After several months of dialogue and gathering data, the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Unity Oversight Committee has begun outlining elements of a compliance process that will be considered by world church leaders later this year. The Committee, which met May 14 at the church’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, had a positive and productive time together and is moving toward consensus on the basic elements of the document that will go to Annual Council in October, said Mike Ryan, who chairs the group.
The committee is part of the “Unity in Mission: Procedures in Church Reconciliation” process voted by the church’s General Conference (GC) Executive Committee during its 2016 Annual Council.
During its May 14 meeting, the committee discussed the first steps in drafting an outline of a document to be brought to the 2018 Annual Council which will be held in October, according to Ryan.
“Consensus is forming around a few points to be included in the outline,” Ryan said, “although it is still under development.” He also pointed out that “the dialogues with the world divisions and various unions have been very helpful and have guided the writing committee in its outline.”
By the end of this month, members of the committee will have met with the leaders of 12 of the 14 world church entities (13 divisions and one attached union), according to Hensley Moorooven, secretary of the Unity Oversight Committee.
“These have been very cordial and candid dialogues,” Moorooven said.
Meetings with the remaining two entities are scheduled to take place in the next few weeks, and according to Moorooven, the work of the committee will be informed by the input received, indicating their input will be considered before the document is finalized.
According to Ryan, some of the elements included in the document will be:
an acknowledgement that the church operates on trust, and that the administrative level closest to the issue of non-compliance will be the one trusted and responsible for bringing about compliance.
the next higher administrative level is tasked with the responsibility of overview, and administrators are expected to create an atmosphere by which compliance and unity may be achieved.
In dealing with non-compliance, administrators are asked to continue to use good judgment, maturity, and discretion.
existing General Conference policies and guidelines are available as tools for administrators in dealing with issues of non-compliance.
a listing of consequences for non-compliance.
a process of recourse.
Ryan emphasized the document is still in its outline stage and “between now and August we will be in the development process.”
The document will be released in its entirety once it is considered and voted by the GC Administrative Committee (ADCOM). From there it is sent to the General Conference and Division Officers (GCDO) Committee before going to the GC Executive Committee at its Annual Council in October.
This article originally appeared on the Adventist News Network website. Image courtesy of ANN.
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Its time for a timeout. Before we move forward with compliance issues maybe it is time to pause and look at the policy it self as to whether it is good policy and determine who really has issue with the policy. Some times policy is just wrong on its face regardless of how much we have invested in it. Sports teams do it all the time for making the game better. There are still referees and umpires. Secondly there is the issues of ownership. In reviewing these preliminary drafts is it responsible management to defer implementation. In other words after your have thrown up over everything, you want the next level of administration to clean up your mess. Something is wrong with this picture.
WHEN will the Witch-hunt begin???
WILL we use DUNKING as part of the interigation process??
Is THIS another RUSE to PREVENT FULL INCLUSION by ALL to be allowed to
have a FULL PARTICIPATING ROLE in the Development and the LEADERSHIP
of the World Church AROUND THE WORLD, and in EVERY CORNER???
Bluntly – Is this to keep out women, anointed by the Holy Spirit, from being elected
to any office in the World Church, including being President of the General Conference??
NO. 2 – Is this to PREVENT scholarship from investigating and presenting papers on
Biblical Studies, especially the ability to have improved understanding of the messages
of the Hebrew and Greek than was known in the 1600’s, 1700’s, 1800’s?
No. 3 – Is this to GAG Religion Departments in our Universities?? the 1st successful
attempt was at Southern in the early 80’s. Worked very well. Will our ministerial students
have to go outside our Universities to find “freedom in Biblical Studies”??
All this while our NAD President, Dan Jackson, meets with students at Walla Walla for a discussion (telecast) and assures them that they are needed. How counterproductive this compliance process will be to many young adult Adventists. I pray that, somehow, the spirit of Elder Jackson’s efforts will prevail. Our dear church is divided against itself and I don’t perceive a desire for healing from the GC similar to that of the NAD.
Right after the creation of TOSC was announced, I called it “FAKE-TOSC” and predicted that it was only a façade aiming to give the impression to the world church that the GC was indeed doing something about the WO issue. But I also warned that the GC already had it very clear what results they were expecting from the new fake “study group.”
Then, … what happened? The results of the over $1mi TOSC didn’t meet the GC’s criteria (expectations), so the whole thing went to the trash and the GC came up with the in-famous question to be voted on. And it all backfired because the question was poorly worded and was confusing.
Well, here we go again with the “Outlining Compliance Process” (OCP). So, listen, read my lips: This is nothing but another fake project, one designed to again put up a façade. How much is this one going to cost? Do they have a budget already established? Will they be transparent and reveal the actual cost of this new futile exercise?
