United Church of God, an International Association

Council of Elders Meeting Report

May 7-9, 2013
Cincinnati, Ohio

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The annual meeting of the General Conference of Elders having ended the day before, chairman Robin Webber called the meeting of the Council of Elders (CoE) to order at 9:00 a.m. and asked Council member Donald Ward to open the proceedings with prayer. Mr. Webber then welcomed the group of elders, wives and other members who were seated in the room to observe the Council in action. He read our vision and mission statements and then read from Psalm 133 and James:3:17-18, emphasizing the spirit of peace and wisdom desired for the meeting to effectively proceed.

He introduced the two newly elected Council members, Rex Sexton and Rainer Salomaa, who will sit in on the entire three days of meetings and will officially be seated on the Council at its conclusion on May 9.

After the minutes of the last meeting in February were approved as written, Mr. Webber reviewed the meeting agenda and asked for additions or deletions. Scott Ashley requested part of an hour for an executive session item. The agenda was accepted as amended.

Question and Answers With Acting President and Operation Managers

Mr. Webber explained that after the death of president Dennis Luker in March, that he as Council chairman assumed the acting presidency as prescribed by the UCG Constitution and Bylaws. He commented that during the interim, he had been sending to all the Council the notes from the regular, weekly management meetings at the home office to keep them fully informed about the Church's business until the new president takes office.

Council member Roc Corbett thanked the operation managers for their complete and clear reports during the GCE. Gary Antion asked for a report on the Church in southern Africa, Sri Lanka, India and the British Isles. Since he has been serving as the senior pastor in southern Africa, Ministerial and Member Services operation manager Victor Kubik answered that increasingly the elders on the ground in South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Malawi are carrying on the pastoral duties. He added that our few but faithful members in Sri Lanka and India are being visited regularly by Australian elder Ken Murray, voluntarily at his own expense—for which we thank him. He reported that the ministry in the British Isles is largely managing on its own at this time. Mr. Antion followed up asking whether there are any younger men coming along in the United Kingdom, and Mr. Kubik mentioned one who is a possibility. He also explained that the U.S.-administered international areas answer to the president, who uses MMS to manage the efforts and needs of those regions.

Medford, Oregon, church pastor Herb Vierra asked if more time could be allotted for Media and Communication Services to report in more detail about our public proclamation efforts during the operations reports at the GCE. New Council member Rainer Salomaa asked where the other churches of God ranked on the Google listings. Peter Eddington responded that they were not high on the list (UCG ranks as 13 or 14 presently). He mentioned that since we allow both positive and negative comments on our website, our rankings rise higher due to the resultant relevance factor. Howard Davis asked if such “controversy” creates a buzz that helps our rankings, and Mr. Eddington said that it did.

Roles and Rules Committee Report—Gary Antion, Committee Chairman

The committee's biggest concern was to prepare for the selection of the new president. It began with gathering input from the home office employees. Next, the GCE was asked to nominate up to three people, which yielded 27 elders. After asking each if they would like their name to remain under consideration, the number reduced to 13, who each filled out a detailed résumé. The Council reviewed the 13 nominees, and each member nominated one, reducing the number to six. The Council members on the short list were not allowed to read the résumés of the non-Council member nominees until their presidential interviews were complete. Mr. Antion commented that this process makes the final decision as fair as we can make it.

All the Council members submitted a list of questions for Mr. Antion to ask each nominee during his interview on behalf of the entire Council. The questions will not be circulated to the nominees ahead of time so they will be answered in our typical Spokesman Club table topics style. During balloting for president the final nominee must receive at least seven votes from the Council. If multiple ballots are needed, then after the third ballot, the ballot will include only the two top nominees.

Mr. Antion explained that the Roles and Rules Committee will work on procedures for the selection process of Council Chairman, potential doctrinal change and any other part of the Bylaws that do not yet have a specific process delineated.

Strategic Planning and Finance Committee—Bill Bradford, Committee Chairman

This committee's overall responsibility is to ratify and present to the GCE a strategic plan, operations plan and balanced budget. Consequently, it is tasked with ensuring the best use of the tithes and offerings of the brethren. It also carefully monitors the financial condition of the Church and can request an amended budget as it did this past year. It works closely with the president and treasurer to accomplish its duties. The Committee also monitors the spiritual condition of the Church as that very much affects the strategic plan as well. The committee is pleased to report that the Church's financial health is increasingly sound with healthy reserves being rebuilt and income trends producing a modest increase.

