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Saturday 14 November 2009

Flying in to Cincinnati

What's happening in Cincinnati this weekend? Word - as yet unconfirmed - is that a gaggle of elders is flying in to roost at Home Office, and they're not happy chappies. Rumors are flying too. To put it diplomatically, we've heard that a matter of discipline may be involved.

So far all we have are questions, but it seems indisputable that UCG has indeed been blessed with "interesting times."

61 comments:

Anonymous said...

But but but but United has left all the mistakes of the past behind! They do not engage in gossip and politics and murmurings the way they used to before! Perish the thought!

Even money says one of the n00bie bloggers is about to get a royal smackdown.

Sorry, what was that about the United Church of God being "liberal" and "progressive" and "the party church"?

Please. They are just as rotten a cult as the mother cult they sprang from. Make no mistake, they are a cult too. No matter how much hue and cry they raise trying to convince mainstream Christians that they are real Christians.

The United Church of God is not a Christian organization, at least not by technical definitions of mainstream Christian organizations.

It is scenes like the above which goes to prove the United Church of God isn't Christian in spirit either.

Anonymous said...

Based on what I've read at Mike Bennett's web site, I hope they're NOT banning snacks after services.

Anonymous said...

Gavin, what is your source for this?

Gavin said...

Well anon, it obviously isn't an official press release. The source is however one I know and have learned to trust, or I wouldn't have used it. I've kept the item reasonably vague, however, just in case wires have been crossed somewhere earlier along the line.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the clarification on your source Gavin. I was just curious. I have been watching the current situation with United's Council of Elders with great interest the last couple years. My observation is that this situation will come to a head at some point because the current makeup of the UCG Council does not represent the perspective of the majority of the fulltime ministry of United and the ministers who work within the current UCG administration. They were seemingly, by and large, elected by local elders (who are unpaid). How an organization can continue to operate when the majority of it's employees do not support the views and decisions of their leadership remains to be seen. People need to look into the men on UCG's Council because they will find that the majority bloc of that group is a group of longtime friends who have views that don't represent the views of many of the other ministers in United. Anyone can see that it has not been working well. So it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Anonymous said...

Big split coming. Remember, there is nothing united about United. Their infighting and politicking has let to this.

Vaughn said...

Well, it's about time! Women have been wearing pants to services and, Brethren, this must STOP!

Anonymous said...

My UCG Pastor didn't say anything about this at services today.

The Regional Pastors met in CIN this past week. The "Senior Pastors" who oversee parts of the international ministries are due to hold a conference next.

The next scheduled meeting of the COE is supposed to be in the first full week of December.

Corky said...

Oooo, heads will roll, sabbaticals will be taken.

Brethren, the ball has been dropped and now heads will be chopped.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous said:
"My observation is that this situation will come to a head at some point because the current makeup of the UCG Council does not represent the perspective of the majority of the fulltime ministry of United and the ministers who work within the current UCG administration. They were seemingly, by and large, elected by local elders (who are unpaid)."

Uhhh—Isn't this the same as saying that "the majority of the fulltime ministry of United and the ministers who work within the current UCG administration" don't represent the perspective of the majority of the elders in UCG? Or am I missing something?

Anonymous said...

It's only wishful thinking that this meeting will be the precipitant to any split in UCG. Self-preservation will temper any reaction, and the almighty dollar will be the glue that keeps the ministers/elders unified.

I would love to see the collapse of UCG, but I doubt it will ever happen. Most likely the organization will slowly wither away as members begin dying off and there are no new converts to replace them. This is unfortunate, as a sudden and overwhelming collapse would be the best thing this organization could do for humanity.

Questeruk said...

Whenever there is the slightest hint of a problem, real or imagined, the vultures flock and gather.

Think that says something.

Anonymous said...

