Bern / Switzerland, April 27, 2012 [APD]. On April 26th, on the occasion of the Plenary Assembly in Bern, the Council of Christian Churches in Switzerland (CH AGCK) accepted the Romanian Orthodox Church as member. The Seventh-day Adventists applied for guest membership, and it was granted for the first time to the church at a national level, reported the AGCK-CH press release.
Thus, the Romanian Orthodox Church will receive a seat in the directing bureau, as provided for by the statutes of the AGCK. The church has fourteen communities in Switzerland and is member in four cantons of AGCK: Geneva, St. Gallen, Waadt and Zurich.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has more than 30 years’ experience in inter-church cooperation at the regional level and with the cantonal associations of Christian churches in the AGCKs cantons of Aargau, Basel, Schaffhausen, Tessin and Zurich. The Adventists started negotiations for cooperation on a country-level status. In 2001, they were a founding member of the Communauté des Eglises Chrétiennes dans le Canton de Vaud (CECCV) in the Waadt-canton. Therefore, the Adventist church is member of the cantonal AGCK.
"These churches will strengthen the community of Christians," said the Anglican President of the Swiss Christian Council, Rev. Adele Kelham.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church has been present in Switzerland for 145 years. The first Adventist church was founded in 1867 in Tramelan (Bernese Jura). In 1901, the churches in Switzerland were divided, according to the languages of the two "groups": the "Swiss German Federation" with headquarters in Zurich, and the
"Fédération de la Suisse Romande et du Tessin", based in Renens / VD.
Today, there are approximately 4,300 adult baptized members of the Adventist Church in Switzerland with 50 churches and five groups. Preachers are trained primarily in the Theological Seminary "Bogenhofen", in northern Austria, which is run both by Austrian and German Adventists. The French and Italian speaking pastors are trained primarily in the Faculté de Théologie on the campus of Adventiste Salève, Collonges, France, near Geneva.
The Swiss Adventist church includes the League of Life and Health (LLG), the Adventist Press Service (APD), the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA Switzerland) and is also a member of the Swiss Bible Society ((SB).
