United Church of God, an International Association
Council of Elders Meeting Report
Dec. 7, 2010—Cincinnati, Ohio

(Reporter’s note: We mistakenly stated at the end of the Dec. 6 Council meeting report that the meetings on Dec. 7 were all executive session; however, the opening session was in open session and here is its report. Please accept our apologies.)

Chairman Melvin Rhodes opened the Dec. 7 Council meeting at 9:12 a.m. Eastern Time by asking Scott Ashley to open in prayer. The meeting was held at the Holiday Inn Eastgate.

Mr. Rhodes informed the Council that he received three resignations from the Council of Elders this morning, two of which just before 9 a.m., namely from David Treybig, Dave Baker and Mike Blackwell. This does mean that Victor Kubik, who was present at the meeting, is now on the Council, and it also means that Joel Meeker, the next in line, will be invited back on the Council. Mr. Rhodes said that he would contact Mr. Meeker.

The Council secretary, Gerald Seelig, explained that there were three men in line, but the third had resigned from the Church. There are no more candidates in line. The Council can continue to operate as it has a quorum of at least eight members. After these changes, the 10 Council members present at the meeting were: Scott Ashley, Robert Berendt, Aaron Dean, Bill Eddington, Roy Holladay, Victor Kubik, Darris McNeely, Melvin Rhodes, Mario Seiglie and Robin Webber. Also present were Dennis Luker, Gerald Seelig, Larry Darden, Peter Eddington and Ken Murray.

Bill Eddington was invited to discuss one item outstanding from yesterday, regarding the setting up of procedure documents related to various committees. He suggested that a member from the Council should be present at the Fundamentals Belief amendment committee. The Council agreed that a member from the Council, possibly the chairman of the Doctrine Committee, should be present at the Fundamentals Belief amendment committee, even if as a non-voting member. Mr. Eddington was granted permission to discuss the matter with Ralph Levy, the chairman of the Fundamental Belief amendment committee, so that his input on this particular matter is considered. Mr. Eddington will inform the Council via e-mail and amend the procedures document being developed accordingly.

Update on the Latin American Situation

Mr. Rhodes then invited Mario Seiglie to update the Council on the situation in Latin America.

Mr. Seiglie referred to a map of Latin America and stated that we now have Jorge de Campos, a Portuguese-speaking minister, with responsibility over Brazil and Portugal. This is the first time that we have a Portuguese-speaking director who can speak in their own language, and it is a great blessing. He continued by addressing the Spanish-speaking areas.

We had five Feast sites, namely in Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Bolivia and Chile, with a total attendance of 469 members. The monthly member attendance average is 443 (about 40 brethren more than before the Feast). The total number of members at the beginning of 2010 was 2,048, which means that approximately 1,600 are not with UCGIA and some of these are in remote areas.

We have a team of seven ministers and three deacons looking after these brethren. The elders, in addition to Mario Seiglie are: Mark Rorem, from San Francisco, California; Braden Veller, from Tampa, Florida; Fred Nance, from Little Rock, Arkansas; Miguel Gutierrez, from Los Angeles, California; Israel Robledo, helping in Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and El Salvador; and Jaime Gallardo, in Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. The deacons are: Scott Hoefker, from Nebraska; Raul Machicao in Bolivia; and Wanderson Esquerdo (who speaks Spanish and Portuguese).

Roy Holladay asked how they serve the members with regular services. The answer was that in addition to regular services, they hold Web-based live services from Chile (Santiago) and Mexico.

Mr. Seiglie then explained that the Spanish GN (Buenas Noticias) subscription list was at approximately 19,000 at the beginning of the year. We only received lists from the Latin American area for 10,000 subscribers. Due to an advertising campaign in November, in the period of two weeks we received an additional 10,000 subscriber requests. The Spanish mailing list had not been regularly renewed. We plan to have an annual renewal program and will advertise to add new subscribers as the list is renewed. Scott Ashley asked if we had any plans to promote the Spanish GN in the United States. Peter Eddington stated we currently have several thousand subscribers in the United States.

