Naomi Pepper
September 3, 2026
The historic vote on women’s ordination at the 2026 North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) constituency session was driven by Adventists in Oregon. The motion was voted onto the agenda after delegates successfully navigated complex internal union bylaws to secure a direct vote. The efforts of these delegates resulted in a major victory for women in ministry and longtime advocates of ordination equality across the region.
Kessia Reyne Bennett, lead pastor of the Pleasant Valley Adventist Church in Oregon and a delegate at large, offered support that was characteristic of the careful way in which the Oregon Conference constituents presented the proposal. Noting that the move was not oppositional toward either the General Conference (GC) or “the establishment,” Bennett said, “I appreciate the motion for recognizing the authority of of the unions to administer ministerial credentials,” and added that the motion was careful not to compel conferences to put forward candidates who would not align with the conference’s “convictions or the qualifications of the candidate.” Kessia Reyne Bennett praised the motion for recognizing unions’ authority to approve ordinations. Video NPUC
But it wasn’t only Oregonians who spoke out in favor of ordination. José Haroldo Alomia, pastor of the Kirkland Adventist Church in the Washington Conference, said in support of the motion, “As a Hispanic man growing up in Latin America, I used to be of the opinion that women could not be ordained, nor lead in the church as I could.” He added that in over two decades of ministry, he changed his position because “Scripture doesn’t explicitly prohibit it,” and because his ministry “has been blessed and amplified by all the women that have worked with me,” including his current associate.José Haroldo Alomia noted that the Mid-America Union had already implemented the same measure proposed by the NPUC with no adverse effects to the Adventist Church or its mission. Video: NPUC
During more than an hour of discussion on the motion, of the 26 delegates who commented on the motion, seventeen spoke in favor, six in opposition, and three raised questions or declined to state a position. Nine of the seventeen delegates who voiced support are Oregon Conference pastors; one is an administrator in the conference.
The road to getting the motion to the floor was far from simple. Organizers had to navigate significant administrative hurdles to ensure the union leadership heard what a majority—62 percent—of delegates wanted for the women working in their churches.
The question of women’s ordination remains one of the most debated issues within the Adventist Church. Notably, the issue was brought to delegates at the 2015 GC Session in San Antonio, Texas. Out of 2,358 voters representing the world church, that motion fell just 203 votes short of allowing each world division to decide whether to permit the ordaining of women within their territory. There has not been a GC vote about whether unions can decide.
Increasingly, Adventists have pushed back against this stance, advocating more flexibility for unions and conferences to do what they believe is best for their congregations and pastors in their local contexts. With their awareness of how biblical values need to be communicated to increasingly diverse communities, they note how inviting people to join a church that officially discriminates on the basis of gender impedes Adventist mission. Walla Walla, Washington resident Jack Hoehn, author of Adventist Tomorrow: Fresh Ideas While Waiting for Jesus, stated in an interview, “‘Not now’ to female pastors is just another way of men saying ‘no!’”
In 2012, well before the 2015 GC vote, the Pacific Union and the Columbia Union successfully voted bylaw amendments approving “ordination to the gospel ministry without regard to gender” in their respective territories.
In 2021, the Mid-America Union followed, stating in their motion that it,“recognizes the right and responsibility of each local conference to prepare and recommend names for ordination, and will consider all recommended persons for ordination as submitted by the respective local conference executive committees.”
This was the exact language that members of the Oregon Conference executive committee used when submitting their proposed motion for the constituency session agenda. Though this does not compel conferences within the union to take any particular action, it gives each conference the flexibility to follow its own convictions on employment gender equality.