BARNA: Study of Leaders Identifies Their Weaknesses
http://www.barna.org/barna-update/article/17-leadership/319-study-of-leaders-identifies-their-weaknesses

Effective leaders are expected to possess a variety of skills that produce measurable results. The latest study from The Barna Group shows that most leaders are at their best when it comes to using existing resources – and at their worst when it comes to developing needed resources.

Anonymous said...

"This is unfortunate, as a sudden and overwhelming collapse would be the best thing this organization could do for humanity.

Agreed!

Russell Miller said...

Questeruk, yes, it says they are a hated and reviled organization that needs to be pushing up daisies, shuffling off the mortal coil, being an ex-UCG.

Questeruk said...

Russell, you know so many members of UCG are actually great and genuine people.

Yet you wish them ill, and you ardently hope that people have messed up.

Sort of makes more vivid the thought ‘Then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.’

Find that rather sad.

Corky said...

A lot of folks these days are waking up to the fact that priesthoods and clergy are simply parasites on the rest of humanity.

I watched an episode of "Divorce Court" where a whacko had spent all the couple's money and sold all their possessions because of the 2012 hoax.

I could have cheered when the judge awarded half of what the whacko had already wasted to the wife.

I wonder though, how the whacko will feel about being broke and divorced when 12/21/12 passes without the world coming to an end.

Much the same as some of us felt, I suspect, when 1975 in Prophecy failed and we were left faced with the facts of wasted years, money, property, opportunities and divorces.

At least we weren't told to commit suicide - and I'm sure some or all of us would have if HWA had said so. That sounds dangerous, doesn't it? It is, and that's an example of what religion does to people's minds.

I would love to see all the CoG splinters fall apart and die out but that's just wishful thinking. They will be around forever, because "a sucker is born every minute".

Neotherm said...

The outcome will be interesting. If they split, will they split over something substantive? Or will it be a power play using some technicality as a pretext.

Will the new organizations both claim to be the true church? Will UCG laymembers buy into that malarkey?

How long will it be before the lay membership of the UCG realizes that it is being manipulated and used.

Don Ward once stated that the all the political upheavals in the world are rooted in "man's desire to control other men's minds." We have seen that exemplified recently in the bizarre and evangelical fervor that entered into the creationism vs evolution exchange.

The Bear

Leonardo said...

It appears to me that one of the greatest sources of division within the ranks of UCGer's, aside from the perennial bickering amongst the ministry, is between the old time Armstrongists and the relatively younger members.

For example, I keep in contact with an elderly lady in UCG, one who I deeply respect and think the world of, in spite of her current religious affiliation. But she will complain to me about the silliest things. She gets really upset about women wearing pantsuits to services, or even when she sees someone take a drink of water out of a small water bottle during the church service, which folks often do these days. But she perceives such things as somehow being disrespectful to God, whom she believes, in standard WCG form, to literally be present at the service. She also gets upset with UCG's policy about third tithe, which she views as terribly watered-down from what it was under HWA's administration.

There are the old time, hard-core Armstrongists basically on one side, and the younger generations of members who frequently attend UCG for merely social reasons, or because they were raised in the WCG and it’s the only religion they know and are familiar with on the other.

I attended with UCG between 1995 and 1998, and I observed that many of the younger members (say, middle age and younger) didn’t really have the same sort of hard-line devotion to and dedication toward the distinctive old-time WCG doctrines still held and taught by the UCG, their passion toward "The Great Commission" just wasn't as intense, etc., that the older members expressed and were willing to sacrifice for.

Just my observation.

PurpleHymnal said...

"...the vultures flock and gather."

So enlighten us again why YOU'RE here, Questeruk? Planning a little report for the Council of Evil yourself, are you? Because surely YOU'RE not one of those "vultures" you're sitting in smug judgement over.

Feeling the need to comment or ask questions about secret meetings and speculate about political unrest in a closed high-demand religious group that we were once members of, does not make us "vultures".

You know, you make a good show of being open-minded and willing to dialog --- but then you come out with zingers like these, and your fully-indoctrinated CoG status is plain for all to see.

