Today In SDA History - May 3 - Mrs.Esther White

May 3, 1861 The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association was incorporated. The publishing department was the section of church organization that came into corporate existence first, and was the immediate cause of the organization of the church as a whole under a General Conference, which came a little later, in 1863. The first steps toward incorporation of the publishing organization were taken at a conference in Battle Creek, Sept. 28, 1860. The first article of the proposed constitution, voted Oct. 1, read as follows: "This Association shall be denominated The Advent Review Publishing Association, the object of which shall be the publication of periodicals, books, and tracts, calculated to convey instruction on Bible truth, especially the fulfillment of prophecy, the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Incorporation did not take place, however, until May 3, 1861, for there were no Michigan laws prior to that time to implement such a corporation. The corporate name chosen was "Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association" (by 1884 qualified by the adjective "Central" to distinguish it from the other publishing houses, but commonly referred to as the Review and Herald). It was a shareholding body, its membership made up of those who had purchased shares of $10 each. By 1880 their face value was raised to $25 a share. Voting privileges were in proportion to the number of shares held. It was nondividend stock; all profits made were appropriated toward publications for new fields. The first officers of the corporation, elected May 23, 1861, were: James White, president; G. W. Amadon, vice president; E. S. Walker, secretary; Uriah Smith, treasurer; J. N. Loughborough, auditor. Its first editors were James White, of the Review and Herald, and G. W. Amadon, of the Youth's Instructor. May 3, 1992 Adventist World Radio broadcasts from Moscow, Ekaterinburg, and Samara increased AWR-Europe releases to 238 hours a week from Russia, 32 from Forli, and 84 from Mazara del Vallo, using 19 languages. AWR, an institution of the General Conference devoted to international broadcasting of the gospel, particularly for countries where local broadcasting by the church is not possible.