Athugið þessar dagsetningar

Eldri fréttir

1. Ræðumaður sumarmóts. Ræðmaður sumarmóts 2018 verður David Sedlacek frá Andrews University. Hann ber titilinn 'Professor of Family Ministry and Discipleship' og er 'Director of the MA in Youth and Young Adult Ministry'. Hann mun tala um tilfinningalega lækningu. Í kirkjunni tölum við stundum um andlega umbreytingu án þess að hugsa mikið um áhrifin af særindum og tilfinningalegum áskorunum. David mun deila nokkrum stórkostlegum reynslusögum af því hvernig Guð læknar tilfinningar okkar svo við getum orðið heilar manneskjur.
2. Efni til kennslu í Hvíldardagsskóla fyrir fyrsta fjórðung 2018 og myndbönd: https://disciple.org.au/projects/2018-quarter-1-sabbath-school-lesson-video-series/ Promotional Material: https://sydney.adventist.org.au/1st-quarter-2018-sabbath-school/. Þú finnur þetta efni líka á vef hvíldardagsskóla TED : https://ted.adventist.org/sabbath-school/resources
3. Nýr skólaprestur og og starfsmaður á skrifstofu.  Það gleður mig að tilkynna að Þóra Sigríður Jónsdóttir hefur nýverið hafið störf sem 50% skólaprestur og 50% starfsmaður á skrifstofu. Verið svo væn að biðja fyrir velgengni hennar í þessum tveimur störfum.  Hægt er að hafa samband á netfanginu skolaprestur@gmail.com
4. KF/Kirkjufréttir. Vinsamlegast sendið fréttir til okkar á netfangið sda@adventistar.is. Við stefnum á að KF komi út vikulega.
5. Sérstök tilkynning varðandi Hlíðardalsskóla og auka aðalfund 20 janúar kl. 18.00 í SHS. Í gegnum tíðina hafa verið umræður um hvernig skuli nýta eignirnar á Hlíðardalsskóla. Nokkrum  vikum eftir að ég kom til Íslands hafði samband við mig maður að nafni Ruben Diaz, portútgalskur fjárfestir, aðventisti, varðandi mögulega viðskiptatillögu um landareign okkar. Hann kynnti tillöguna fyrir samtakanefndinni í janúar síðastliðnum og síðan þá höfum við rætt tillöguna í samstarfi við Trans-European deildina. Í stuttu máli, áður en samtakastjórnin hugleiðir næstu skref munum við halda auka aðalfund 20. janúar kl. 18.þ00 til að ræða þetta. Ruben Diaz mun kynna verkefnið og síðanverða fyrirspurnartími og áhugakönnun til að fá fram álit á því hvort vilji er til áframhalds. Ritari deildarinnar og fjármálastjóri munu vera með okkur. Ég mun senda út nánari upplýsingar um málið fljótlega.  
6. TED ráðstefna um Nærandi utanumhald. Á meðan að á árslokafundinum stóð var að auki haldin tveggja daga ráðstefna um nærandi utanumhald þar sem áherslan var sértaklega á hvers vegna fólk fer frá kirkjunni og hvað sé hægt að gera við því. Fyrir hverja 100 meðlimi sem ganga í kirkjuna eru 40 sem velja að fara. Ég vona að við getum litið á þetta mikilvæga málefni á Íslandi á næsta ári.
7. Birgir Oskarsson á YEM. Það var gaman að sjá að Birgir var líka á árslokafundinum í Montenegro þar sem hann var með kynningu sem fulltrúi fyrir Rannsóknarstöð fyrir jarðfræði á vegum deildarinnar. (http://grisda.org) 
8. Aðstoð vegna fíknar í klámefni? Ef þú veist um einhvern sem þarfnast aðstoðar vegna þessa þá gæti þessi síða verið hjálpleg: www.Gatewaytowholeness.com.
9. Skýrsla frá nefnd um prestvígslu. Women in ministry committee report. Fyrr á þessu ári, sem viðbragð við beiðni til samtakastjórnar um umfjöllun um málefni kvenna sem starfa fyrir kirkjuna, var kosin nefnd til að ræða málið frekar. Eftir að funda tvisvar var kosið af nefndinni að styðja það sem kosið hafði verið af stjórnTrans-European deildinni í febrúar2017 varðandi beiðni til General Conference um að að nota einungis eina tegund af réttindum til preststarfa.  Kosið var um eftirfarandi (ákveðið var að þýða ekki textann til að forðast mistúlkun).The vote was as follows  "Nefnd um prestvígslu leggur til við stjórn Kirkjunnar að tekið verði undir beiðni Stór-Evrópudeildarinnar til aðalsamtakanna um að hafa eina gerð starfsréttinda. Samþykkt Stór-Evrópudeildarinnar: “Recognising that the current system of ministerial credentials (ordained) and commissioned credentials function for most of the church, and wanting to respect the decision made by the General Conference in Session in San Antonio, we would request that consideration be given to: A single ministerial credential which is issued to all who are engaged in pastoral ministry, so bringing Working Policy in line with Fundamental Belief 14. This would entail amending Working Policy by deleting the parenthesis and footnote to BA 60 10 and/or amending/deleting E 60 to reflect a single credential.”

