A live report from the 2005 US National Conference and General Conference.
Written, with occasionally annoying commentary, by Steve Dennie, UB Communications Director

Thursday

June 23 - Page 2

And we're back, after taking both the US National Conference photo and the General Conference photo. Lots of squinting out on the steps opposite of the Merillat Centre.

Dan Paternoster moved that "bishop emeritus" status be granted to Bishop Paul Hirschy. It passed unanimously, and everyone applauded our bishop for the past four years.

"You have been a great group to work with," Bishop Hirschy said. He said we've gotten a great deal of work accomplished, and attitudes have been good.

Staff Resignations

Tom Datema moved that the conference reconsider the motion George Kreger brought yesterday regarding requiring resignations of the Headquarters staff. The motion was that all Headquarters staff be required to tender their resignations dated September 30, 2005. Tom said he understand the reason for it, and realizes that the Bishop needs to hire his own senior staff, but doesn't want to include that for the support staff. They need "due process." He said we could create a situation where we won't get the best people, because they'll want to go to a more secure situation, rather than one (I'm putting words in his mouth, to get his full intent) where they must resign every time there is a change in the bishopric.

A voice vote was taken, and it was close. The motion to reconsider passed 32-18. So the motion is back on the floor, says the Bishop.

Denny Miller stands and says a motion to reconsider requires a two-thirds vote. They're looking it up. Craig Burkholder, the Parliamentarian, sitting right in front of me, is now on his feet paging through Roberts Rules. It is ruled that only a simple majority is needed to reconsider.

Tom Datema then makes a motion to rescind the motion.

Joe Abu favored rescinding the motion in the interests of continuity. There are other ways to take care of making staff changes, he says.

David Rawley also wants it rescinded. He said he voted against it yesterday and has never liked the idea. He said a new boss shouldn't arbitrarily assume a person can't perform the job, but give them the opportunity to prove themselves, and the opportunity to remove them is always there.

Sharon Frank asked, "If their service is terminated, what does that do to their years of service? Will it continue? If they resign, they end their affiliation with the group." Does something end and then have to be restarted, she is wondering. Paul Hirschy says he's not sure how all of that would work.

Luke Fetters said he voted in favor of it yesterday, and fully supports the idea that the bishop, especially at the higher levels, needs to be able to create his own team. But now he's against it. "I don't think it's hearsay to suggest that in two situations within the past two years, we have had people at Headquarters in significant positions" who were offered good positions at other organizations, with better security, and chose to take those opportunities. So we lost two very good employees. "We're creating an environment where that will be the thinking every two years." So he'll vote to rescind.

He was talking about Susan Hoopingarner, former secretary to Bishop Hirschy, who took a job with Youth for Christ in Fort Wayne, in light of the uncertain future of her position. And Janet Bilyew, Finance Director, who took a position with the Missionary Church.

Bishop Hirschy said we need a motion on the floor, that we need a motion to do something. Tom Brodbeck says we, essentially, have not made a decision on this action, because we are reconsidering it. So if people vote no, they are saying they don't want George Kreger's motion from yesterday to be implemented.

A vote was taken, and it failed on a voice vote. So it's not policy.

Randy Carpenter leaned over to me and said, "Welcome back."

10:55 am

Baptism Requirement for Membership

A proposal was presented to require persons to be baptized before being accepted into membership. Now, we only ask, "Are you baptized, or are you willing to be baptized at your earliest convenience." Both Denny Miller and Gayle Ruble Sr. spoke against it.

Paul Fetters spoke for it, saying he inherited churches where people hadn't found it "convenient" to be baptized for many years. He says baptism is the first act of obedience after conversion, and is a public declaration of your faith. Plus, he has UB students in classes who want to know if they should be baptized. He tells them, "If you're asking me as a pastor, get baptized tomorrow." He says it's the first public statement of your conversion. He developed his arguments a bit further, and then sat down.

Sam Quinn (California) says he likes the wording we have, and is against the proposal.

The voice vote was close, so the Bishop called for division. Hands go up. Sounded to me like the change probably lost. Yep, it did. Lost 33-22.

National Church Covenant

The requirement that a church has "signed and returned the national church covenent" was included as a requirement for organizing a church. That was Proposal 22-1. The wording came from Daryl Elliott of Mid-Atlantic.

Afiliate Local Church

Tom Brodbeck moved to delete chaper 25, Affiliate Local Church, from the Discipline. That done, he brought in the following recommendation from Central Conference, which the annual conference passed in 2004.

The following recommendation was made by the 2003 Session of the Central Annual Conference:

That the Central Conference ask the U. S. National Conference for permission to receive its four affiliate churches as full-member congregations with the following understandings:

1. That those members of secret societies currently on each church's membership roll be received as full members of that congregation.