Mr. Seiglie then updated the Council that the Colombian members have been involved in dubbing the Beyond Today program into Spanish.

He next presented a brief synopsis of events that led to the current crisis and plans for the future. Mr. Seiglie commented on how we grieve for what has happened, and that we had tried to reach out to the Latin American elders in four different attempts to have them reconsider their decision to submit to the governing authorities of UCGIA. We gave them five months and they were contacted by telephone. Only then did we send them a letter asking them what was their decision—whether they desired to remain with UCGIA or if they planned to go with another organization. As a result of each one’s response, their UCGIA ministerial credentials were removed.

Dennis Luker added that Eduardo Hernandez had called him before the Feast to work out a time to come in, and considering that Mr. Hernandez is bilingual while Mr. Luker is not, he asked Mr. Hernandez to contact the other men and see if they were willing to come in as well.

Mr. Seiglie explained that we also had others trying to contact these pastors, but without positive results. Each time we tried to explain our position to the brethren, because many are isolated and only have access to the Internet. Sadly, the doors have been slammed.

Mr. Seiglie said when a regional director of the Church refuses to come up to the home office to discuss matters with the Council of Elders and the administration, refuses to accept his removal even when offered the possibility of other assignments, and then takes ministers and members with him to start his own church organization—that is not acceptable. It goes against biblical principles and against our governing principles. We are all to be subject to the authority above us.

Mr. Seiglie explained that the Council and administration were forced to react to the decisions made by some in the Latin American ministry. The Church’s actions were precipitated when the regional director refused to follow reasonable directives and proceeded to take these ministers and many brethren out of UCGIA with him.

The English translation of the public letter of June 23, 2010, which was signed by most of the ministry in Latin America, highlights what we have had to face:

“We, the undersigned ministers, consider the removal of Mr. Walker as an unjust, unethical and unfair action. Therefore, we are giving you the opportunity to reconsider your decision. However, if your decision to remove him as our Regional Director still stands, then we want to express the following: We inform you that we will not accept anybody else to be our director. None of the undersigning ministers will accept Mr. Walker’s removal. We will not accept anyone as his replacement. If the Council or the President decides to impose another person against our will as our director, we will not accept that individual, and if he attempts to come to our areas as the new Regional Director, we will not receive him nor will he be allowed to speak in our congregations.”

Mr. Seiglie challenged everyone’s thinking: This is how it started. How do you react to something like this? This is a threat: “If you do not do our will, then we will not accept anyone else.” This sets a precedent as an “acceptable law.” If it is allowed, then the cycle will be repeated. For instance, in a local area, if the pastor is removed, and the local elders say, “We are not going to accept anyone that you send, and we will not accept the governing documents…” that would clearly not be tolerated.

If that is not acceptable in a local area, if it is not acceptable in UCGIA, then it cannot be acceptable in Latin America, particularly since we don’t have local National Councils with delegated authority to select pastors (or the regional director). We do have legal entities in Latin America, so that we can operate, but do not have National Councils with the governing board authority to select its pastors. The Latin American area is governed as an administrative entity, a regional director who in turn was a paid U.S. minister and thereby subject to the president of UCGIA and to its governing board, the Council of Elders.

The question is therefore, who separated? The Church has not taken any action against the brethren. They are free to choose and are welcome to attend with UCGIA. However, according to our Rules of Association we cannot have two competing organizations in the same area.

In 2 Timothy:2:5And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive lawfully., the Good News Bible says, “An athlete who runs in a race cannot win the prize unless he obeys the rules.” Imagine if during the time of Paul, everyone had the right to take brethren and separate themselves from being under the apostles. When we received our credentials as elders in UCGIA, we all signed a document agreeing to be subject to these governing documents. When we received our credentials, we committed ourselves as elders of the Church to comply with the rules set up according to biblical principles.

