This year’s tour got started with a bit of a bang early Sunday morning, August 2. Just as the bus pulled out of the Howard Performing Arts Center parking lot where students had boarded, one of the students fell ill and had to be rushed by ambulance to the hospital. His seat was filled by another student who had come just in case a spot opened up. Later it was reported that the hospitalized student was doing okay, but was being kept for observation and testing.

After this bit of excitement, the bus full of students re-began the journey to tour Adventist History sites in New York and New England from August 2-9, 2015. This is an annual event for students of the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Many find it a way to connect with the roots of the Seventh-day Adventist church. Arnell McCoy reflected on his experience and said, “The sights combined with the lectures really gave me a new appreciation for what the pioneers sacrificed in order to follow the call that God put on their lives.”

On Monday morning, in Rochester, New York, the starter on the Andrews University bus broke down, however, the study tour was not delayed. The students were shuttled by hotel transportation to the Mount Hope Cemetery to see the graves of Mary Andrews, Angeline Andrews, Carrie Andrews, Nathaniel White and Anna White, and Frederick Douglass. A city-type bus was chartered from the University of Rochester to pick up the students and Dr. Burt , take them around the city to see historic sites, and then back to the hotel. While the group ate lunch in the parking lot, the AU bus was repaired, and by early afternoon, was back on the road to the next stop in Massachusetts with only a slight delay to the schedule.

On the following day the study tour went to Old Sturbridge Village and sites related to Joseph Bates. Old Sturbridge Village puts people into the mindset of life in the 1830s. That was a few years earlier than the events we focus on during the tour, but a good place to start to get a feel for how daily life was lived for our Adventist pioneers.

Joseph Bates, one of the co-founders of the Seventh-day Adventist church, grew up in Fairhaven, Massachusetts. His childhood home was near enough to the Atlantic to see the ocean-going vessels in the harbor and it is easy to understand how Bates developed a longing to go to sea. Bates spent 20-plus years at sea and retired as captain of his own ship with a comfortable fortune. The tour went to the home that he built upon his retirement which was later sold to fund the spread of the Millerite Advent message. Along the rocky water’s edge, where the old Fairhaven Bridge once stood, participants heard the story of how the Sabbath being the seventh day of the week came to the Millerites and to Joseph Bates. Bates then wrote three tracts on the Sabbath, one of which James and Ellen White read and were convinced to start keeping the seventh day of the week as the Sabbath.

The next day the tour went to Maine; the house was pointed out where James and Ellen White were living when they accepted the Sabbath. This was in Gorham, Maine, while the Whites were living with Ellen’s parents in 1847. Gorham, Maine, is also where Ellen was born. She spent many of her growing up years in Portland, Maine. The tour visited many sites in Portland, but because of a fire in the 1860s and construction of newer buildings, many of the sites are uninspiring. For example, the spot where Ellen Harmon was baptized is now a parking lot because the city reclaimed land from the bay.

The day following the Maine sites was spent in New Hampshire. First was a visit to the Washington, New Hampshire, Seventh-day Adventist church, which features the Sabbath Trail on its property. After a morning of stories and songs, followed by lunch, a walk along the Sabbath Trail, and taking pictures of the graves of the individuals featured in the stories earlier in the day, the tour went to the childhood home of Uriah Smith and his sister Annie Smith. Annie’s grave is in a cemetery nearby, near her family members.

That evening, the group ate at the Country Life Restaurant in Keene, New Hampshire. This is an independent, Adventist owned, vegan restaurant. Many on the tour considered it to be the best meal of the trip. It was a learning experience for many who were not familiar with the health ministry of these restaurants. It served as an anchor for the lectures about the health message given to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Friday was spent at the William Miller Farm and chapel. Elder Nix presented the story of William Miller in the chapel. With passion and exhortation he described Miller’s conversion. He held up a cannon ball as a visual aid in describing the war of 1812 and the battle in which Miller took part. Later Elder Nix presided over the tour through Miller’s home.

Sabbath morning the group was at the Roosevelt Seventh-day Adventist Church for the worship service and then Sabbath School. Dr. Burt spoke for the worship service and the church was blessed to have the group. A very delicious lunch of Thai curry was served and a mediterranean feast was prepared for a to-go supper. A visit to the Roosavelt Cemetery and then to the Hiram Edson barn was in the schedule before heading back to Rochester, NY for the night.
Sunday’s journey back to the University was uneventful; all were thankful for safe travels and the good weather experienced over the whole week.

by Samuel Pagan, Student Assistant at the Center for Adventist Research

Many staff, faculty, and students—including myself­—waited with great expectation for The Gift of Prophecy in Scripture and History Symposium which would take place from October 15-18, 2015, in warm remembrance of the Adventist prophetic figure, Ellen White, who died 100 years ago this past summer.