We aren't vultures, Questeruk, and yeah we shouldn't care one way or the other what the Council of Evil is doing about their little (very little) cult imploding from within. Maybe there will come a time when none of us will feel the need to comment, or wonder about what's going on, behind the iron curtains of the splinter groups.

So much for your "united" Church of God. You probably didn't even know about this little development IN YOUR OWN CHURCH, until you read about it on AW.

That is a very bad sign, Questeruk, I hope you will soon be able to realize that.

Tkach's $wiss Banker said...

Prediction: The biggest timebomb for UCG is British Israelism. The progressives know it has to go, but the hardliners won't hear of it. Expect this to blow up any moment.

Anonymous said...

"...sees someone take a drink of water out of a small water bottle during the church service, which folks often do these days.


with 2hr sermons folks need to do something....sometimes it gets quite painful sitting on poorly padded chairs for so long.

personally, i think a minister should be able to make his point in 45min to 1hr.....if he can't, then maybe he shouldn't be up there to start with.

Anonymous said...

"At least we weren't told to commit suicide - and I'm sure some or all of us would have if HWA had said so."


only those that were following the man.....

Questeruk said...

“That is a very bad sign, Questeruk, I hope you will soon be able to realize that.”

The point I was making was the approach.

Let’s put it this way:-

If someone posted ‘Rumour has it that that Aggie/Leonardo/Corky or whoever has just got xxx problem’, and the reaction on the board was ‘That’s just great, let’s really hope its true’, with the discussion on how this will hopefully destroy the particular person.

If that happened, I would deplore that, and I would be speaking out against such an attitude, whoever the person was.

My point was referring to the membership of UCG, most of whom are sincere people, with sincere beliefs, and the rejoicing on this board, in effect hoping that there lives will once again become devastated.

Wishing ill upon thousands of peoples lives, based on a rumour, was what I was objecting to. But you consider that is ‘a very bad sign’, Aggie?

Russell Miller said...

Questeruk, I said *organization*. Please learn to read. Nowhere did I say I wished any ill towards the members.

Questeruk said...

Basically an organisation consists of its members

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Anonymous said, "personally, i think a minister should be able to make his point in 45min to 1hr.....if he can't, then maybe he shouldn't be up there to start with."

MY COMMENT - Then you never heard God's traveling evangelist Gerald "Go Water the house of God" Waterhouse. Commissioned by the Apostle of God himself, Waterhouse could go on, and on, and on for hours.

Richard

Anonymous said...

Anon posted: "only those that were following the man....."


Your herbie did say, "Follow *ME*, I will lead you to the Kingdom!"

His words, not mine.

Anonymous said...

Basically an organisation consists of its members"

That's a bullsh*t argument, and you know it. The only members in UCG are the paid ministers. Go read the by-laws. The average rank-and-file tithepayer is not legally a member. This has been discussed time and again on this forum AND in UCG publications/services.

The paid ministry will act in their own self-interest every time, screwing the individual tithepayer if it serves the ministry to do so. Just look at the conduct of Richard Pinelli through the years, and how the organization refused to stop him time and again... Same can be said for...others.

(Edited)

Leonardo said...

Anonymous 7:21 wrote:
"personally, i think a minister should be able to make his point in 45min to 1hr.....if he can't, then maybe he shouldn't be up there to start with."


Amen, Anon. Your comment reminds me of what someone once said to me, that one of the most boring things to have to listen to is a minister giing a sermon and who has basically made his point in 20 minutes, and yet, because of church tradition, keeps talking for another hour.

What an accurate observation that was!

Leonardo said...

Questeruk wrote:
"...the membership of UCG, most of whom are sincere people, with sincere beliefs...."


I agree with you here, Quest.

Most UCG (or any COG) members are indeed very sincere. I don’t question that. But so was Hitler and Stalin. So is Osama Bin Laden.

