United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report

Milford, Ohio

Wednesday, August 19, 2020

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Bob Dick, John Elliott, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online.

Online Correspondence Course—Jorge de Campos

Jorge de Campos presented the results from the February 2020 meetings’ feasibility study of online correspondence courses research. One of the goals was to take our existing Bible Study Course and put quizzes online. All 12 lesson quizzes for the online Bible Study Course were put online on May 20, 2020. The Bible Study Course has the quizzes at the bottom of each lesson online (https://www.ucg.org/bible-study-tools/bible-study-course).

The possibility to add additional Bible study courses in a Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) platform was also studied. The platform suggested to be used is Udemy (https://www.udemy.com/). The Council discussed this topic for about 30 minutes with various ideas.

The Council unanimously approved for the administration’s Content Committee to review the proposal, create a plan for a pilot or something similar, and report back to the Council in the December meetings with the results.

The Content Committee consists of: Scott Ashley, Peter Eddington, Victor Kubik, Darris McNeely (chair), Justin Palm and Tom Robinson. Also Jorge de Campos and Aaron Dean were asked to assist them with this project.

The Council went into planned executive session at 10:55 a.m. for the remainder of the day.

The Council adjourned at 5:12 p.m.

Thursday, August 20, 2020

Chairman Len Martin called the morning session to order at 10:00 a.m. Eastern, and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (Council) members were present. Bob Dick, John Elliott, Mario Seiglie and Tony Wasilkoff were online.

The Council began in planned executive session.

Review of Study Paper “Voting and Involvement in Politics”

The Council began the discussion in executive session and then came into open session at 12:30 a.m. to unanimously approve the following:

The Council Chairman will respond to a GCE member’s request, informing him that the Paper, “Voting and Involvement in Politics,” is not withdrawn; but Council has remanded it to the Doctrine Committee for review.

Local Church Building Policy—Len Martin

Chairman Martin expressed the need for the policy on Local Church Buildings to be updated. President Kubik and Mr. Martin have talked about this need on numerous occasions. The current policy is from 2015 and there are some areas that need to be easier to use and less cumbersome. The Council discussed and it was unanimously approved to be remanded to the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee (SPFC) along with legal, the Treasurer and the President, to evaluate and update. The SPFC will bring it back to the Council for review in the December meetings.

Unfinished Business—Len Martin

Chairman Martin reviewed previous items from previous meetings to see where they were and finalized this week’s unfinished business.

Peter Eddington asked for the approval for the 2023 dates for the GCE annual meetings for future calendars and planning. The Council unanimously approved the following dates:

2023 GCE Meeting: May 6-8, 2023

The Council also confirmed and set the next two upcoming Council meeting dates:

December 7–10, 2020

February 22-25, 2021

The Council adjourned at 12:56 a.m.

-end-

Council Reporter

Shawn Cortelyou

[These are not the official minutes from the Council meeting. Elders can find those at the Home Office with the Council Secretary. Video recordings are posted for the elders on the UCG Ministerial Resource Site.]

© 2020 United Church of God, an International Association