Doctrine Committee—Robert Berendt, Committee Chairman

Presently six members of the Council are on the Doctrine Committee, which is now prepared to receive doctrinal questions or writings about doctrines. They may be submitted to the committee chairman for consideration. It is the duty of the committee to answer doctrinal challenges and carefully weigh doctrinal research. There will be a new chairman of the Committee shortly, as Mr. Berendt will be stepping down from Council service at the end of this quarterly meeting. The committee has populated a Doctrine Advisory Committee and Prophecy Advisory Committee made up of skilled elders and pastors who can assist the committee with its work. Individuals who ask doctrinal questions will receive personal answers. If the question has a greater impact on all in the Church, it may take more time to provide the answers. The committee also oversees the research and writing of our various doctrinal papers.

Secretary Gerald Seelig pointed out that the Doctrine Committee may only have six members to avoid a majority of the Council being seated on the committee. The types of questions presently being responded to include numerous calendar questions and one well-written paper about how we should describe the Holy Spirit.

Media Committee—Darris McNeely, Committee Chairman

Mr. McNeely reviewed the reconstituting of the committee about four years ago, explaining that it monitors the Church's public proclamation process and progress. He reported there was a lot of “heavy lifting” needed for the committee to do four years ago, but now it has less workload than it did. Two of the four members of the committee are employees of Media and Communication Services—Mr. McNeely and Scott Ashley, and the other two are not, although they do some writing and translating into Italian for Carmelo Anastasi and Spanish for Mario Seiglie.

Mr. McNeely reported on a vision guide that is being produced by media operations that hopes to help focus all our writing and video production on the mission statement of the Church. The guide has turned out to be complex, with a more involved process than anticipated, but will in due course be brought to the Council for approval.

Len Martin asked how the Media Committee oversees communications and whether it was involved, for instance, in monitoring the Elders Forum. Mr. McNeely replied in the affirmative, but that he personally thinks the forum should be monitored by the GCE itself.

Education Committee—Don Ward, Committee Chairman

This committee was active in the first six years of United's existence, then re-activated last year. It is responsible for formulating, reviewing and recommending education programs to the Council. Little has been done in the area of formulating educational programs, as thus far the committee has needed to concentrate on the reviewing and recommending procedures. Most of the Church's education programs are under the direction of Gary Antion, including coordinating the Ambassador Bible Center. Ministerial and Member Services and Media and Communication Services also run certain programs.

Dr. Ward recommended that everyone write their own philosophy of education, commenting that he has done so a number of times and that this can help us focus on increasing our spiritual education. Early on in United's history the education committee developed the Church's philosophy.

Areas of our education: youth education, Sabbath school lessons, festival lessons, teen Bible studies, young adult education, adult education, and focused education. He also commented on the many education programs we have in the works. Randy Stiver reported on a new, high energy, interactive, once-a-month Friday-night Young Adult Bible Class (YABC). It will be webcast from the ABC lecture hall at the home office. The hope for the YABC is that it will also appeal to teens as well as any interested older “young” adults.

Ethics Committee—Mario Seiglie, Committee Chairman

This committee works closely with the Member Appeals Committee and related committees. There are no major tasks underway at the moment.

Before declaring a mid-morning break, chairman Webber took the floor to report on the other must-do items for this quarterly meeting, including selecting a vice-chairman of the Council.

Proposal for Selection of Church Officials

Chairman Webber read a paper in which he expressed a need for the Council to establish a standardized process for the selection of the chairman of the Council of Elders, confirmation of the president and selection of the president. His concern was that we need to tap our memories of how the Council conducted such important processes and develop a decent and orderly way to fulfill these tasks. In fact, these (and other) processes are presently largely drawn from memory of longtime Council members and officers.

Legal counsel Larry Darden explained that such processes can be developed at the pleasure of the Council—they are not therefore specifically dictated by the Church's Bylaws.