Opening night saw the arrival of other participants and attendees who came from different parts of the world field.  The Symposium was hosted on the beautiful campus of Andrews University and featured 22 presentations including speakers such as Dwight K. Nelson, Alberto Timm, Jiří Moskala, Merlin Burt, Ángel M. Rodríguez, and Ekkehardt Mueller. The symposium encompassed a wide range of topics related to the Gift of Prophecy and included Old Testament scholars, New Testament Scholars, and Ellen G. White scholars. I saw scholars from various Adventist institutions in North America and overseas.  I also witnessed General Conference president Ted Wilson, attending the meetings.  I could feel the excitement and also the reverence in the room. I realized that in coming together for this names Symposium, we were acknowledging—even more so professing that God has, in fact, led His people through the prophetic voice which has affected each one of us.

I was happy to receive at registration a hard-copy of the newly published book, The Gift of Prophecy, which had all the lectures that were to be presented during the long weekend.  As the sessions got underway, I enjoyed the presentation topics, the format of the symposium, and especially the panel discussion which gave attendees the opportunity to participate through written questions.  The presenters were well prepared with their topics and did a good job in making their various points.  During the panel discussion some seemed a bit timid when taking on the challenges of some of the questions by the attendees.  Nevertheless, the questions were addressed to the best of their abilities and we all were benefited and greatly blessed.
The Sabbath was truly a high Sabbath.  It began on Friday evening with two important lectures relevant to current concerns. These were followed by the performance of a beautiful Symphony entitled, “We, From Battle Creek,” written especially for the Symposium and dedicated to the spirit of the Adventist pioneers.

Sabbath morning continued highlighting the importance and role of the gift of prophecy in the Adventist Church.  The excitement and enthusiasm of the previous day seemed to be on the rise with each hour, as I witnessed the Pioneer Memorial Church fill to capacity.  Elder Ted Wilson preached a sermon which was his personal testimony to the importance of Ellen White’s ministry in the church. He revealed in the course of his talk that his great-grandfather had come to know the Adventist message through an evangelistic tent meeting where he heard Ellen White speak.  The whole Wilson family owed their conversion to Adventism to the personal ministry of the Adventist prophetess.  His strong commitment to Ellen White’s ministry was affirmed.

The Sabbath afternoon presentations, also held in the Pioneer Memorial Church, again witnessed abundant attendance. Other wonderful lectures, more specific to Ellen White’s ministry, appealed to the larger lay crowd.
Two moments stood out for me during this session. The first was David Trim’s presentation on how Ellen White’s writings address the urgency of the Adventist mission—those of us in the audience really felt her passion for reaching the world.  The second came during the panel discussion when the participants were asked to share their own opinion on which book by Ellen White was the most important one. Merlin Burt, Director of the Center for Adventist Research responded, “The one you read.”

I believe the Symposium has reminded us of God’s wonderful gift of prophecy, and of our duty to read the prophetic writings.

by Jim Ford, Associate Director

Space is always a critical issue in many areas of the Center. Thanks to the foresight and generosity of University administration, the Center was able to install a SpaceSaver compact shelving system in May 2015.  The new system holds the following collections within the Center:

• Books [more than half of the general CAR book collection]
• University dissertations and theses
• General Collection [Small text materials]
• Most of the English language periodical collection

While the compact shelving has eased overcrowding in some areas it has caused an unanticipated problem. The bulk of the commonly accessed collections are now on compact shelving and this has caused the realization of how many times a day they are accessed. A number of staff and students need to work in the stacks on a regular basis and this fall the student’s work schedule was specifically organized to minimize conflict over access to the compact shelving. While it is a problem, it is a nice problem to have and one that is easier to work around than a general lack of space to put new resources.
The new system operates smoothly and reliably and is greatly appreciated since each time the old system was moved, the possibility loomed that it would come off the track. The old system is still in place but half of the carriages have been removed and those that remain are now stationary. The vault still has a 38 year old electronic compact shelving system of which two carriages consistently run partially sideways. The hope is that it continues to function for a while longer.

Also in May, we received a donation of a small compact shelving system, which had been removed from the old Berrien County Health Department. It was going to be scrapped by the owners, but Stan Hickerson, from our office, was aware of it and arranged the donation. The only cost will be labor for installation. The plan is to install it later this year in our collection processing room. It is not large enough to make much of an impact in our general stacks area, but in a limited space such as the processing area it will be useful.