If I remember right there are to be a 144,000 million virgins following my Lord around day and night wherever He goes. One cannot be doing that while restructuring an obsolete edifice.
I am sure Paul said somewhere that great unity comes from great division. I’ll have to look that one up.
Lord, have mercy.
It seems to me there are two issues at stake here: authority and spirituality/morality/theology. The WO ordiination/church governance issue comprises both. It is not easy to determine with precision as to whether the SA vote was primarily about either one or the other. It may not even be relevant. My take is that there is bit of each. If it is to do with scriptural teaching, there in none regarding WO or men’s ordination to the pastoral work, for that matter. Ordination to the Gospel Ministry is purely an ecclesiastical policy matter. Be that as it may should GCEXCOM come to a comprise settlement with what is perceived as “renegade” and “rebellious” unions that have gone ahead with WO thereby challenging, at best, or flouting, at worst, the will and vote of the World Church on two occasions, and should GCEXCOM turn a blind eye, or look the other way, there will be voices that will loudly condemn that laissez-faire approach. On the other hand, should GCEXCOM ignore the alarm bells coming from respectable sources and instigate disciplinary measures there is likely to be be an ecclesiastical earthquake within Adventism of enormous proportion. Salvation history might repeat itself such as what happened when Judah and Israel split. Whatever the outcome of it all, God is still in control. Let us not be dismayed nor discouraged by church politics. In the grand scheme of things, is it really not worth losing sleep, or our soul over? Rather let’s pray for the leadership. EGW would say: Press together. Press together. Press together.