World Church: New Asia Leaders Elected, Headquarters Veterans Retire

Two new regional presidents of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were elected April 17, 2003, during Spring Meeting, a two-day meeting of the church's executive committee. April 17, 2003 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States Mark A. Kellner/ANN

Albert Gulfan, incoming president of the church in the Southern Asia-Pacific region.

Jairyong Lee, incoming president of the Adventist Church in the Northern Asia-Pacific region.

Adventist Church president Jan Paulsen gives recognition to retiring church leaders.

Retiring president of the Adventist Church in Northern Asia-Pacific P.D. Chun, center. At right, Violeto Bocala, retiring president of the church in the Southern Asia-Pacific region.

Retiring vice president of the Adventist Church Leo Ranzolin with his wife Lucila.

Larry Colburn, assistant to the president, with his wife Carole.

Two new regional presidents of the Seventh-day Adventist Church were elected April 17, 2003, during Spring Meeting, a two-day meeting of the church's executive committee.

At the same time, resignations were announced for two world church leaders: Leo Santos Ranzolin, a general vice president of the church, and Larry R. Colburn, assistant to the president.

Albert Gulfan will become president of the church in the Southern Asia-Pacific region, based in Silang, near Manila, Philippines, on Jan. 1, 2004. The region's area includes Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam. A 1976 theology graduate of Mountain View College in Mindanao, Philippines, Pastor Gulfan has spent much of his career in the central Philippines as a hospital chaplain, health director, and executive secretary for the area. Currently, Gulfan serves as the president of the Central Philippine Union Conference in Cebu City.

He succeeds Violeto Bocala, who is retiring after more than 40 years of denominational service.

"The nominating committee has done its work and I am very comfortable with the person chosen to take the reign of leadership in this division for the unfinished term within this quinquennium," Bocala said. "I pray for God's blessings upon Pastor Gulfan as he provides leadership to our church."

In the Northern Asia-Pacific region, Dr. Jairyong Lee has been elected to succeed current president Pyung-Duk Chun, who has completed 43 years of service. He was recently awarded an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Sahmyook University in Seoul, and is the only church leader to have served as president of three regions: Far East, Asia-Pacific and finally Northern Asia-Pacific.

Lee is currently the Ministerial Association secretary, Stewardship department director and Global Mission coordinator for the region. He is known as founder of the 1000 Missionary Movement, which began in the Philippines. At that time, he was dean of the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies (AIIAS) Theological Seminary there.

"His strength is in mission," Chun said of his successor. "We need a man of mission to finish the work in our territory, which is one of the least-penetrated areas in the world. [Lee] is the man for the hour."

In response, Lee told ANN, "By the grace of God, and under the strong leadership and guidance of Pastor Paulsen, and the cooperation of my colleagues and our people, I will do this job with all my best."

Brazilian-born Leo Santos Ranzolin has served as a general vice president of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church since 1990, and will retire June 30. In his 37 years of church service, he has worked in the South Brazil Union Conference and the Parana Conference in Brazil. He has served in the General Conference as youth director, associate director of church ministries, and associate secretary. Ranzolin is the author of Jesus, O Orvalho da Manhá (Jesus, The Morning Dew), a devotional book for Brazilians.

Before his appointment in July 2000 as assistant to the president of the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, Larry R. Colburn was an associate secretary of world church, a post he held since 1990. Colburn will retire July 24. In four decades of church service, Colburn, who is fluent in Mandarin, has served as publishing director in the South China Island Union and the West Indonesia Union and secretary and president in the South China Island Union. He was a pastor in the Iowa-Missouri Conference and administrative field secretary for the Far Eastern Division in Singapore for the General Conference. He is an ordained minister and holds a Master of Arts degree from the Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies in the Philippines.

Having called the retiring officers to the platform at the Spring Meeting, Paulsen praised Chun and Bocala for their years of service and "wise counsel" shared at previous global leadership events. He also cited Ranzolin's "impact on many, many lives of young people who are now leaders in our church," and Colburn's "great skill" in serving as a confidant and advisor.

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