UCG Reports on General Conference of Elders

Inside United Realtime blog (official UCG blog) has reported the results of the recent General Conference of Elders.

An amendment was approved that prohibits anyone from serving both on the Council of Elders and the management team. As a result, Mr. Aaron Dean and Mr. Victor Kubik are no longer on the Council of Elders. Mr. John Elliot will fill the vacancy left by Mr. Kubik. Mr. Roc Corbett will fill the vacancy left by Mr. Dean until July 1 when Mr. Donald Ward will fill that vacancy.

As of now, the members of the Council of Elders are:
Gary Antion
Scott Ashley
Bob Berendt
Bill Bradford
Roc Corbett
Bill Eddington
John Elliott
Roy Holladay
Darris McNeely
Melvin Rhodes (chairman)
Mario Seiglie
Robin Webber

On July 1, 2011, Donald Ward will take Roc Corbett’s seat.

There were a number of items voted on:
The 2011-2012 Strategic Plan was approved 226 yes to 8 no.
The 2011-2012 Operation Plan was approved 226 yes to 7 no.
The 2011-2012 Budget was approved 225 yes to 9 no.
Roy Holladay was ratified to retain his seat on the Council of Elders 205 yes to 28 no.
An amendment to Bylaws section 8.4.3 was adopted 205 yes to 28 no.
An amendment to Bylaws section 9.1 and 9.2 was adopted 201 yes to 29 no.

This gives a good picture of how the split has effected voting. The total number of ministers voting (230 to 234) is about half or less of the total voting before the split. So either UCG has lost half of its total number of ministers, or there is a higher percentage of ministers choosing not to vote than in the past.

Also, issues proposed were approved by overwhelming margins, unlike votes before the split when proposals were approved or defeated by narrow margins.

So the effect of split is that the ruling Council of Elders has a clear majority of the voting ministers approving their proposals, and this gives them more power and freedom of action. The Council governs a smaller church, but they have more control than they did before.

There are three related posts that report on these and other GCE matters in detail in the UCG blog. Here are links:

http://realtimeunited.wordpress.com/2011/05/15/gce-report-sunday-afternoon/

http://realtimeunited.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/additional-council-nomination-results/

http://realtimeunited.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/monday-general-conference-of-elders-report/

It will be interesting to see the direction UCG goes from this point on.


More to come...


Here are links to related sections in Preaching the Gospel:

A Brief History of the Scattering of the Church, Chapter 5

Government in the Church, Chapter 5

Following the Bible -- Pattern of Government, Chapter 6

Church Government, Chapter 7

How Is the Church Organized?, Chapter 7