ADCOM Alters Compliance Committee Rhetoric, “Regrets” Misunderstandings
19 September 2018 | Following a meeting of the General Conference Administrative Committee (ADCOM) on Sept 18, 2018, the body has admitted a mistake in the framing of the reporting relationship of recently formed compliance committees.
Although ADCOM had originally signalled that the compliance committees would be established by the General Conference Executive Committee, and that the committees would report directly to the General Conference Executive Committee, ADCOM has admitted that this is not normal protocol and claims that this widely reported arrangement was simply a communication error.
A September 18 news release by Adventist News Network, the official news agency of the GC, states that, per existing protocol, the compliance committees are established by and will report to ADCOM which will, in turn, “consider the report and may recommend through normal processes actions to the General Conference Executive Committee.”
The ANN report states that the “General Conference Administrative Committee regrets any misunderstandings that may have resulted from this oversight…”
At the September 18 meeting, ADCOM “voted to ask two of its newly created compliance review committees to look at some areas of perceived non-compliance.”
The first of these two areas is “non-compliance to the same financial core policy (S 90) for several years” by certain church entities. The compliance subcommittee will, “use existing policies and structures to recommend to ADCOM how to lead these entities toward compliant behavior.”
The other issue of “perceived non-compliance” has to do with church entities that are seen as not being in compliance with the highly controversial 2015 General Conference Session vote to deny division (world region) executive committees the right to “make provision for the ordination of women to the gospel ministry.”
Another September 18 ANN reports states that the updated document describing the role of the compliance committees, “is subject to further refinement, including by the GC and Division officers (GCDO) before reaching the floor of the Annual Council, where it is still open for revision before a vote is called.”
