10th Annual ADVENTIST BIOETHICS CONFERENCE (Virtual)

1. Address current issues in clinical ethics
2. Foster a fibrant network of leaders in bioethics
3. Consider theological bases for ethics in Adventist health systems
4. Clarify ethical understanding between the church and its systems

Please Note: This page is for those planning to attend the conference VIRTUALLY. To register to participate in person, please sign up using this page: 2026 ABC Conference Registration In-Person

The ABC Conference will be held on May 18, 2026 from 8:00am - 5:00pm, PST. The full program will be included here soon.

[Will be provided]

Will take place the second day, May 19, 2026 for those attending in-person only.

ABEC Members - ABEC will be held Monday, May 18, 2026 from 5:00 - 7:30pm with dinner provided.

Email [email protected] or call 909-558-4956.

“What is truth?” Pilate asked.
John 18:38

Modern healthcare excels at measurement. We track outcomes, refine protocols, enhance safety, and optimize performance with growing accuracy. These achievements matter. Yet, many within our systems—clinicians, chaplains, and leaders alike—feel that even the most advanced dashboard cannot fully capture the essential nature of caring for patients. Essential aspects of healthcare such as trust, presence, and moral responsibility are difficult to measure. The quiet burden of accompanying another human being in suffering cannot be encapsulated by metrics. Yet we persist. Perhaps it is a natural reaction to practicing in an era where truth feels contested and hard to discern, and where public trust in institutions has diminished. Our fallback has become objective data.

Beneath our systems lies an assumption that truth is something to be mastered, applied, and controlled. In this view, truth is information – data to interpret, guidelines to implement, decisions to justify. When Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth?”, he intuited that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. But he turned away before receiving the answer. The Christian tradition offers a strikingly different conceptualization of truth – that it is a who, not a what. Jesus told us in John 14:6 that He is the truth, suggesting that truth is an invitation into a relationship with him. As partakers of the ministry of Jesus Christ, the concept of truth as a who instead of a what is powerful. It calls us into a way of being with patients, families, colleagues, and communities. It invites humility instead of control, attentiveness instead of detachment, and fidelity instead of mere efficiency. It asks not only, “What is the right decision?” but also, “How do we remain trustworthy in a time when truth feels fragile?” This reframing can reshape everyday practice for each person in healthcare.

• For clinicians, relational knowing can deepen the way we listen as we accompany patients through uncertainty – especially when trust must be rebuilt, not assumed
• For chaplains and spiritual care providers, relational truth affirms what they embody daily: that healing often begins not with definitive answers, but with faithful presence. Their work exposes the limits of technical certainty and reminds institutions that dignity cannot be reduced to measurable output.
• For administrators and healthcare leaders, the implications are just as significant. Organizational culture shapes moral imagination. Systems teach what matters through incentives, language, and priorities. In an era when truth is hard to discern and trust can be easily broken, leadership must foster environments where integrity, transparency, and compassion are core commitments—not just aspirational slogans.

This conference invites participants to reconsider the foundations of healthcare ethics through a distinctly Christian vision of truth. What difference would it make to practice medicine—and to lead healthcare organizations—if truth were understood as a way of being rather than a problem to solve? Together, we will explore how reclaiming relational knowing can humanize care, strengthen institutional trust, and restore moral depth to the shared vocation of healing.

Event Venue & Nearby Stays

Adventist Health Corporate Office, One Adventist Health Way, Roseville, United States

Concerts, fests, parties, meetups - all the happenings, one place.

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