But in practical reality “sincerity” is often a synonym for "foolishly misguided."

So sooner or later, people will have to begin taking personal responsibility and start adding common sense and rational thinking to their constellation of virtues, because sincerity alone just won’t cut it of and by itself.

Questeruk said...

“The only members in UCG are the paid ministers. Go read the by-laws. The average rank-and-file tithepayer is not legally a member.”

I am not trying to stir things here, because I realise it is a sensitive subject, but my statement was describing the reality of the situation, not some ‘legal definition’.

I am sure that you actually do understand that I was not using the ‘legal definition’, but instead what is in reality a ‘sensible’ definition of an organisation – that ‘members’ of an organisation are the people that support and identify with that organisation.

When WCG was a corporation sole you could say that legally there was only one member, HWA himself. But it would not be realistic to say that WCG had only one member, when for years there were over 100,000 attending the FOT, a good percentage of which supported and identified with the organisation, and considered themselves to be members.

That is why I said “Basically an organisation consists of its members”. In other words, the membership of an organisation consists of those people that support and identify with the particular organisation.

Disagree with the definition if you like, but please do understand that is the way in which I was using it.

Anonymous said...

"Your herbie did say, "Follow *ME*, I will lead you to the Kingdom!" "


well charlie.....sounds like you were following the man...

Anonymous said...

Questeruk wrote:

"... sincere..."

The motivational speaker, Jim Rohn, says, "Judge sincerity on the sincerity scale and judge truth on the truth scale."

If only we had all done that.

Anonymous said...

"and the reaction on the board was ‘That’s just great, let’s really hope its true’, with the discussion on how this will hopefully destroy the particular person."


you've just summed up the prevailing attitude on boards such as this...and it's so sad.

they don't see that all of that anger is simply eating them up from the inside...it affects no one other than themselves.

Anonymous said...

"made his point in 20 minutes, and yet, because of church tradition, keeps talking for another hour."


i've experienced that myself leon....it's as if they circle around and start at the beginning again because they're using the same scriptures they started with, but tradition says they must speak for a certain length of time....

and i never had the pleasure of hearing gerald waterhouse...but i've heard elders talk about him and the wonderful sermons he gave.....for some reason i get the feeling they are just being kind.
i would probaby have made it a point to sit in the back when he was speaking so i could slip out without disruption after an hour or so....

Anonymous said...

UCG Member Here

Does anyone know whey they are assembling in Cincinnati? What are the issues and trouble brewing?

Also Anon 5:46 Relax. There is only one body and one spirit if you believe the scripture. If you don't, there is no purpose to post and complain. Sounds like you are a local elder who wants to stick it to the administration. No body forces anyone to tithe and not be a member.

For all those that think UCG and some other CoGs are cults, no body forces us to attend, give offerings or believe the commandments should be kept.

As for BI, what does it have to do with salvation? Jesus stated there are two great commandments Love God, Love your fellow man. BI is interesting but is not salvational!
People should relax and become God like and not full of hatred. Most posts on this site in my opinion are hateful and of satan. I enjoy reading what others say and think and don't get my "panties" in a wad for the crazy comments.

So can any one explain what the issues are going on in UCG?

I have about 10 complaints but would like to get it worked out in UCG before posting on AW. This site is useful in keeping some the CoGs in line so all the dirt, and they know what dirt is coming to the surface.

larry said...

Leonardo, it is the height of insincerity and ignorance to equate in any manner, good and decent people with the most hideously evil people of all time.

Please refrain from such nonsense.

PurpleHymnal said...

"Wishing ill upon thousands of peoples lives, based on a rumour, was what I was objecting to."

I wasn't wishing them ill, Questeruk, I wish all eleven thousand members of the United Church of God had their freedom. And I include you in that wish as well.

Anonymous said...

Just look at the conduct of Richard Pinelli through the years, and how the organization refused to stop him time and again.

