Sunday: Church Manual, Policy & Bylaws, & Nominations

by Loren Seibold  |  6 July 2025  |

We started out today with an “orientation” session for the delegates by Hensley Moorooven. Good solid principles—but this is the 4th day of the event, so ya gotta wonder why this wasn’t done first thing.

Hensley quotes this interesting passage from the Church Manual:

“It is not permissible for church or conference delegations to organize or attempt to direct their votes as a unit. … Each delegate should be susceptible to the direction of the Holy Spirit and vote according to personal convictions. Any church or conference officer or leader attempting to control the votes of a group of delegates would be considered disqualified for holding office.”

Back in 2020, in the vote against women’s ordination (WO) some said there was evidence that conference, union conference, and division leaders told their delegates to vote against WO because the General Conference (GC) president, Elder Wilson, wanted them to.

Delegate Leroy Abrahams (North American Division (NAD)) came up to make this excellent point:

“It is clear that GC committees have many of the same members, and senior leadership have collaborated and worked as a unit to create the agenda and present motions and candidates to us for approval. I find it hypocritical that delegates are banned from engaging in similar activities and threatened with disqualification from leadership roles if they do it. … Basic organizational theory, psychology, and history show us that it’s not the individual or the individuals who set the agenda and present the options that hold the true power.”

Leroy is right. Leaders discourage power moves by delegates because they want to keep all the power to themselves.

The unclean press

Where they have us sitting—those of us of the “unclean press”—has terrible acoustics. Almost unable to make out what they’re saying. I’m sure it isn’t intentional, but it surely expresses their lack of interest in us.

Jesus’ own reporters—those who work for the church—have nicer digs.

They won’t let us mix with them. Truth. The clean vs. the unclean.

So I am listening to the livestream, just as you do at home.

Business: Church Manual

My favorite church leader is leading the meeting today. I love Audrey Andersson. She’s a Brit, general vice president of the GC, and she’s a class act—so courteous to people.

I’d make Audrey Andersson the GC president.

An item from the last session is brought back: a statement that ministers should train the local church leadership to do evangelism. It is accompanied by lots of Ellen White quotes.

It always amazes me that people in offices, who do no actual ministry or evangelism, know precisely what a pastor should do. I would be more impressed if they took a break from their office work to be pastors now and then.

An amendment that would specify only pastors can conduct baptisms got voted down.

Timothy Standish, an unusually talkative delegate, points out that deacons aren’t mentioned. I think he’s right: deacons have devolved into offering-takers—and that’s not what the Bible says they are.

Overall, it seems, people loved the idea of defining pastors’ roles with more and more descriptors. Someone just added that his care for his family should be excellent, too.

The pastor, apparently, should be able to do everything—including making the laypeople do everything.

Good grief. They’re going to set the bar so high that no one wants to be a pastor anymore.

Afternoon: Policy & Bylaws

I told you before: there are always people who have to have an opinion on every item, no matter how small. They suggested a change to the policy and bylaws having to do with which year the membership is calculated in. I guess they want to calculate it earlier, to give more time for preparation. And people had to debate that!

There are two annual meetings of the GC Excom. The spring meeting of the GC Excom has traditionally been only for the budget, and it is attended virtually to save travel money. The autumn council is a face-to-face meeting, where people from all the divisions are invited. They now want permission to make significant decisions in the spring meeting—the virtual one. Hensley Moorooven says he wants everyone to trust that they will bring the important things to the autumn council, not the spring meeting—but they want permission to do it if they need to.

People weren’t all that happy with the idea—an important voice was Ginger Ketting-Weller of AIIAS (Adventist International Institute of Advanced Studies) in the Philippines—and it was referred back to the Policy & Bylaws Committee.

Adventist World is going away, and we’re going back to the Adventist Review, which means that name change was in the policy and bylaws.

Nominating Committee:

Rick McEdward is nominated to take the place of Erton Köhler as the General Conference secretary. He’s now the president of the Middle East & North Africa Division. Voted, by a large margin.

Paul Douglas nominated to continue as treasurer. Voted, again by a large margin.

General vice presidents of the GC are presented as a recommended team:

• Thomas L Lemon as general vice president of the General Conference
• Audrey E Andersson as general vice president of the General Conference
• Pierre E Omeler as general vice president of the General Conference
• Artur A Stele as general vice president of the General Conference
• Saw Samuel as general vice president of the General Conference
• Leonard A Johnson as general vice president of the General Conference
• Robert Osei-Bonsu as general vice president of the General Conference

There were some concerns expressed about voting them as a group, which were handily (and quite rudely, it seemed to me) brushed off by the chair.

But they were approved by a large margin.

Loren Seibold is the executive editor of Adventist Today.

To comment, click/tap here.