Ditto! 20 times… Ditto!
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For those who “venerate” the church it won’t be a dilemma. The pain will come for those who are emotionally tied to the church from family ties and just history. For others it will be business as usual - a nominal church affiliation to access “church” while ignoring all the nonsense. It will promote division in that the factions already present will become entrenched; and certainly won’t help to unite anything.
There is nothing done as Christian service within the church, that can’t be done outside its walls. Church unity comes from common purpose and vision no matter the distance or time that separates its members.
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It has worked very well for me this way for about 40 years - at least since the “great disappointment” that I experienced in the early 80’s, right after Glacier View.
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This would be an equally foolish response to the GC. It would not solve the problem and would create a lot of uncertainty among the Swedish members. Dialogue is a much smarter choice. In the meantime we should be praying that the GC will realize the folly of their way.
I appreciate the Swedish Union’s creative way to address the issue of being in compliance with Working Policy and their efforts with the Trans European Division. I wonder if the dialogue could go more quickly? It has been nearly 4 years since the GC vote on this matter. I am in favor of all men and women being equally valued and affirmed in ministry, while I also affirm our church sticking together. The action at the Annual Council was not by Ted Wilson alone, but by the committee. His views on the matter are clear, but it was not he alone who took the action.
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Tom –
There Are Times when Committees are WRONG!!!
This is one of them.
The only thing one can do is Disregard the Committee Action!
Praise be to the Swedish Union for seeing THIS option!!
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Better art majors than many other things that I can think of…besides, those countries have robust economies and happy citizens. They must be doing some things right. 
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Agreed…they exhibit a profound understanding of many spiritual things that the much of the SDA world does not.
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But wait. I thought we all had to kowtow to the most conservative, the most regressive groups within the world church because there are more of them. What happened to that kernel of wisdom?
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Ted Wilson and team are hell bent on returning the church to some point in the distant past, to the “good old days” that never were.
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That “kernel of wisdom” certainly didn’t come from me. 
I will say it again, those Conservative voting parts of the world can either be “right” or they can have a “whole” church…these are the two choices and there are no others.
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Assuming you mean splitting the church is not biblical, then yes we should probably all return to the one and true universal church instead of constantly defying her authority and her teachings. Right?
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lol…let’s all go back to the “Universal” church. That Reformation was a fluke and we should all return back to the bosom of Catholicism.
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Exactly!
And while we’re at it also put all those books back into our bibles that we were arrogant enough to remove because we don’t like what they say.
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It could be the Adventist Bible Apocrapha Plus Version. 
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The General Conference contaminates us all with this censure of our Swedish colleagues.
The optics of this overt discrimination are odious— it is rotten, rank, and rancid,.
This miserable misogyny is medieval.
This blatant biased bigotry is base.and non Biblical.
While aimed at our clergywomen, it should be an affront to every female church member — who constitute the majority in our pews in every congregation, on Sabbath mornings!
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When GC Executive Committee members Clinton Wahlen, Doug Batchelor, and their colleague neo-subordinationists repent of their anti-Trinitarianism, when their views of the Trinity are brought into alignment with biblical Christianity, when these Committee members are able to credibly present themselves, as per the descriptive language of Athanasius (see his Four Discourses Against the Arians), as Christians, then I will accord a measure of relevance to the Committee’s actions.
When the African Committee members demonstrate that they are capable of governing themselves, when they remedy the shameful catastrophes they have wrought in Kenya and Burundi, when they instill some confidence in the rest of us that Rwanda will not be repeated and that they will not at some point in the future swing machetes and chop people’s heads off, then I will accord a measure of relevance to what those Committee members think.
When third world Committee members present financials for audit, when the audits are allowed to take place, and when those third world Committee members prove that they are not lining their pockets with God’s money, then I will think of the Committee as something other than a comical group of hustlers and grifters who regard the Seventh-day Adventist Church as little more than the succulent teat they are presently biting upon.
I would not look to Committee members Kathryn Proffitt, Natasha Dysenger, and their ilk if I were in need of heart surgery or the heart-soaring inspiration of a fine performance of Beethoven’s violin concerto. That makes me an elitist, I guess. Perhaps they should be allowed to cut hearts open, butcher Beethoven’s sacred work, and make a mess of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. When the Committee truly represents the body of Christ in which the parts of the body are spiritually gifted in what they do, then such Committee can credibly act and speak with authority. At present, the Committee’s authority is expressly and demonstrably: None. And we rightfully choose to exercise our God-given human right of personal conscience as we refuse to follow the Committee’s dictates that there be discrimination against women.
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Amen to every word…
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Define church and baptism
Churches where constructed in the SDA
Its like saying church of England and a Catholic takeover.
by LAW its a takeover
we keep quoting percentages % why ?
bible isn’t a percentage is it ?
we can twist the meaning of fundamental 14 but do we break any others
as the church voted it isn’t breaking any
Geeeshhhh, do you really need to be so rigorous with those people? What about cutting them a slack? After all, one day they may help us by taking the GC headquarters to their territory, thus giving us a break here in the US. It’s time, isn’t it? We have had the honor of having the GC among us for over 150 years or so. Let’s not be so selfish now… Let’s share the blessing with other peoples…
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