Bert Beverly Beach (15 June 1928 – 14 December 2022) was a Swiss-born American Adventist theologian, university teacher, author and philanthropist. He was Secretary General of the

International Association for Religious Freedom The International Association for Religious Freedom (IARF) is a charitable organization that works for religious freedom around the world. It was founded in Boston, Massachusetts in 1900, and is the oldest international group that promotes dialo ...

in the 1990s.

Early life and education

Beach was born to an American family in Gland, Switzerland in 1928. His father was the Seventh-day Adventist Church administrator Walter Raymond Beach.Ergänzendes Material zum Magazin, ZEICHEN DER ZEIT (II-2007), �
Fundamentalismus ist die größte Gefahr
,“ Interview mit dem Menschenrechtsexperten Dr. Bert Beach, Christsein-heute.info Earning his B.A. from Pacific Union College in 1948, he spent the next year at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, and was then for a time a northern California elementary school principal, and then principal of Italian Junior College in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

until 1958, when he was bestowed the degree of Ph.D. by the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

. He taught history at

Columbia Union College Washington Adventist University is a private Seventh-day Adventist university in Takoma Park, Maryland. History Washington Adventist University was established in 1904 by the Seventh-day Adventist Church as Washington Training College. ...

, attending Vatican II as an observer in the 1960s, and thereafter directed the education department of the Northern Europe-West Africa Division until 1975.

Later life and death

After his theological studies he became a doctor of theology and taught at universities in different countries. He spoke six languages (including German), has worked as a teacher and lecturer in Italy, England and the United States and was a keynote speaker worldwide. From 1967, Beach was Secretary-General of the General Conference of the World Council of Churches in

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

, where he was not able to initiate membership, but to work with

Seventh-day Adventists The Seventh-day Adventist Church is an Adventism, Adventist Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination which is distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the Names of the days of the week#Numbered days of the week, seventh day of the ...

. He was appointed a personal representative of the community in the Faith and Order commission. He was a member of the

Christian Peace Conference The Christian Peace Conference ( cs, Křesťanská mírová konference) was an international organization based in Prague and founded in 1958 by Josef Hromádka, a pastor who had spent the war years in the United States, moving back to Czechoslova ...

, at whose All-Christian Peace Assembly he participated in 1971 in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

. He became director of the Conference's Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department in 1980. Beach was Secretary General of the

until his retirement in 1995 (but thereafter continued advising the General Conference on religious liberty and interchurch relations) and was Secretary General of the Worldwide Christian Communities, a non-denominational organization of churches around the world, until 2003. In an interview in August 1995 with the newspaper ''Shabbat Shalom'', he pleaded for a departure from all previously practiced prejudices and resentments towards other thinkers and believers. In February 2007, he spoke at the World Conference in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

, South Africa on the relationship between faith and freedom. In particular, he considered the unfolding and deepening of Judeo-Christian dialogue to be a prerequisite for interreligious and interdenominational dialogue on the unfolding of faith in the spirit of freedom as a form of struggle for human dignity. He dealt with the variants of religious fundamentalism, which counteract humble human coexistence in the one humanity. Beach died on 14 December 2022, at the age of 94.

Writings

* ''So Much in Common'' (1973) * ''Vatican II: Bridging the Abyss'' (1968) * ''Ecumenism: Boon or Bane?'' (1974) * ''A church for all Christians?'', Advent-Verlag, Hamburg 1975 * ''So that they are all one'', Union-Verlag (VOB) Berlin and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Berlin 1977 * ''Pattern for Progress'' (1985) * ''Bright Candle of Courage'' (1989) * ''101 Questions Adventists Ask'', Advent-Verlag, Lüneburg 2000 * ''Brückenbauer'', Advent-Verlag, Lüneburg 2013

References

External links

Ergänzendes Material zum Magazin ZEICHEN DER ZEIT (II-2007), „Fundamentalismus ist die größte Gefahr“, Interview mit dem Menschenrechtsexperten Dr. Bert Beach
(in German) {{DEFAULTSORT:Beach, Bert Beverly 1928 births 2022 deaths Seventh-day Adventist administrators American Seventh-day Adventists Christian Peace Conference members People of the World Council of Churches American expatriates in Switzerland Stanford University alumni American expatriates in Italy American expatriates in France University of Paris alumni Pacific Union College alumni