Regional Ecclesial Agency and Global Authority: Women’s Ordination Practices in the Seventh-day Adventist Church

Abstract

The ordination of women in the Seventh-day Adventist Church remains a contested issue that reveals a deeper tension between global ecclesial authority and regional or local expressions of mission. While the General Conference has not adopted women’s ordination as a universal policy, several Adventist unions and local congregations have taken independent or semi-independent actions to ordain women or to adopt gender-inclusive ministerial recognition. This article analyzes selected cases of women’s ordination practices within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, including Columbia Union Conference, Pacific Union Conference, North German Union Conference, Norwegian Union of Churches, Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, Victoria Church, and La Sierra University Church. Using a qualitative historical-theological approach, the study argues that these cases cannot be interpreted merely as administrative irregularities or isolated acts of dissent. Rather, they reveal a structural and theological tension within global Adventism concerning the meaning of ordination, the limits of regional authority, the nature of church unity, and the relationship between biblical interpretation and contextual mission. The findings suggest that the women’s ordination debate functions as a test case for Adventist ecclesiology: whether unity is to be understood primarily as global policy uniformity or as shared doctrinal and missional identity that may allow limited contextual diversity