The Informant and the Regional Voice. Of course, you are familiar with the latter while the former will leave some scratching their heads. It was 1929 that gave birth to the Informant when its originator, W. H. Green (minister and earlier an attorney in Washington, DC) was appointed the first African American to lead the North American Negro [later “Colored”] Department in the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. The initiative by Green for a print medium served the purpose of communicating growth and progress of the gospel of Jesus Christ among the black constituents principally in America.
Then came the 70’s when, at least by 1979, the eight or nine Regional Conferences (although each belonged to different Union Conferences) began convening officially as the Black Caucus. Such a freshly minted and empowered group assumed responsibility for generating their own “news fit to print” through their official organ we know today as The Regional Voice – produced today by the Office for Regional Conference Ministry (ORCM) in the NAD, published by Dana Edmond and edited by Kyna Hinson.
So much for the preamble. The point is this: last summer of 2019 we “discovered” at my place a slew of back issues of both Informants and Regional Voices dating from 1959 to 2016. But let me be transparent. Actually, my loving wife read the riot act to me that our home in all quarters has become literally inundated by what I call “my library.” Her message to me came clearly and in excellent English. Among my alternatives, I chose wisely to keep my present home address. But seriously, the one hundred and twenty one (121) hard copies of assorted Informants and Regional Voices being transferred from my personal library to the archives and library of the Office of Regional Conference Ministry should be supportive of 1) What they may already have in their digital files; 2) Hands-on reading; 3) Re-living moments of rich slices of Regional Conference history; and 4) Providing a resource for formal research! Edmond, the Director of OCRM, says: “These 121 copies of The Regional Voice and its predecessor, The North American Informant, represent a treasure trove of black Seventh-day Adventist history and information. They will be bound and then placed in the Museum of Black Seventh-day Adventist History that will be in the new Regional Conference Headquarters to be built next year.”
“When your children shall ask their fathers [and mothers] in time to come saying: ‘WHAT MEAN THESE STONES’? Then you shall let your children know saying: ‘Israel came over this Jordan . . . .’” (Joshua 4:21-22)
— Mervyn A. Warren, BA, MA, MDiv, PHD, DMin.
(Retired) An ordained minister and having served at Oakwood University in five administrative positions: Dean of Religion; General VP (Academic Affairs and Student Services); VP Academic Affairs; Assistant to the President; Provost; Interim President