Make no mistake: The final product is certainly already locked in some safe somewhere “upstairs.” And only a few of those black suited guys upstairs have the lock’s key (if not only one person…)
All this OCP is nothing but another cheap maneuver to give the impression that people (you know, the commons…) are being consulted and included. Baloney again!
Such misguided foolishness. God never forces. Have our leaders not read the book of Acts? How was church unity handled by the apostles? Certainly not like this. If the church continues to allow Wilson to continue down this path he will damage many innocent victims. Enough is enough. Quit the witch hunt.
The GC will keep on starting committee after committees until they have exhausted our church’s valuable resources and finally get their way. First it was “grave consequences”, followed by prayers every 15 minutes during meetings, then the infamous 14-page document. Now another “Oversight Committee has begun.” How much data is needed to discover that our GC leadership will never stop until they have subjugated the unions to their will?
When will they ever listen to our prophet George @GeorgeTichy?
Elmer,
That’s what happens when money pours in, in a true free fall, and nobody cares about how it is spent. Any CEO in a worldly company would have already been fired at this time due to business/financial malpractice. But I guess the power of prayer keeps malpractice holy!
Unbelievable.
I wish this news brief read that GC leaders are seeking to encourage the practice of the Beatitudes. They reveal key character traits that God approves in his people.
Jesus answers the great question of the purpose of life. What makes people truly happy, satisfied and living a meaningful life. Often translated “human flourishing.”
Blessed are the poor in spirit—not poverty but being detached from materialism. Not taken up with status, wealth, position of honor—as signs of God’s favor. As a means to oppress and take advantage of others.
The Beatitudes—focus on virtues, not outward behavior. Being angry, lusting, making oaths, hating, being merciful, generous, peaceful, patient in conflict—these are heart matters.
Compliance and unity are being equated. How blind is this? The world church voted for enforced uniformity. It is now being enacted by TW and the suits… in flowery language. The path of unity as outlined in Acts 15 and Paul’s letters is nowhere to be found.
Just remember that what this fake committee was assigned to find is any way to portray a façade that they are looking for unity when in reality they will come up with an enforceable “compliance document.”
The committee needs to clarify whether churches who have ordained women as local elders are out of compliance with policy. The church manual does not provide for women as local elders because it has never been voted at a full GC session. It was voted by the GC executive in 1984 and has been implemented in th NA division by some churches. However many are opposed to it. Pastor Wilson reviewed the situation in his presidential perspectives last year - http://perspectives.adventist.org/en/questions-answers/questions/go/2017-11-17/has-general-conference-session-approved-ordained-female-church-elders/
this outline of the soon-to-be-released compliance process document seems quite friendly and helpful…it doesn’t seem to be motivated by retribution, which is probably as it should be…
Inherent in this “the next higher administrative level” concept is a complete change in the power structure of the SDA church. The power grab by the GC and the President continues.
Historically the SDA power was in the local congregation, then in the lay members of the local union, and that was it. Local Conference employees were servants of the local congregations.
Union Conferences were servants of the Local Conferences. The General Conference was a service organisation designed to help the Union Conferences. The GC President was just an administrator whose only power was persuasion.
Suddenly the GC President gets to be the “next higher administrative level” above the GC VP’s, who are above the GC employees, who are above the Union Conferences, who are above the Local Conferences, who are above the Local Congregations.
Except, of course, there has been no legal change. The Union Conferences are still legally independent of the GC.
The only question here is “will the SDA deliberately and willfully remake their organization into a pope-led top-down power-structure organization”.
Fascinating to watch in my own lifetime exactly the processes at work that gave birth to the Roman Catholic style of governance.
The governance…we say represents God’s…has become an image of the beast…that we once so loved to hate.
Busily planning, hewing, engraving, we seem to have taken our eyes off the savior, and are becoming what we’ve been looking at.
My question is, what is God’s “compliance program”, and how does it differ compared to this?
Rhet–
the Articles of The Inquisition are being written before our very eyes.
Think shades of the Times of Wycliffe in England. There are already
forms that EACH teacher has to sign, or be declared a Marginal SDA
in our schools and Universities.
Some places, oversight of what the Professors actually say in the classroom.
All this is going on in the GC towards the Unions and the Laity in the Local
churches are hopelessly IGNORANT of the Great Transition in the Seventh
day Adventist Denomination World Wide.
When it is ALL finally accomplished by the few in the GC, it will be promoted
in the Church Paper from the GC as a Wonderful Happening for the Church.
There will be NO WAY then to turn back the Hands of Time to 1901 GC.