Richard Pinelli! Now there's a blast from the past! He used to be (in)famous for being one-half of what was referred to as the Scourge of Toronto --- Pinelli and Earle on your doorstep was a sure sign of "trials and tribulations" shortly to come!

        AMERICAN KABUKI said...

Questeruk said...

Basically an organisation consists of its members



The "organization" is a control structure wrapped around its members. Its sole purpose is to control its members and take their money in exchange for sermons once a week that tell them how really rotten they are and how much they need the control structure (by men who face moral censure - if I read between the lines correctly) in order to know God.

They COGs have always been more diligent about enforcing "morality" on the members than on the control structure. The control structure might even go as far as to bury the moral problems so that the members don't lose faith in the control structure.

When they speak of scripture, they put themselves in the place of God. When they speak of their own weaknesses - well suddenly they "only human" just like the members.

What I'd like to know is where is "the only human" part when they make absurd prophecies and put forth onerous edicts that really only amount to one man's opionion of scripture and lifestyle.

Anonymous said...

Half the people who take up space at the UCG meetings would be a complete disgrace to any church anywhere.

And the other half would not be associating with the first half unless there were something wrong with them too.

The UCG should hurry up and go back into the world, and stop wasting everyone's time by pretending to care about truth.

Corky said...

Anonymous said...
"At least we weren't told to commit suicide - and I'm sure some or all of us would have if HWA had said so."


only those that were following the man.....

Who, not that. only those who were following the man, which they/we all were. Otherwise we would not be the victims of all the false doctrines and prophecies of that man.

You cannot say that you weren't fooled, conned, duped by that man either, since you still are.

Stan Gardner said...

Anon said,

"The only members in UCG are the paid ministers. Go read the by-laws. The average rank-and-file tithepayer is not legally a member. This has been discussed time and again on this forum AND in UCG publications/services.

The paid ministry will act in their own self-interest every time, screwing the individual tithe payer if it serves the ministry to do so."

A subset of the UCG ministry as defined in the bylaws constitute the controlling legal membership of the UCG Association. The UCG definition excludes the laity from the prerogatives of legal membership in the UCG Association. They don't count.

Questeruk said,

"...but my statement was describing the reality of the situation, not some ‘legal definition’.

I am sure that you actually do understand that I was not using the ‘legal definition’, but instead what is in reality a ‘sensible’ definition of an organisation – that ‘members’ of an organisation are the people that support and identify with that organisation.

When WCG was a corporation sole you could say legally there was only one member, HWA himself. But it would not be realistic to say that WCG had only one member, when for years there were over 100,000 attending the FOT, a good percentage of which supported and identified with the organisation, and considered themselves to be members."

While loyal Worldwiders might generally have considers themselves members in an informal sense, in reality they had no legal standing whatever as corporate members in the Radio/WCG organizations. And those same loyalists still don't have standing in Tkach Jr.'s WCG/GCI!

Only the appointed members of Armstrong's COE Church Association had any legal standing in the WCG, subject to Armstrong's whim of dismissal from his 'Council of Evil'.

It could be fairly said that the WCG was legally a ONE-member church when he created the WCG corporate sole, which he utilized to try to legally evade the fraud investigation of his California WCG Church Association with COE.

The WCG Church Association is the pinnacle legal structure that controls everything- the Colleges, 1947 California church business corporation, and other affiliated WCG legal entities. The renamed Church Association still does control over what remains of WCG/GCI.

HWA used a WCG corporate sole as the ultimate form of one-man, one-member control during the receivership.

However, the secretly held Pasadena WCG Church Association bylaws also gave him control as the one-man, one-member as a de facto god who controlled all in the WCG.
The COE was mostly there as window dressing and as a administrative convenience. The COEs had no authority independent of Armstrong, who could fire all of them and revoke their standing as legal members of both the WCG Church Assocation and of its subordinate California religious corporation.

Tkach Jr. is enjoying the same lifetime Church Assocation control structure that the portly octagenarian Armstrong did.