Latest News

1. Stewardship Visit Next Sabbath, February 3, David Neal will be preaching in Hafnafjordur. He is the TED director for stewardship. Then at 14:00 he will be doing an afternoon programme on how to support mission in our local churches. This is for everyone, but particularly those involved with our church finances.
2. Extraordinary Conference session. Meeting is adjourned until Sunday 25.2.18.  Please pray for the presence of the Holy Spirit, that the will of God is accomplished, and that we all have open hearts to listen to each other with kindness and respect, and listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit.
3. The board of the charity Alfa wants to give the members of the Adventist church and others, who support the work, an overview of what they have done since they started in October 2014. During the period from October until the end of 2017 or in just over three years the charity has managed to collect kr. 6.338.851. This sum has made it possible that before Christmas 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 we could assist 279 homes or 742 individuals in the form of a food gift card in Bonus stores. Fundraising has been in many forms during this periods for example two events at HDS, a Bingo, bake sale but mostly by writing to individuals. Donations come from both members and non-members but also from few companies and social groups. The charity has applied and gotten grant from Sorpa (Góði Hirðirinn) for the total of 250.000. The SDA church did support us for the Christmas of 2017 for the amount of 294.355, which we are very grateful for.In addition to that the charity as for the last four years gotten kr 1.605.000,- from Bónus in the form of food gift cards. That is incredible well done and we have sent them a special Christmas greeting every year as a thank you for this generous support. The charity has not dared to advertise grants from the fear of a big number applying for assistance and thereby not being able to accommodate or fulfil the expectations. But many know of the charity of our church since Women’s ministries Alfa and therefore apply to the charity. The information has also gotten around from recipients. The members of the board of the charity also have a connection with people that they know are in need and with people that work with people of poor means. The goal of the charity is to work towards aiding and charity in general. Until now the charity has almost only emphasised food assistance before Christmas to the poor in Iceland. A few applicants has also been helped with a food gift card at other times of the year where there have been special circumstances. Few projects have though gotten a grant from the charity. First to be mentioned is The Bible society in Iceland to whom we gave 10.000 kr. Grant in the year 2015 because of their 200-year anniversary, and a kr. 20.000 to Unicef’s collection for starving children in Nigeria. The charity also gave the Rescue team in Hafnarfjordur/Landsbjorg kr. 10.000 grant, for the purchasing of a search and rescue dog, since they came to the charity with a request for support. We would have wanted to be able to support those worthy causes even further.These grants are given with the purpose to show the interest of our congregation in the importance of the Bible, in the importance of a search and rescue work of Landsbjorg and to promote the aid and charity of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Iceland. In January 2017 a grant was given for the sum of 200.000 to the support fund of students of Suðurhlidarskoli. There was an agreement with the board that if the fundraising would go well for the Christmas of 2016 and if there would be any funds left in the till then after helping all that would apply to the charity for the Christmas of 2016 then the students of Sudurhlidarskoli who were in a financial need would be the benefit from that. We will always have the poor with us and it is our duty to react in the best way we can. No one goes through life without people in need crossing their path. It is in a way a test that God puts before us and how we respond to their crises. The question is do we want to be the good Samaritan and there by being the co-workers of the Saviour. We thank the Lord for giving us the opportunity to do work on this task. We thank him for all the people that He has influenced to give funds towards the work. We thank all that have contributed and ask for abundance of God’s blessings for them. To close we would like to quote James 1:27 “ Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.“ With warm greetings, On behalf of the board of the charity Alfa in Hafnarfjordur, Ásta Vestmann Guðjónsdóttir

Older news

1. Camp meeting Speaker. Our camp meeting speaker for 2018 will be David Sedlacek from Andrews University. He is Professor of Family Ministry and Discipleship and Director of the MA in Youth and Young Adult Ministry. He will speak on emotional healing. In church, we often talk about spiritual transformation without thinking too much about the impact of hurt and challenges on our emotions. David will share some amazing experiences of how God heals our emotions that we may become whole people.

