Associated Church Press (aka "ACP", founded in 1916) is a professional membership organization for religious periodicals and press. [1]
It organizes conferences, makes awards, organizes professional development opportunities, and provides postal advocacy and other resources for religious periodicals. Its Executive Director since 2017 is Gregg Brekke. [2]
The Associated Church Press traces its origin to a Saint Louis, Mo., meeting in 1916. [2] Editors covering the quadrennial meeting of the Federal Council of Churches (now the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.) decided that they should meet on a continuing basis.
Wartime constraints in 1917 and 1918 prevented meetings those two years. The second meeting was convened in Cleveland, Ohio, in June 1919. E. C. Wareing, Western Christian Advocate, was elected president of the then-named Editorial Council of the Religious Press. Jaspar T. Moses, National Bulletin, and F. M. Barton, The Expositor, were chosen secretary and treasurer, respectively.
In 1937, the name of the organization was changed to the Associated Church Press, [2] and the constitution was revised. In 1947, a new constitution was adopted based on the recommendations of a special study committee headed by William B. Lipphard, Missions Magazine. Under the provisions of that constitution, membership in the Associated Church Press was extended to publications rather than to individual editors. However, provision for individual associate membership was made.
The Associated Church Press cooperates in educational and postal matters with religious press associations in the United States and Canada. It is also a corporate member of the World Association of Christian Communication, London, England.
Each year the ACP presents awards in several areas, including National Reporting, Local Reporting, International Reporting, Science Reporting, Devotionals, Poetry and Humor. [3] [4]
The awards are presented during the ACP’s annual convention. [5] [6] [7]
The ACP is governed by a board of directors. Its current board members are:
President: Celeste Kennel-Shank [8]
Individual Member
Vice President: John Thomas III
The Christian Recorder
Past President: Stephen Chavez
Retired, Adventist Review / Adventist World
Treasurer: Kevin Shanley
Individual Member
OTHER DIRECTORS:
Jocelyn Bell
Broadview
Sally Hicks
Faith & Leadership, Duke University
Randy Hobson
PCUSA.org
Meagan Clark
Religion Unplugged / The Media Project
Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher William Miller first publicly shared his belief that the Second Coming would occur at some point between 1843 and 1844. His followers became known as Millerites. After Miller's prophecies failed, the Millerite movement split up and was continued by a number of groups that held different doctrines from one another. These groups, stemming from a common Millerite ancestor, collectively became known as the Adventist movement.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church (SDA) is an Adventist Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the seventh day of the week in the Christian (Gregorian) and the Hebrew calendar, as the Sabbath, its emphasis on the imminent Second Coming (advent) of Jesus Christ, and its annihilationist soteriology. The denomination grew out of the Millerite movement in the United States during the mid-19th century and it was formally established in 1863. Among its co-founders was Ellen G. White, whose extensive writings are still held in high regard by the church.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Baptist Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization and the largest Protestant and second-largest Christian body in the United States. The SBC is a cooperation of fully autonomous, independent churches with commonly held essential beliefs that pool some resources for missions.
The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union of Australia united under the Basis of Union. According to the church, it had 243,000 members in 2018. In the 2016 census, 870,183 Australians identified with the church, but that figure fell to 673,260 in the 2021 census. In the 2011 census, that figure was 1,065,796.
The General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC), established in 1932 is an Independent Baptist Christian denomination in United States, retaining the name "Regular Baptist". The association's home office is located in Elgin, Illinois.
The Alliance of Baptists is a Baptist Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The headquarters is in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The General Convention is the primary governing and legislative body of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. With the exception of the Bible, the Book of Common Prayer, and the Constitution and Canons, it is the ultimate authority in the Episcopal Church, being the bureaucratic facility through which the collegial function of the episcopate is exercised. General Convention comprises two houses: the House of Deputies and the House of Bishops. It meets regularly once every three years; however, the House of Bishops meets regularly in between sessions of General Convention. The Bishops have the right to call special meetings of General Convention.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church had its roots in the Millerite movement of the 1830s to the 1840s, during the period of the Second Great Awakening, and was officially founded in 1863. Prominent figures in the early church included Hiram Edson, Ellen G. White, her husband James Springer White, Joseph Bates, and J. N. Andrews. Over the ensuing decades the church expanded from its original base in New England to become an international organization. Significant developments such the reviews initiated by evangelicals Donald Barnhouse and Walter Martin, in the 20th century led to its recognition as a Christian denomination.
While many Christian denominations either allow or take no stance on their members joining Freemasonry, others discourage or prohibit their members from joining the fraternity.
The Shepherd's Rod or Davidian Seventh-day Adventists is a movement within the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It was founded in 1929 by Victor Houteff. He joined the Seventh-day Adventist church in 1919 and was later excommunicated from the church in 1930 for promoting "heretical" doctrines that he claimed were new revelations from God to further Adventist theology.
The Department for Professional Employees, AFL–CIO (DPE) is a semi-autonomous "trade" department of the AFL–CIO, and serves as an advocate for professional workers within the federation, and before legislative bodies, the press and the public.
Joseph Harrison Jackson was an American pastor and the longest serving President of the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
Protestants in Ukraine number about 600,000 to 700,000 (2007), about 2% of the total population. Nearly all traditional Protestant denominations are represented in the country. According to Christianity Today magazine, Ukraine has become not just the "Bible Belt" of Eastern Europe, but a "hub of evangelical church life, education, and missions". At present, the country is a key supplier of missionaries and a center of evangelical training and press printing for all the countries of the former Soviet Union, where the legal environment is not so favourable.
Ministry: International Journal for Pastors is an international monthly magazine for Christian ministers, with a circulation of approximately 78,000. It is published by the Ministerial Association, an official body of the worldwide Adventist church. It is aimed at pastors and ministers of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and also those of other denominations. It has a monthly circulation of roughly 18,000 to Adventist church leaders, and a bi-monthly circulation of roughly 60,000 to clergy from other denominations on a complimentary basis. As of 2011 it was edited by Derek Morris. The current editor is Pavel Goia. Its ISSN is 0026-5314.
This article describes the relationship between the Seventh-day Adventist Church and other Christian denominations and movements, and other religions. Adventists resist the movement which advocates their full ecumenical integration into other churches, because they believe that such a transition would force them to renounce their foundational beliefs and endanger the distinctiveness of their religious message. According to one church document,
Christianity is the predominant religion in Zambia and is recognised as the state religion by the country's constitution. Before the arrival of European missionaries, the various ethnic groups residing in the territory of modern day Zambia practiced a variety of African traditional religions.
The Constitution of Armenia as amended in December 2005 provides for freedom of religion; however, the law places some restrictions on the religious freedom of adherents of minority religious groups, and there were some restrictions in practice. The Armenian Apostolic Church, which has formal legal status as the national church, enjoys some privileges not available to other religious groups. Some denominations reported occasional discrimination by mid- or low-level government officials but found high-level officials to be tolerant. Jehovah's Witnesses reported that judges sentenced them to longer prison terms for evasion of alternative military service than in the past, although the sentences were still within the range allowed by law. Societal attitudes toward some minority religious groups were ambivalent, and there were reports of societal discrimination directed against members of these groups.
Religion in Guyana is dominated by various branches of Christianity, with significant minorities of the adherents of Hinduism and Islam.
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia (ΦΜΑ) is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "who, through a love for music, can assist in the fulfillment of [its] object and ideals either by adopting music as a profession or by working to advance the cause of music in America." Phi Mu Alpha has initiated more than 260,000 members, known as Sinfonians, and the fraternity currently has over 7,000 active collegiate members in 249 collegiate chapters throughout the United States.