and the highest governing body
in the church.
Wilson replaces Jan Paulsen, who has served as president since 1999.
The appointment took place at the church's 59th General Conference Session, being held at the Georgia Dome and adjacent World Congress Center in Atlanta, Georgia (USA).
Wilson asked that church members ask for God's guidance "and pray that the Holy Spirit would bring us revival and reformation."
Wilson was elected as a general vice president of the Adventist Church in 2000 during the General Conference Session in Toronto. His 36 years of denominational service include administrative and executive posts in the
Mid-Atlantic United States, Africa and Russia.
Wilson began his church career as a pastor in 1974 in the church's Greater New York Conference. He served as an assistant director and then director of Metropolitan Ministries there from 1976 to 1981. He went on to serve in the church's then Africa-Indian Ocean Division, based in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire, until 1990. There he served as a departmental director and later as
executive secretary, the second highest officer.
Following his post in West Africa, he served at the church's world
headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, as an associate
secretary for two years before accepting the position of president of the
church's Euro-Asia Division in Moscow, Russia, from 1992 to 1996. Wilson
then came back to the United States to serve as president of the Review and
Herald Publishing Association in Hagerstown, Maryland, until his election as
a General Conference vice president in 2000.
An ordained minister, Wilson holds a doctorate degree in religious education
from New York University, a master of divinity degree from Andrews
University and a master of science degree in public health from Loma Linda
University's School of Public Health.
Wilson is married to Nancy Louise Vollmer Wilson, a physical therapist. The
couple has three daughters.
Adventists are a Protestant mainstream church that in recent decades has
grown quickly in some world regions. Roughly one-third of membership now
resides in Africa, while another one-third lives in South America and
Central America. There are about 1.1 million Adventists in the United
States, where the denomination was established in 1863.
This Christian world communion operates the largest Protestant network of
schools and hospitals worldwide. The church also runs disaster response and
development programs through the Adventist Development and Relief Agency
International (ADRA). It also sponsors a religious freedom forum, having
established in 1893 what is now the International Religious Liberty
Association (IRLA).
The General Conference Session, held every five years, is an international
spiritual gathering and business session to elect leaders and vote on
proposed changes to the Church Manual and Constitution. Session runs through
July 3
Adventist Press Agency
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