12 March 2013 Warsaw, Poland [Jóhann E. Jóhannsson & Raafat Kamal, tedNEWS] The third and last day of Pastor Ted Wilson’s visit to Poland was of a more official nature, starting with a visit to the Presidential Palace.
Ted Wilson, President of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Raafat Kamal, Assistant to the Trans-European Division President, Pawel Lazar, President of the Polish Union Conference and Andrzej Sicinski, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Director in the Polish Union Conference, paid a courtesy visit to Head of the Chancellery of the President of Poland, Mr Jacek Micha?owski.
Mr Micha?owski shared with the visiting team that dialogue and openness are key fundamental values of the current presidency of Poland and he referred to the Article 53 of the Polish Constitution which states that ‘Freedom of conscience and religion shall be ensured to everyone.’
Pastor Wilson expressed his appreciation on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church for the efforts of the Polish Government to guarantee religious freedom in Poland.
Pastor Wilson shared with Mr Micha?owski a glimpse of the worldwide activities of the Seventh-day Adventist Church with special emphasis on health, education, development work and religious liberty.
The meeting ended with Pastor Wilson reading Micah 6:8: ‘He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God’ and prayed for Mr Micha?owski and his team.
Before lunch, the program included a visit to the Polish Union Conference office, which also houses the office of ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency), the Polish Publishing House, the East Polish Conference and the Media Centre/Hope Channel. Pastor Wilson and his party visited each of these offices and he showed kind interest in all the activities that are carried out in this building. At each stop, Pastor Wilson prayed for the employees and their work.
In the afternoon Pastors Wilson, Kamal, Lazar, Pastor Sicinski, and Jóhann E. Jóhannsson, Trans-European Division Treasurer, paid a courtesy visit to the Ministry of Administration and Digitalization, which also includes the department of Religious Affairs.
Mr Wlodzimierz Karpinski, Secretary of State and his associates welcomed the Church’s delegation. Mr Karpinski said it was a privilege to work with the Seventh-day Adventist Church on religious matters. He also stated that there is a good dialog between this Government office and the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Poland, and that the Polish Constitution guarantees religious freedom and equality for all individuals and churches.
During this visit, Pastor Wilson shared similar information about the Seventh-day Adventist Church as in the morning meeting in the Presidential Palace. He ended the meeting by reading Joshua 1:9: „Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go” and prayed for Mr Karpinski and his team.
Summing up the three-day visit Pastor Lazar said, „Pastor Ted and Nancy Wilson’s visit to Poland is very positively seen in our Church. His presentations were very inspiring and full of encouragement to us to stand by the one who is our God and our Saviour. His message draws our attention to the roots of our identity as well as to the challenges we face with bringing our message to a society that is on one hand very Catholic and on the other side very secularized. We are very grateful for his visit and for leading our Church in a very humble and Christ uplifting spirit.”
This concluded the official program of Pastor Wilson and his party to Poland. The next stop in the Trans-European Division is the Adriatic Union Conference in Zagreb, Croatia.
To see more photos of Pastor Wilson’s tour of the TED, please click here. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ted-adventist.org
tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify tedNEWS whenever you publish these materials.