Gary Antion suggested that Mr. Webber's list of processes for selection be extended to include the other officers, secretary and treasurer of both the Church and the Council. At John Elliott's questioning about selection process for the Ministerial and Member Services and Media and Communication Services operation managers, Mr. Antion explained that the operation managers are selected by the president and then approved by the Council.

Dr. Ward asked whether the treasurer and financial operation manager should be the same person. Mr. Antion opined that sometime in the future Council and administration financial oversight should be done by two men rather than one. From the audience, Len Martin and Bill Eddington, who both have considerable outside of the Church experience, thought that UCG is too small to need two financial officers at this time. Chris Rowland suggested that a good treasurer might be better as treasurer, but perhaps not so much as a financial manager. Mr. Antion and Dr. Ward both commented that they were more concerned about the how the Council's approval process is standardized rather than whether we need one or two men overseeing the Church's finances.

Mr. Webber then remanded his proposal for creating an approved systematic policy of selecting various United Church of God office holders to the Roles and Rules Committee for review and to create proposals for the CoE to consider.

Finally, the Council voted to enter executive session at 1:00 p.m. It will then later enter closed session (only Council members with not even the secretary present) to proceed with the six scheduled interviews for selecting a new president. Carmelo Anastasi concluded the session with the closing prayer for God's guidance.

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Chairman Robin Webber called the meeting to order in the conference room at the home office and asked John Elliott to open with prayer. After a few announcements, which included a request that all the presidential nominees remain in the building during the afternoon and evening closed session, in case they are needed for further interviews. Then Mr. Webber introduced the first item of business during the open session.

Governing Documents Review Team—Bill Eddington

A team was gathered to analyze the UCG Constitution and Bylaws to see which aspects or wording needed to be updated. The men on the task force are Roc Corbett, Gary Antion, Larry Darden, Bob Dick, Mark Rorem, Rainer Salomaa, Gerald Seelig, and coordinator Bill Eddington.

He explained that the team did its initial work via e-mail—which is a slow way to accomplish this sort of task. However, most of the team was able to come early to the GCE weekend and spent over four hours advancing the review process. As a sample, one item he brought to the Council's attention was how the governing documents use the term “spiritual consensus” when describing balloting, yet many issues balloted on are not spiritual in nature. Several on the team commented positively about the need to make the governing documents clearer and more efficient.

One important point made by Roc Corbett is that nothing is changed in the wordings of the Fundamental Beliefs. However, as others commented, after 18 years of United's history, other paragraphs and sentences are in need of streamlining. Over the coming year, there will be ample opportunity for Council review and input prior to finalizing the improvements for balloting.

The plan is to have the review of the Constitution completed by the end of June and present it to the Council at the August meeting. After that it will be prepared and distributed for the GCE for review and comment so that the updated version of the Constitution will be ready for reconfirmation at the annual meeting in May 2014.

Biblical Role of Women—Victor Kubik

Mr. Webber introduced the next topic, mentioning that it has been under study and consideration for some time, and then gave Ministerial and Member Services (MMS) manager Victor Kubik the floor to oversee and guide the discussion with both men and ladies present.

Mr. Kubik explained that the discussion was about the current doctrinal study paper we have about the biblical role of women. A number of reviewers have evaluated the content of the study paper and believe there are shortcomings in its construction and general tone. He then introduced LeeAnn Luker and Lisa Fenchel, who help coordinate Women's Services as a branch of MMS, to present their concerns and suggestions for the Council to consider.

Mrs. Luker gave a brief overview of how Women's Services came into being with a number of ministerial wives in the Cincinnati area. Bev Pronishan, a deaconess in Washington, has been involved with assisting on this specific project. She pointed out that the paper addresses primarily the role of wives and mothers, but overlooks single, divorced or widowed women. It simply is not inclusive of all women. While there are many beneficial features within the paper, it tends to have a negative tone.

Mrs. Fenchel reviewed parts of their analysis of the paper that had initially been presented to Mr. Webber and Mr. Kubik in a prior meeting. She explained the team's concern that it would be better for women who aren't wives and mothers to read a future official doctrinal study paper and discover it to be both informing and welcoming.

