Analysis: The Use of General Conference Working Policy in the Case of Unions that Ordain Women

[Mission777 (Andre van Rensburg)]

It seems that the GC had a hidden agenda with the San Antonio 2015, GC Session.

Why was WO ordination even mentioned in relation to each Division deciding what is best to fulfil its Mission?

Two issues were combined:
Firstly de-centralised authority - from the GC to the Divisions and
Secondly WO.

By combining these two issues: the GC would have known that those who are anti-WO would defeat the motion.

At the same time by combining these two issues: The GC would have known that the vote is thus also against decentralised authority.

Was this the intentionally strategy? Or was this lack of leadership that took our world wide church down this treacherous and divisive path.

Unfortunately it seems a similar scenario is being put in place at this Annual Council. This time the strategy is to label those who are pro-WO as rebellious and in need of repentance since they are against authority(centralised).
Thus again the issue of WO and authority is combined.

The tragedy is that there is no room for negotiation. The GC under Elder Wilson believes that they have the authority and need to protect the world wide church. Those who are for women’s ordination are acting according to their conscious and decentralised authority. We are facing a lose- lose situation.

God have mercy on our church

Andre van Rensburg

[ezbord (ROBIN VANDERMOLEN)]

Attorney Michael Tyner,
Your expert legal opinion and elucidation is appreciated but as a retired physician, I find all this jargon, all these codas to “working policies” tiresome,
frustrating and inimical to my spiritual well being.

Does SALVATION have to be so legally complicated??

If as a professional, I find this matter complicated, what about the Adventist plumber, carpenter and other blue collar folks?

Our church is largely made up of these splendid, hard working people. Do we need an advanced degree to remain Adventist and to cope with the latest denominational developments.
And what of the semi literate, or even illiterate tribal people we are proselytizing in New Guinea jungles and in African shanty towns?

GIVE ME THAT OLD TIME RELIGION IT’S GOOD ENOUGH FOR ME!

At age eighty, all this legal gobbledygook hastens my exodus to the local United Methodist Church, where a simple “old time religion” is preached with fervor, where women pastors have been ordained since 1956,
where the senior pastor in the Methodist church I love, is a woman, the equivalent of their conference president is a women, and their newly elected Bishop ( somewhat equivalent to our Union Conference president), is a women.

No infighting, no disputes, no rancor, no animosity, no quibbling over legal/theological minutiae, no worrisome “working policies”.

That “old time religion” will be good,enough for me!

[vandieman (jeremy)]

i don’t think NAD is going to initiate B95 under any circumstances…there’s no point in discussing it…dan jackson is probably the most pro-WO division president in the church, and he’s in office until at least indianapolis…and at that point we may have a pro-WO GC president…

it doesn’t look to me like the GC has any trump cards that can be played in order to discipline unions without the cooperation of NAD…we seem to be in a structural impasse, which is probably good news for unions in this instance…

[harrpa]

it doesn’t look to me like the GC has any trump cards that can be played in order to discipline unions without the cooperation of NAD…we seem to be in a structural impasse, which is probably good news for unions in this instance…

This is why the G.C. needed to vote this document, which gives it the power to intervene if the “union” isn’t doing its job. The G.C. can then, as the “highest power of God on earth” take over and power through. That’s why this document is so critical to TW and why he said it was “urgent” to act now.