News

Delegates attending the third annual Women and the Word Conference met Seventh-day Adventist Church founder Ellen White at Sydney Adventist Hospital this past weekend (August 31-September 1).

From her appearance to her speech, speaker Ginger Hanks Harwood, associate professor of religious and theological studies at La Sierra University (Riverside, California, USA), embodied Ellen, expressing the humour of a woman who knew Jesus through pain, failure, criticism and frustrations.

The enactment of Ellen's adventure with God challenged the more than 100 delegates to consider more seriously the question, "What is God saying to us through Ellen's life, ministry and messages of inspiration?" It also helped humanise Ellen. "It was much easier to accept, understand and compare myself to her," said one delegate.

The conference touched on a variety of topics from "Ellen's fashion tips" to "Reading and interpreting [the apostle] Paul with insight and integrity." These two values have often been missing--through ignorance or oversight--in our understanding of the historical context of Scripture and our reading of Ellen's statements. Dr Harwood noted even Ellen understood "time and place must be considered" when applying her testimonies.

Speaker Pastor John Skrzypaszek's comment about Ellen "never claiming to be a prophet, merely a messenger" impressed Maria Albert of Sydney. "He made sense of criticisms [of Ellen's writings--John is director of the Ellen G White/SDA Research Centre at Avondale College] and made it clear Ellen White was a real woman who had her weaknesses. . . . It's been an amazing discovery."

Avondale and the Women's Ministries Department of the Adventist Church in the South Pacific presented the conference. Contact Andrew Ansell (andrewa@netcall.com.au, 0414 404 575) for CD and DVD copies of the lectures.