If we say, “We can break the rules—that’s okay—the important thing is forgiveness,” then we have signed our death warrant and opened the doors to chaos in the Church, Mr. Seiglie said.

Here are the future plans for serving the UCGIA brethren in Latin America:

• We will continue to take care of the flock under the guidance of Mr. Luker as the Spanish regional director and the Council of Elders. We have a team of ministers and developed leaders. We will get the gospel out powerfully to these areas.
• The path of reconciliation is working within the governing documents, not outside of them, as some wish. Reconciliation is not capitulation of our founding principles, which are themselves based on biblical principles.
• We will provide spiritual, financial and legal help to these areas, including scholarships for our youth. They are not being abandoned.

The term ‘faithful’ has been battered around. The definition is “firm adherence to duty, faithful to his job, faithful to his wife, faithful in the church.” According to UCG Bylaws, one of the Council of Elders’ responsibilities as per Bylaw 8.6.2 (1) is “to select and remove all officers, agents and employees; to prescribe duties for them; to approve their compensation; and to require from them their faithful service.” When we are talking about a faithful minister in the Church, we are also talking about a person who is adhering to the duties, that he is faithful, that he has subscribed himself to be, as a credentialed elder of UCGIA supervised by the home office. In other words, one who is faithful, by definition of our governing documents, to work within the framework of these biblical founding principles.

Mr. Luker thanked Mr. Seiglie for believing in these principles that were based on the Bible. We all know that the most important thing is the Word of God, the source of the spiritual principles that our founding documents are based upon. We all prayed and fasted about them, when United began. Mr. Luker admitted that it has been a difficult time for Mr. Seiglie and his family, and thanked him and his wife for faithfully fighting such a grueling spiritual battle.

Larry Darden asked about pastoral training for these men. Mr. Seiglie said that Mr. Gallardo and Mr. Robledo are capable, they stood firm, and they both left good paying jobs to serve in the Church. Training will be provided on the job as required.

Roy Holladay, speaking for the rest of the Council and the administration, offered reassurance for the Latin American brethren that we will not abandon them. We will continue to support them.

“We need to train the young people,” Darris McNeely commented with regards to camps for the youth, and how we can incorporate our Youth Corps to have projects to benefit our youth in Latin America. Mr. Seiglie said that we have two youth camps that will take place this month in Guatemala and in Chile, as we continue to provide a home and an atmosphere for them to grow in the Church.

Bill Eddington asked what the Council can do to reassure these people that we will look after them. Mario suggested two ways:

• To send a letter from the Council to these areas, so it can be read. Robin Webber followed on that and suggested that we could personalize the letter to each congregation and appointed elder.
• To have personal visits by Council members accompanying our visiting ministers, thus providing a supportive presence. We can do simultaneous translation.

Mario Seiglie then asked Peter Eddington to describe a few things that the brethren there suggested. He explained that the brethren in Latin America have been pleading: “Please don’t forget us.” They tried over the years, for a decade, to write to the home office with their concerns about what they saw happening and the way they were being treated. But often their letters just got sent back to the regional director or to their local pastor and they felt betrayed. So they said, don’t forget about us. Remember that we are here, visit us, write to us, support the work we are trying to do. Mr. Eddington said that was the message he got from them.

Mr. Rhodes added that when Council members go down there to speak, not to be put off by the fact that the Council member doesn’t speak Spanish. The people appreciate the fact of a visitor—even if they don’t speak the language. He also added that we need someone from the United States in each country or each Feast site every year. We need to make sure we do that, particularly for the Feast, and that it happens every year.

Mr. Seiglie thanked everyone and concluded his update. The chairman called for a break and explained that the rest of the day would be executive sessions. The open session adjourned at 10:18 a.m.

-end-

Jorge de Campos
Stand-in Council Reporter

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