2. Sabbath School Resources for 1Q 2018 Sabbath School Lessons Video Series 2018 - 1st Quarter: https://disciple.org.au/projects/2018-quarter-1-sabbath-school-lesson-video-series/ Promotional Material: https://sydney.adventist.org.au/1st-quarter-2018-sabbath-school/. You will also find these links on the TED Sabbath School Website: https://ted.adventist.org/sabbath-school/resources
3. New chaplain and office PA I am very happy to announce that Thora Sigridur Jonsdottir has begun working as 50% assistant at the office and 50% as chaplain in SHS. Please pray for her as she settlers into two new jobs. You can contact her at skolaprestur@gmail.com
4. KF news Please send news for Kirkjufrettir to Thora at sda@adventistar.is. We plan to have KF now coming out every week.
5. Special Announcement about Hlidardalskoli and an Extraordinary Conference Session January 20, 18:00 at SHS. Over the years, there has always been a discussion about what to do with our property at Hlidardalskoli. A few weeks after I arrived in Iceland, I was contacted by Ruben Diaz, a Portuguese Adventist investor about the possibility for a business proposal on our land. He made a presentation to the Executive committee last January and since then, we have been discussing the project in coordination with the Trans-European Division. In summary, before the Executive Committee considers moving further, we will be holding an extraordinary conference session on January 20 at 18:00 to discuss this. Ruben Diaz will present the project, and there will be time for questions and answers as well as a vote to indicate if we should move forwards. The Division Secretary and Treasurer will also be with us. I will be sending out more details about this shortly. 
6. Lava Tunnel opening On November 9 I gave a small speech at the official opening of the LavaTunnel. David Mano put together video on the lava tube that I presented at Division Year End Meetings in Montenegro recently. You can click on a link to see the video within this email (in English and also with Icelandic subtitles). I would like to give a special thank you to Eirikur Ingvarsson for the energy he has given in helping to bring this project to reality.
7. Vision casting weekend at HDS January 13-14. The Mission Forum agreed to hold a short weekend to discuss our spiritual vision for the future. If you would like to join the Mission Forum discussion, please register with Thora at sda@adventistar.is
8. Camp meeting for 2018 has been moved back to the beginning of the Summer 2018 to June 22-24.
9. TED Year End Meetings. For a full report click here: https://ted.adventist.org/news/1221-ted-year-end-meeting-focus-on-retention-unity-and-mission
10. TED Nurture and Retention Conference. During the TED year end meetings, there was a two day conference on nurture and retention, which focused particularly about why people leave the church and what we can do about it. For every 100 members that join the church, another 40 choose to leave. I hope we can look at this important issue in Iceland next year.
11. Birgir Oskarsson at YEM. It was nice to see Birgir also attending the Division year end meetings in Montenegro to make a presentation on the Geological Research Institute (http://grisda.org) that he coordinates for our Division. 
12. Help with pornography addiction? If you know anyone who might need help with pornography addiction, here is a site that might be useful www.Gatewaytowholeness.com.
13. Women in ministry committee report. Earlier this year, in response to a request for the Iceland Conference Executive committee to consider the issue of women in ministry, an elected committee met to discuss this matter. After meeting twice, the committee voted to support the vote of the Trans-European Division executive committee in February of 2017 to request the General Conference for a single ministerial credential. The TED Executive committee voted the following: “Recognising that the current system of ministerial credentials (ordained) and commissioned credentials function for most of the church, and wanting to respect the decision made by the General Conference in Session in San Antonio, we would request that consideration be given to: A single ministerial credential which is issued to all who are engaged in pastoral ministry, so bringing Working Policy in line with Fundamental Belief 14. This would entail amending Working Policy by deleting the parenthesis and footnote to BA 60 10 and/or amending/deleting E 60 to reflect a single credential.”