Mrs. Luker addressed the limitations of the study paper's use of the Kruza paraphrase of Proverbs 31 and how it diminishes the inspirational leadership that women can fulfill as listed in that passage. She also critiqued the paper as focusing on what women cannot do rather than on what women can do. She specifically addressed this was about the structure and tone of the paper and that all the ladies fully supported the Church's longstanding understanding regarding a woman's role in church services.

Mrs. Fenchel pointed out that the current paper prominently addresses the role of deaconesses and elder's wives, which includes relatively few women, and thus the paper needs to provide teaching about their roles in life. Mrs. Luker then requested on behalf of the Women's Services team that the current study paper be withdrawn and a better one be written.

Mr. Kubik asked for questions from the Council and those sitting in on the open session. Council member John Elliott commented that the paper has been raising concerns for some time. Roy Holladay stated, however, that we do need an official document that explains the Church's long time understanding that the Bible specifically prohibits women to preach in services or serve as ministers. Mark Mickelson reflected that his review of the paper revealed that it definitely has some demeaning sections. Mr. Kubik explained that we definitely need a paper about women and preaching, then also a paper that more clearly and positively defines the roles of women.

Gary Antion commented that a new paper needs to have both men and women who work to write it to make sure it carries a positive tone. Darris McNeely suggested using husband-wife teams to write articles on the role of women. Don Ward recommended that to avoid confusion the Church should very carefully clarify our plan to publish articles on the biblical role of women as well as a doctrinal paper before withdrawing the current one. Mario Seiglie explained how the current study paper written in 2005 took on a life of its own and ended up with the cobbled together paper as it presently reads.

Julie Martin expressed concern about the impact of the new feminist movement and requested careful balance in the approach in writing a new paper. Peter Eddington recommended withdrawing the current paper due to its unbalanced approach. Len Martin expressed concern that we must stand firm on our stance about women not preaching and make sure we have clear paper stating that point of truth before we pull the current paper.

Mrs. Luker added another aspect that the subject of how and why woman was created is a salvation issue and that her (and all humanity's) calling is to obey Jesus Christ—woman's high calling before God—is not addressed in the current paper.

Katherine Rowland commented about the many similar “roles” in life of both men and women—and asked whether we need a paper addressing the role of women without the role of men being a part of it. Michelle Mickelson pointed out that although God has not called women to preach, that doesn't mean women should not know the Bible.

Mario Seiglie recommended that the process include the efforts of the Doctrine Committee. Bill Bradford said that the write-up of the Doctrine Committee should identify the universal truths of what God has said about women (and also the cultural implications). Mr. Antion stressed the need to consider the different cultural impacts of statements about the role of women when writing on the topic.

Mr. Webber called for a short break so he could seek the advice of committee chairmen regarding the best process to move forward on this matter. Mr. Webber explained that, according to the bylaws, as Council chairman he can remand the study paper under discussion to the Doctrine Committee, which he then did. For the time being the paper remains online, but Mr. Webber, in remanding this topic to the Doctrine Committee, requested it have high priority as we proceed into a new Council term.

After the lunch break, Mr. Webber called the Council to order and asked Scott Ashley to open with prayer before he introduced the first order of business.

International Reports—Bill Eddington

A few years ago the Council asked the international regions to provide annual reports of the Church and work in their areas. The reports focus the Council on the fact that it represents the “International Association” of the United Church of God. The purpose of the reporting is to inform the Council about what was being accomplished by each international region. It also indicated how the subsidy from the Church in the U.S. was being used.

Mr. Eddington handed out past copies of the reports and a new summary of the current Latin America report. The information reported includes, among other data, church attendance, number of congregations, numbers of subscribers to The Good News and other UCG publications. He encouraged the Council members to avail themselves of the information summarizing all the Church is doing around the world.

John Elliott, senior pastor to East Africa, expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to annually report to the Council and encourage each to study the international reports. Mr. Eddington suggested that the Council study and discuss the reports at the August meeting. Victor Kubik stated that MMS puts a great deal of time and energy into producing the reports for the Council and also encouraged the Council members to carefully study the report.

Executive session: Presidential Selection

The Council entered closed executive session by mid-afternoon to discuss and conduct balloting for the president and process ordination requests. The new United Church of God president, Victor Kubik, was publicly announced later in the evening.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

The Council covered several executive session issues during the first half of the morning. They returned to open session at 10:30 a.m., and chairman Robin Webber called the meeting to order.