The present WCG/GCI claims to take the fiduciary responsibilities of the COE quite seriously.
But no complete or periodic WCG financial statements are issued by the Church Association, which is a red flag for fraud.

Tkach Jr. retains the same core Church Association bylaws Armstrong had when he appointed his father eternal Pastor General. So in reality, despite Tkach talk of consensus, the lengthy US Church Administrative Manual, and renaming the WCG, Tkach Jr. is legally running a one-man, one-member church. Just as Armstrong was the only legal de facto member of the COG, multimillionaire Tkach's Jr.'s vote in the Church Association is the one vote that really, legally counts in his sect.

Stan Gardner

Anonymous said...

The comments on this blog are disturbing in the sense that we all should have matured enough to realize Yahshua does things through and with people in His Body according to His desires in His own time. He is the One who stated the wheat and tares would dwell together until His return, to rail against the tares is to rail against Him because He is the one who allows them to dwell with the wheat for reasons that we cannot understand but that accomplish His purpose.

I realize I probably will be called self-righteous for this post, but hey, we all need to be lights, especially to those who dwell among us...there is a light in the household as well as a light to the world. I suggest we pray for positive outcomes, because as flawed as all of the W(CoGs) are, they have and still are, being used by Yahshua for growth in His Body.

See...He implies we are to dwell in the synagogues (fellowships) until we are booted out, could this be because we need to develop patience, mercy, compassion...love, even for those who do evil? I think so. He did for us.

Mel said...

Anon 10:37:00 AM stated-
"See...He implies we are to dwell in the synagogues (fellowships) until we are booted out"

Interesting concept.
I'm not sure I'm reading you right, though.

Are you one who didn't believe in the WCG's "changes", yet stayed there and spoke out against them until you were booted out?

And have you attended other congregations, telling them they are wrong about this-n-that, until they booted you out?

Something tells me that may be true, but I could be wrong.
You aren't Tom M. by any chance, are you? That would explain a couple of things.

Anyhow, I personally don't see how such actions achieve much of anything other than the person self-righteously high-fiving himself.

Anonymous said...

Anon 10:37 says "we all should have matured enough to realize Yahshua does things through and with people in His Body according to His desires in His own time". Geez, this guy is into it DEEP. Where do they get this stuff? Of course, it's only the result of mental gymnastics in their own minds. They can't provide any evidence whatsoever.

Anon 10:37, I've matured to the point where I realize you guys are making it all up. "Yahshua", aka "Jesus Christ", aka "a fraud perpetuated thousands of years ago that still persists", aka "a figment of your imagination", is NOT doing what you claim. Wake up and realize it.

The Skeptic

        AMERICAN KABUKI said...

Anonymous said...

The comments on this blog are disturbing in the sense that we all should have matured enough to realize Yahshua does things through and with people in His Body according to His desires in His own time.


I take it you're a holy-namer? Not many people realize there is a segment of Armstrongists who have gone off into "holy name" land. I wasn't aware they watched this blog.

Anonymous said...

Bamboo quoted and commented on Anon 5:45...

Anon: "The comments on this blog are disturbing in the sense that we all should have matured enough to realize Yahshua does things through and with people in His Body according to His desires in His own time."

Bamboo: "I take it you're a holy-namer? Not many people realize there is a segment of Armstrongists who have gone off into "holy name" land. I wasn't aware they watched this blog."

So I looked up Joshua's name in the book named after him. Moses had changed Hoshea's (Hosea's) name to Yehoshua just before Moses' retirement. Centuries later the NT Joseph named his son after the earlier Josephite hero, Joshua (Yehoshua). NT translators kept an anglicized Greek form of the name in our English NTs -- but holy namers won't hear of it. They give Jesus/Joshua/Yehoshua/Yeshua yet another name for who knows why.

Yahshua. For holiness?

