Financial, leadership gains cited as region shifts from 'mission' to 'conference' 

Written by Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN 

Seventh-day Adventist world church leaders recognized spiritual maturity and financial stability on April 2009 when they voted a change of administrative status for the North Philippine region of the church.

As a 'union conference,' the region is fully self-sufficient and responsible for electing its three main administrative officers: president, secretary and treasurer. Under their former 'union mission' status, the North Philippines received appropriation for operation from the Southern Asia-Pacific Division, one of the world church's 13 administrative regions.

Home to the nation's capital, Manila, the North Philippine region is the second largest and wealthiest of the church's three union conferences in the Philippines, said Claude Sabot, world church secretary for the church's Southern Asia-Pacific region.