United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Quarterly Meeting Report
Milford, Ohio
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Chairman Robin Webber called the morning session to order around 9:00 a.m., and the meeting was opened with prayer. All 12 Council of Elders (CoE) members were present.
Bylaws Review
Roc Corbett welcomed everyone and commented that Bill Eddington would not be online for the meeting because of technical difficulties. Mr. Eddington will most likely present his section in the December meeting.
Mr. Corbett mentioned that the work on the Bylaws can be tedious, but it is important, and the goal is to get through them, if possible, by the end of the December meetings.
For the rest of the morning the Council continued to go through the Bylaws line by line from where they left off the previous day.
The Council went into the scheduled executive session at 11:45 a.m. until they took a break for lunch.
After lunch they had Council pictures taken, and the afternoon sessions were in open session.
Introduction of Procedural Amendment of What Constitutes 75 Percent Approval for Fundamental Beliefs
Roc Corbett, Roles and Rules Committee chairman, and Larry Darden, legal counsel, presented a purely informational discussion with the CoE to gain a sense of direction.
Mr. Corbett discussed how the committee has been going through the Church’s governing documents very carefully. The Documents Review Team has given careful thought to this process, and there may be some changes that will need specific amendments for approval due to moving beyond simply grammatical or technical issues. The topic of what constitutes 75 percent approval regarding Fundamental Beliefs is one of those areas. The committee is seeking input from the CoE and ultimately the GCE on this topic.
Article 2 of the Constitution consists of the Fundamental Beliefs, which are very important. If any are to be amended or added we have a higher percentage mark (75 percent) than any other item in our governing documents. Everyone’s desire is to maintain this specific safeguard of high percentages of approval related to this issue.
Here are the factors to consider: In article 5.1.1 of the Constitution there is a two-thirds majority needed, but the exception to this is the Fundamental Beliefs, where a three-fourths majority is needed. One of the issues is that over one-fourth of the elders of the GCE, for various reasons, do not ballot. Over the last 20 years this has increasingly become our reality. This makes it very difficult to make any edits or changes to the Fundamental Beliefs. Such a high standard without responsible measures to address it creates challenges if the Church is ever led to consider new scriptural understanding that may need to be incorporated into our accepted Fundamental Beliefs.
The Roles and Rules Committee drafted an amendment for possible consideration and thus this discussion. The change would consist of going from three-fourths of all General Conference of Elders members to three-fourths of those who actually take the interest and initiative to cast ballots.
Mr. Darden mentioned that this may not be the best way to change it, as changing section 5.1.1 by a two-thirds majority to pass an issue that has a three-fourths majority threshold.
Gerald Seelig asked if we are dealing with an interpretation. And if so then the Council cannot touch it, and it seems that we are asking Mr. Darden for an interpretation. Mr. Corbett concurred that we may be at that point.
Robin Webber said that in 20 years we have not changed any Fundamental Beliefs. We are simply considering a standard of consistency, and we do not want to touch the three-fourths formula by itself. Currently we are dealing with more elders that are not participating. Considering such a possible amendment would create a consistency in all our governing documents by a two-thirds affirmation of those actually casting ballots while at the same time maintaining a high threshold of 75 percent approval for change regarding Fundament Beliefs issues.
Mr. Seelig mentioned that there is another important issue that should be included with this. In 1995 when this original article was adopted it was with the mindset that all elders would have their way paid to the GCE. Two years later the elders no longer had their way paid, so it has affected this issue as well.
The CoE began going through these two sections (5.1 in Constitution and 7.1 in the Bylaws) giving input and comments. This discussion was recorded and can be watched for full details (http://coe.ucg.org/ [1]).
Mr. Webber concluded with a reminder that this is merely a discussion to gain the sense of the Council and see if they desire the Roles and Rules Committee to move forward and look at it in more detail for the December meetings. The majority agreed that it should go back to the Roles and Rules Committee for further study towards the December meetings.
There was brief break, and the CoE went into their scheduled executive session.
At 4:30 the CoE went into open session.
Expelled Elders Appeal Committee Material: Suspension/Expulsion of GCE Elders & Appeal Process
Mr. Corbett went through the Expelled Elders Appeal Committee (EEAC) material. He also mentioned that they want to get the input of the GCE. The committee is hoping to finalize this by December’s meetings. Today’s goal is to help the Council become familiar with the policy and procedure of this appeal process.
Mr. Darden pointed out that the right of appeal is only for those who are members of the GCE.
They went through the documents line by line. This discussion was recorded and can be watched for full details (http://coe.ucg.org/ [1]).
Council of Elders Retreat
Mr. Webber went through setting December 7, 2014 for the CoE retreat to give the CoE time to go through the Strategic Plan and where to go with it and how it is being implemented.
Don Ward thought it would be beneficial as long as they stay on target.
Mr. Webber agreed and said that it would be a time to discuss Scripture and that an agenda would be created to help the Council stay on target.
It was agreed upon by the Council to have it set on December 7, 2014.
The Council of Elders adjourned at 6:15 p.m.
-end-
Interim Council Reporter
Shawn Cortelyou
© 2014 United Church of God, an International Association
Links:
[1] http://coe.ucg.org/