The first Joshua had been a great general, his name was mega-popular during the 1st century (as Yeshua or Yehoshua) as it is to this day (as Joshua). Imagine the looks one would get, during the conquest of Canaan, by calling Moses' successor "General (Aluf) Yahshua."

My guess is that Jesus' mom probably called him something more like Shuy, or even Chuy, like Latina mothers call their little Jesuses. And I'll lay you a dollar to a doughnut that she never called him Yahshua.

Anonymous said...

Didn't Paul once ask, "Is Christ divided?!"

How does one answer that?

Anonymous said...

"Didn't Paul once ask, 'Is Christ divided?!'

How does one answer that?"


Absofrakkinglutely!

M. T. Hall said...

"Didn't Paul once ask, 'Is Christ divided?!'

How does one answer that?"

Well since James the Jew who upheld law hated Paul who wrote Romans. Since Peter hated Paul and Paul scorned Peter, James and John as reputed pillars,"who they are makes no difference to me...I learned NOTHING from them." Since John hated Peter as no different than Judas and all the Ephesian Jewish Christians hated Paul and left him wondering what was wrong with THEM.....

that's the answer. Jesus was divided before the body cooled.

Anonymous said...

>>Rumors are flying too. To put it diplomatically, we've heard that a matter of discipline may be involved.<<<


A week has passed....

No news Yet??

Is this a case of........

Much ado about nothing

Anoneemoose

Gavin said...

The event (which was apparently played out in Houston rather than Cincinnati) seems pretty much under wraps. AW has a copy of a letter which apparently provoked this situation, but we're keeping it to one side for the moment until things become a bit clearer.

Anonymous said...

"The event (which was apparently played out in Houston rather than Cincinnati)"

So your "source" was a deliberately-leaked diversion Gavin. Are you very surprised.

Ask yourselves United Church of God members: Why does the church still practice outright baldfaced lying to "the worldly under Satan's deception"??

and here just some time ago on this very blog the UCG elder responsible for trying to convince us that United isn't the same old church we remember, tried to tell us that no such thing had ever happened in the church, past, or present.

the cognitive dissonance goes up to 11

Anonymous said...

When you posting the letter? It is an interesting read, but not supported with facts.

Doesn't paint a pretty picture for the new council.

Anonymous said...

Gavin,
Can you post the above mentioned letter? Since it was mentioned, I'm sure many would like to see what this is all about.
Thanks.

Anonymous said...

Assuming this has to do with a less than polite Elder's forum post...when are you going to post it Gavin???

Anonymous said...

Annonymous said;;;Anonymous said:
"My observation is that this situation will come to a head at some point because the current makeup of the UCG Council does not represent the perspective of the majority of the fulltime ministry of United and the ministers who work within the current UCG administration. They were seemingly, by and large, elected by local elders (who are unpaid)."

But these unpaid elders vote represented the majority of the members. My respect goes higly for the elders who are not paid and have a major part in the voting process because they work in the real world. Many are business savy and they felt it necessary to place men in that would better handle the business side of running the church.

The decisions that have been made the last few years under the current administration could have bankrupt the church because of the direction they were headed.

A heartfelt thankss to these unpaid elders because they serve the brethren on a volunteer basis without a paycheck from United. They also can make a sound decision, and a sound vote without fear of being fired as paid minister have to be concerned about when they cast their votes! The church is better served because of these men who stood in the gap and voted to make a change on the council!

Anonymous said...

When are you posting the letter? This doesn't seem like the type of blog that is afraid of statements being 100% correct before posting.

Gavin said...

Gimme a break. The letter was forwarded in confidence, and I still am waiting for the OK to put it online. It's not a very good letter. It's not a particularly lucid letter. It's a measure of how things are in UCG, I guess, that the High and Mighty Ones are bothered enough by it to run around in ever decreasing circles.

Believe me, you haven't missed much. No names named in the adultery allegations... in fact the writer has a bigger snit over the failure of the Texas move, if I'm reading him right.