This page will be updated throughout Sunday . . .
This morning at AC22, GC legal (Karnik Doukmetzian) and Hensley Mooroven presented the 900-page GC Working Policy (GCWP) and stressed the importance of Conferences and Union conforming their constitutions after the Model Constitution,
The GCWP is the collection of the Church’s global leadership decisions regarding how entities live and work together. It is therefore the authoritative voice of the church in all matters pertaining to the mission and to the administration of the work of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination in all parts of the world.
The work in every organization shall be administered in full harmony with the policies of the General Conference and of the divisions respectively. No departure from these policies shall be made without prior approval from the General Conference Executive Committee. (B 15 10).
“The bottom line: Compliance with Working Policy is a standard of conduct for Seventh-day Adventist organizations. “If you throw policy away, policy will also throw you away sooner or later” (Hensley Mooroven).
Our model documents are what keeps us together (Karnik).
When Unions and Conferences take actions that are not in harmony with the voted actions of the world church, there are consequences that those organizations will face (Karnik).
Hensley said that they have electronic versions of the 2022 GC Working Policy available. Doukmetzian stressed that these electronic version should NOT be shared on the internet or social media.
Karnik showed on screen the model constitution for unions from the GC Working Policy. He then showed a copy of the Columbia Union Policy — Article III (without naming the Union), which deviates from the GC Policy. Now to the microphones,
Kathy Proffitt: “We are seeing deviations from the voted actions of the world church. What can we do?
Karnick: We come together we discuss, we agree [not always, Sir] we vote. This is the forum where we take care of those disagreements. When Unions and Conferences take actions that are not in harmony with the voted actions of the world church, there are consequences that those organizations will face.
Allistair Huong: “This is my first Annual Council. You have impressed upon me the importance of staying together. Question, what are some of the consequences if church entities don’t do according to what you just presented to us?”
Karnik: “I don’t want to hold everyone back from lunch, so why don’t you and I talk, and I will share some of those things with you and we’ll let everybody else go to lunch.” This was, in my opinion, a poor answer. Maybe the rest of Annual Council will address these much-needed consequences, but this answer was a cop out for now.
Karnik’s explanation of Working Policy begins at 3:55.02
Allistair Huong’s question is at 4:12.25
Karnik’s non-answer is at 4:13.01
Afternoon
Ganoune Diop spoke about religious liberty. He said religious liberty is a political principle, and a human right. He waxed eloquent about liberty of conscience, using many words but saying little. Curiously he quoted Ellen White about not compromising our conscience, yet said nothing about sweeping encroaches into bodily autonomy and personal liberty from Covid mandates. he said for a group to try and force one’s conscience is an abuse of power. Hear hear.
However, forcing people’s conscience on the jab is what the GC Health Department and PARL were doing, even stating in the Reaffirmation statement that they support the jab mandate, when millions of SDA members did not.
He Diop) said human beings are sacred.. While he may have meant well, I believe this statement could be misunderstood or misused. Life is sacred. Human beings are not divine, only God is.
Summary: Liberty of conscience has tremendous implications for the end times and should be preserved and strengthened. Mere platitudes won’t help. Now, the good news and bad news . . .
Habemus novum editorem
Justin Kim is the new editor of the Review Magazine. That’s good (nay, great) news.
Bill Knott was made Associate Director of Public Affairs. That means he and Ganoune Diop will be working hand in hand.
Huh.
The nominating committee met and returned many names. Delegates were forced to vote on huge chunks of names (from 9 at a time to 57 in a chunk). This is unethical, allowing people who should not be in leadership positions (ie rascals) to be voted in on the strength of other (decent) people. Fix that.
AAA Accreditation. Mrs. Lisa Hardy was voted as chairman of this group. There were several Church administrators added to this committee. Andrea Luxton went to the microphone and complained that the administrators added to the AAA Committee were not ‘peers’ of educators. Ted Wilson said this change was necessary, and that settles that. It passed.
It could be a good thing, if these administrators hold our colleges accountable to the beliefs and standards of the SDA church. Personally, I think many of our GC leaders are concerned about the LGBTQ tsunami ravaging our culture, and hope to build a seawall against it in our colleges & schools.. I hope they do.
