United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report

Milford, Ohio

Please note: The central office of the Church of God, 7th Day, is located outside of Denver (Broomfield, CO), not in Omaha as incorrectly reported in the Tuesday, August 13 Council Report. That is why president Victor Kubik is visiting them while he is in Denver. Omaha was where the Church of God, 7th Day had its General Conference Biennial Convention in July.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Chairman Robin Webber called the morning session to order at 9:00 and asked Roc Corbett to open the meeting with prayer.

Mr. Webber made a few announcements and commented that yesterday (Tuesday) the Council discussed Bylaws Article 9.2 and after discussion, some of which was in executive session, decided to remand it to the Roles and Rules Committee. He then called on chairman of the Roles and Rules Committee, Roc Corbett, to take the floor to introduce a report to the Council by a Roles and Rules special task force by former Council member Bill Eddington, who had headed the task force.

Governing Documents Review Task Force—Bill Eddington

Mr. Eddington listed with appreciation the other members of the task force: Rainer Salomaa, Roc Corbett, Bob Dick, Gary Antion, Mark Rorem, Gerald Seelig and Larry Darden. Although they have worked on the project for three years, it has been during a little more than the past year that the most progress has been made on its mission.

In 2010 the Council delegated to the task force the project of reviewing UCGIA governing documents to identify any statements that are ambiguous, awkwardly phrased or in conflict of other points in the documents. The review of the Constitution is complete, and the review of the Bylaws should be completed by December. The task force’s review of the Rules of Association has yet to begin.

A key point of particular importance is that there are no changes being considered, proposed or made to the Fundamentals of Belief. The purpose of the project is to make the governing documents as clearly stated, highly functional and thoroughly efficient as possible.

Mr. Eddington led a discussion of the task force’s list of editorial proposals. In response to a point in the discussion, Roc Corbett explained that the task force specifically decided not to suggest substantive, conceptual changes, believing that such proposals should come through the regular amendment process of the General Conference of Elders (GCE).

The task force drafted a new section with specific definitions for basic entities described in the Constitution which included: “the Church,” “United Church of God, an International Association (UCGIA),” “Elder,” “General Conference of Elders (General Conference),” “Council of Elders (Council),” “Management Team,” “Governing Documents,” and “Member of the Church.” Their recommendation is to locate the list early in the Constitution to add clarity when such terms are encountered while reading it and the other governing documents.

An example is the definition of the Council of Elders. After some thoughtful discussion the proposed definition settled on the wording for the newly proposed Article 2.1.5, which was borrowed from the middle sentence of the present Article 4.2.2.4: “The Council is the duly appointed corporate board for UCGIA and is equivalent to a board of directors. As such, it shall have such other specific duties and responsibilities as are enumerated in UCGIA corporate Bylaws.” This statement would specifically define what the Council of Elders is, rather than what it does.

The functionality of the Council of Elders listed under the newly proposed 4.2.2.4 would be taken from the final section of section of the old 4.2.2.4: “The Council shall conduct itself in accordance with Scripture, this Constitution, the duly adopted Bylaws, the Rules of Association of the UCGIA and applicable law.” The 4.2 section of the Constitution addresses, in this case, what the Council does—what is its function, rather than what it is (which would be covered in the new 2.1.5 definitions section cited above).

The Council carefully reviewed all the proposed edits of the Governing Documents Task Force, extensively discussing various points and recommending edits and improvements. The discussions were quite interesting as Council members analyzed the positive implications of how the proposed amended Constitution would better deal with circumstances that have arisen since the original was written and adopted in 1995. Pursuant to that, some proposals include several additions that address circumstances that were not originally covered in the Constitution.

The Governing Documents Review Task Force discussion continued all morning to early afternoon. At that point chairman Webber concluded the Constitution review and then introduced the next item on the agenda.

Doctrine Committee Discussion—John Elliott

Mr. Elliott explained that the committee currently is in receipt of 26 doctrinal projects and prophecy inquiries from ministers and members. Such projects deal with a variety of questions pertaining to general biblical inquiries, Church teachings, understandings and practices not necessarily associated with the Fundamentals of Belief. To help facilitate their being responded to in a timely manner, each committee member selects and leads a project through a process from start to finish. They are also assisted by two subcommittees, the Doctrine Advisory Committee and the Prophecy Advisory Committee.

Mr. Elliott began by discussing a request to remove a current study paper about the role of women. In response to proposal set before the Council by Victor Kubik in the May session requesting consideration to withdraw it, the paper was duly reviewed by the committee. The review showed the paper was incomplete in substance and tone in appropriately teaching the biblical role of women, thus the committee proposed that it be removed.

Mr. Corbett asked if the committee was planning to replace it with a different study paper. Mr. Elliott explained that the committee recommends that no paper replace this one because the Bible itself clearly teaches the role of women in the Church and society. Mario Seiglie suggested that to not have a shorter, balanced paper providing basic guidelines might leave some questions unanswered. It was made plain during the discussion that UCG’s long standing teaching regarding prohibition of women being ordained to the ministry or preaching in church services remains intact. After discussion the paper was removed by a ballot of 11 in favor and one abstention.

Scott Ashley then presented for discussion the directional document of the Doctrine Committee entitled “Scope and Responsibilities of the Doctrine Committee” and its attendant procedural paper called “Process for Submitting Doctrinal and Prophecy Papers.” One of the proposed changes in the “Scope and Responsibilities” document was that the Committee would review papers “at its discretion” because it has found that some who are not members of UCG have been sending doctrinal or prophecy papers for review. This was deemed to be a poor use of Church resources and Doctrine Committee members’ time. They are very happy however to review papers or respond to questions from UCG members.

The other proposed edits simply streamlined the processes to facilitate more timely reviews and for doctrinal issues to be dealt with by the committee of the Council directly rather than running them through Ministerial and Member Services first, as has been done in previous years.

Similarly, the second procedural document, “Process for Submitting Doctrinal and Prophecy Papers” was reviewed. It addresses the functions of the Doctrinal Advisory Committee and Prophecy Advisory Committee and how they interact with the main Doctrine Committee of the Council. Proposed edits would bring the procedural paper into harmony with the Church’s governing documents and with the revised scope and responsibilities of the Doctrine Committee.

The Council gave its unanimous support for the proposed edits for both documents and will propose their ratification by the GCE at its annual meeting next May.

Mark Mickelson then presented a response to a paper requesting scriptural clarity on what is appropriate for weddings and social events on the Sabbath. The Doctrine Committee deemed that this request was not in the purview of the committee and proposed to the Council that it forward the question to the pastor and national council involved with the request for them to respond. The Council agreed.

Mr. Mickelson continued, presenting the committee’s review of a prophecy paper as to whether or not a physical temple and daily sacrifices would be instituted before Christ’s return. The committee proposed to respond to the author that they do not think the submitted paper is accurate and to explain why. The Council agreed.

At that mid-afternoon point the Council entered executive session for the remainder of the day.

-end-

Randy Stiver

Council Reporter

© 2013 United Church of God, an International Association