Healthcare Review—Chris Rowland, Human Relations (HR) Administrator

After providing an overview of the Church's healthcare coverage, Mr. Rowland asked the Council to provide guidance regarding the preferred type of health insurance policy, because the time has arrived to renew for the next fiscal year. Since we are self-insured (the Church pays employee healthcare bills directly), the key issue is “stop loss.” This is where our health insurance carrier pays medical bills for an individual when the costs reach a high dollar amount, currently $110,000 per incident. Since we now have fewer than 100 employees on our healthcare program, due to a number of older U.S. employees switching to Medicare, our stop-loss insurance carrier has raised our overall premium by 40 percent for the coming year.

Presently, we have bids from Cigna (an administrative only plan) and Aetna (a traditional, fully insured plan), but we expect at least one additional bid shortly.

Council members asked various questions for clarification. Rex Sexton asked whether the plans under consideration allowed for lower deductibles for our employees. Mr. Rowland explained that the administration itself sets the deductible and the employee premiums.

The relative urgency of seeking a new carrier is that that our current carrier is only willing to cover us for one more year. Mr. Sexton commented that when he was on a healthcare task force in 2003, their recommendation was to get coverage to avoid the catastrophic impact of multiple stop-loss run outs, thus limiting the impact of multiple $110,000 per incident impacts on the Church's budget.

Aaron Dean and Mr. Rowland requested that a “straw poll” be taken of the CoE on insurance philosophy so they could focus their energies regarding how much stop-loss risk we should consider. The Council's straw poll response was for the administration to focus on securing coverage that prevents stop-loss risk. To limit our stop-loss exposure will cost about $240,000 more than we presently spend, but would effectively reduce our risk of considerably higher costs.

Special Note: Ordination

Although not an official part of the Council meeting, after the Council broke for lunch, 2012 ABC graduate David Jones was ordained into the ministry while the 2013 ABC class and many home office employees observed. Council member Roc Corbett, who has known David and Joy Jones for two decades, gave the ordination prayer while most of the ABC faculty, the new president Victor Kubik, and at least one other Council member participated in the laying-on-of-hands ceremony. David Jones is continuing his pastoral training under the able tutelage of Mitchell Knapp in the Omaha, Nebraska; Des Moines, Iowa; and Sioux Falls and Watertown, South Dakota, circuit. The event served as valuable instruction in how the Church functions for the ABC students, many of whom had never witnessed a ministerial ordination.

Council Housekeeping—Robin Webber

In the afternoon session Mr. Webber led the Council in selecting dates for a videoconference to hold prior to the August Council meeting. May 22 was set as the date to populate the Council committees with members and select a chairman for each committee and for president Victor Kubik to present his selection of operation managers for CoE approval. The August meeting was set, including a full day of committee meetings, to extend from Sunday the 11th until Thursday the 15th and ending at 2:15 p.m. on the final day. Council members will travel on the previous Friday so they can speak in congregations within range of Cincinnati. The Council will also be meeting all day on Monday the 12th to engage in a “retreat” like environment to discuss spiritual matters pertinent to the Church.

Governing Documents Task Force Proposal

Roc Corbett proposed that the travel costs be funded for Bill Eddington to attend the August Council meeting in order to continue his work on the Governing Documents Task Force. The Council unanimously passed the proposal.

The Council then entered executive session to deal with some unfinished and regular business.

When open session was resumed, the Council presented cards and gifts of appreciation to out-going Council members Bob Berendt and Gary Antion for their years of faithful service on the Council of Elders.

The Council adjourned at 1:44 p.m.

Newly Seated Council's First Business Session

As stipulated in the Bylaws, the new Council was immediately called to order by Secretary Gerald Seelig who asked one of the two new Council members, Rex Sexton, to open with prayer. The newly seated Council then conducted a brief executive session to select a new deputy chairman (who chairs the Council whenever the regular chairman is unable to do so) to replace outgoing deputy chairman Gary Antion. When the session reopened a few minutes later, Scott Ashley was announced as the new deputy chairman.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:10 p.m.

-end-

Randy Stiver

Council Reporter

© 2013 United Church of God, an International Association