5 July 2015 | San Antonio, Texas, USA [Victor Hulbert, tedNEWS] After the high Sabbath, Sunday morning’s business session hit the ground with a bump. A total of 26 Church Manual revisions were proposed – only eight had been approved by the end of the day. Some were minor edits to make explanations more understandable or to make language more inclusive. Others were to clarify issues of church discipline, the authority of the General Conference, and to reconcile the Manual with GC working policy.
Such debates are for the technically minded – and those of that persuasion started right in with Jay Gallimore from the North American Division (NAD) asking to add the word ‘harmony’ into the sentence, “The Church Manual applies this principle of representation to the operations of the local congregation. General Conference Working Policy addresses how this principle functions in the rest of denominational structure.”
That was possibly the last time the word ‘harmony’ was used in the entire day. Despite calls for prayer at various points there was clear tension in the room and an ability to read this coming Wednesday’s debate on women’s ordination into every nuanced change in the Manual.
It is rare to see so many points of order called in one day. Rare to see so many revisions referred back to the Church Manual Review Committee, and rare that in 2½ hours of meeting only one decision was actually made.
Something else became clear to the delegates. Ninety percent of the comments for or against each proposal were coming from the North American Division (NAD) delegates. Those in NAD with views strongly opposed to women’s ordination appeared keen to get in a few pre-emptive strikes early on. Several times delegates, or the chair, had to point out that the proposed Church Manual changes and the forthcoming debate around issues of women’s ordination needed to be treated as clearly separate issues.
This came to a head during a debate on changing the word ‘minister’ to ‘pastor’ in one part of the Manual to bring consistency. That change also included one instance of replacing the word ‘man’ with the word ‘individuals’.
NAD President, Daniel Jackson emphasised that “this item is not referencing women’s ordination, it is about licensure to those who have the gift.” He also noted that “by being inclusive here we are allowing the usage of what the GC also allows.”
Pastor Sam Davis, South England Conference President stated, “Many of us have female pastors working for us and they will continue to work for us. We therefore need to be gender inclusive.”
Elizabeth Talbot (NAD) reminded the delegates that “in 1985, 30 years ago, we already voted that there should be licenced women pastors. That is not on the floor today or on Wednesday.”
Speaking as an elder-statesman of the Trans-European Division (TED), retired pastor, Cecil Perry, endeavoured to bring a semblance of order to the debate. “It is obvious that coming events are passing a shadow”, he said. “The use of semantics is a way of colouring what we want to say.”
He then pointed out that there seems to be a division between the emerging world and the developed world. “But in any language you will find the word ‘pastor’ has a similar meaning in a cultural point of view”, he stated, adding, “The word ‘minister’ is also a word of service. I am afraid from the information that I’m getting that there is a lot of anticipation that colours whatever is coming. That perception is greater than reality. Whatever we do, Wednesday is still in this room.”
To test his theory I sat at lunch with a group of leaders from Brazil and Chile. I asked them what they thought of the debate and why their delegation has sat through it so quietly. Their response was one of mission. They explained that women were very much involved in the running of their church and in outreach, but that currently ordination was not an issue in their area. They were somewhat distressed by the tone of the morning’s debate. For themselves they believed that each of their delegates should prayerfully make up their own mind and vote according to their conscience. Talking with East African colleagues later in the day the sentiment was one of bewilderment and wonder.
Audrey Andersson, TED Executive Secretary reflected, “This morning demonstrated the challenges of being part of a global church, what is obvious for one part of the world is a challenge for another.”
The ‘Global South’ got more involved in the afternoon debate on issues of church discipline and, in the final section of business, on whether a commissioned minister could lead in communion if not also ordained as a local elder. The Manual had sought to remove this anomaly. As Leigh Rice from Australia succinctly stated, “Our world needs to be inclusive and not exclusive.” The motion was carried.
Yet another challenge of the day was the final test of the electronic voting system – a problem ever since the Session opened for business. This test was also significant as various calls for secret ballets were becoming more insistent. The test was careful, methodical, and was overseen by the GC President himself, Pastor Ted Wilson. Stating, “I know some of you are very frustrated as we are”, he explained that up until now it the system had not performed at a level that would give confidence. A count of voting delegates followed by an electronic vote determined that confidence to still be lacking. While 1,737 delegates voted, only 1,288 votes were recorded. The margin of error was too great.
Moving back to traditional methods of voting Pastor Wilson emphasised, “We will not ask you to vote on sensitive matters by holding up your card… It is your responsibility to vote according to your own conscience between you and God, not because of what somebody told you. Sensitive issues will be by secret ballot.” Quite how sensitive is something still to be seen as, by the end of business, a request for secret ballot on nominating committee recommendations was rejected.
It was a difficult day but some progress was made. Around 3:30 pm a partial report from the nominating committee established the treasury and secretariat teams. Serving under Treasurer Juan Prestol-Puesán and Executive Secretary Dr GT Ng who were elected Friday will be:
Under treasurer
Mr Raymond Wahlen II
Associate treasurers
George Egwakle
Daisy JF Orion
Timothy H Aka
Associate Secretaries
Gary Krause
Karen Porter
John H Thomas
A further report recommending a reduced number of vice-presidents was referred back to the nominating committee and was still being discussed with the officers of the committee at close of business.
Swedish Union President, Göran Hanson, perhaps summed it up best. “Today has been a confusing day. There is a need to continue to support the process and be patient as we try to solve things together.”
To see more photos, please click here. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ted-adventist.org
tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify tedNEWS whenever you publish these materials.
