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Released by:   Rick Kajiura
Phone:    +31-30-955-324 (June 29-July 8) or +301-680-6300
Written by: Rick Kajiura, Max Torkelsen

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 1995

SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS ELECT WORLD SECRETARY AND TREASURER

Utrecht-Holland ... Delegates of the world session of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church have named two top officers to head the 8.5-million
member denomination. The election results came just five hours after
the delegates to the Church's World Congress re-elected world church
president Robert S. Folkenberg.

Re-elected as general secretary of the General Conference of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church was G. Ralph Thompson, 66, of Adelphi,
Maryland, U.S.A., and Robert Rawson, 58, of Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.,
was elected treasurer of the world church. Rawson replaces Donald F.
Gilbert who requested retirement.

Thompson has served in the capacity of general secretary since 1980.
This election will represent his fourth term in this position. A native
of Barbados, Thompson served his early ministry in Tobago, Trinidad,
and Barbados. In addition to church administration, he has been an
evangelist and theology professor at Caribbean Union College,
Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

Thompson is married to Imogene Clotilde Barker, and they have three
children, Carol Jean, 34; Linda Mae, 30; and Gerald Randolph, 25.

Rawson is currently serving as treasurer of the North Pacific Union
northwest headquarters of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the
United States.  From 1968 to 1976, Rawson was in the Asia-Pacific
region where he served as business manager at Philippine Union College,
treasurer for the Church's Far Eastern Division in Singapore. He also
served as vice president for finance of the Adventist Media Center in
Thousand Oaks, California, U.S.A., from 1977 to 1983

Rawson is married to Carolyn Lounsberry Rawson and they have three
children: Richard, 34; twins Timothy and Terrill, 31.

During the afternoon business session, delegates began discussing
proposed changes in the Church's constitution and by-laws which would
ensure wider representation from the world Church while increasing
accountability of its leadership. Discussion, which centered on the
method of appointment and the ratio of laity to clergy, will continue
later in the Session.

With the beginning of the Friday evening spiritual program, the regular
business at the congress will be suspended through Saturday, while
Seventh-day Adventists observe as their weekly day of worship. At least
20,000 Seventh-day Adventists from around the world will join the
delegates for this spiritual convocation.

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