2. That these congregations no longer receive members of secret societies into church membership.

3. That no member of the church who is also a member of a secret society shall be eligible to serve as a member of the Council of Administration or as a delegate to any annual, national, or general conference, nor shall they be eligible for any ministerial licensing.

Tom explained that the remaining affiliate members in those churches who are still lodge members are now elderly. There are three affiliate congregations in Mid-Atlantic, and four in Central.

Michael Mudge (advisory, Mid-Atlantic) said two of the three affiliate churches in Mid-Atlantic have never had masons as members. So this would only affect one church. Michael led one or two churches from affiliate to full-member status.

Daryl Elliot (Mid-Atlantic) pastors that particular church. He says that his church wants to become a full-member church, and if this recommendation doesn't pass, they'll be in trouble, because they can't sign the local church covenant and would therefore no longer be a UB church.

Don Scoville (Michindoh) said his church just recently accepted a person into the church who gave up his masonic affiliation, because he wanted to be a United Brethren member. "He is a real witness in our community," he said.

Daryl Elliott said he understand the sentiment against this motion, but says there is some hypocrisy, because he knows personally of masons who are members of other full-member United Brethren churches and have served on boards of administration. Tom Brodbeck says persons in Central's affiliate churches know of the same thing having happened in full-member churches in Central Conference. He also mentions that we have had a prohibition against members drinking alcohol, but many UB churches have taken in members who consume alcohol. People in affiliate churches are wondering why one particular issue of integrity is being singled out.

Ardith Shideler (Central lay) says her church in Central has masons taken in by a pastor in the past. She notes a provision in past Disciplines which says masons could be taken in and put on an "affiliate member role," but we have since removed that category of membership, so those persons don't have a legitimate place anymore.

George Kreger suggested that we just need to put together another referendum to remove the prohibition of lodge members from the Constitution. That way, we can avoid charges that we're trying to do an end-run around the Constitution. (There were some gasps in the gallery. This is an emotional, historic stand in the UB church.)

Michael Mudge says he doesn't sense a desire to remove that prohibition. But he says we've had a 36-year covenant relationship with a few churches, and we need to honor that. He said no churches will be taking in new lodge members, and the current ones are elderly and will be dying off. He doesn't want Central churches being thrown into turmoil, having to choose between local church members and membership in the denomination.

Paul Fetters is speaking in favor of the proposal. He said we started something 36 years ago, and now we're finishing it.

A vote was taken, and the proposal from Central Conference passed. Current lodge members in affiliate churches can now be full UB members. This doesn't affect lodge members in current full-member churches, who shouldn't be members to begin with.

Revising the Discipline

This recommendation from the Discipline Revision Committee was passed:

That the Executive Leadership Team provide the necessary procedures, philosophical and practical guidelines, and personnel for a complete rewrite and streamlining of the UB Discipline. That care be given not only to the content, but to imparting consistency in writing style and tone. And that the Discipline be redesigned in such a way that it will be more conducive to revision in a meeting which could possibly include 500 delegates.

Other Issues from the DRC

The DRC raised several questions, but without recommendations. The first one was: since we're now revising the Discipline every two years, should we still have a commercially-printed version of the Discipline? That would be expensive and have only half the shelf-life of the current Discipline.

There are comments about maybe just doing a downloadable PDF version. Someone suggested doing a hard-copy print only every four years.

Tom Brodbeck made a motion that the Discipline be provided only in PDF format.

Joe Abu felt we needed hard copy, especially since many people don't have computers. Others felt the same way. But the motion passed. So I'll still need to design the Discipline in an attractive format, but we won't spend thousands of dollars doing a commercial print version in large quantity.

12:00 Noon.

Finance Committee

I totally forgot about the budget. We hadn't gotten to it yet.

There are actually two proposed budgets. One is based on the current system, in which money for denominational ministries is sent through the annual conferences. The other is based on a cluster system, with local churches sending 3.5% of their income to support the US National Conference ministries.

An amendment was proposed that "No congregation will be assessed more than $60,000."

A screen up front is being used to project motions. When Anthony Blair came to speak to the issue, he said, "I don't like what is on the screen."

It read, "No one congregation be assed more than $60,000."

Todd Fetters, secretary of the conference, stood and said, "For those of you who think I'm doing that--I'm not." The blame actually goes to Mark Ralph, a page, who is running the computer on the projector. Mark fixed the wording.

Denny Miller and others spoke against the cap as worded. Denny thought there should be a better way to do it. When the vote was taken, it failed.

12:15

We're creeping past the designated adjournment time.

"Is there any other business?" Bishop Hirschy asks.

Ted Doolittle says there is some confusion about the length of term of the bishop. The idea of a four-year term has been in the air, but the Constitution requires that a bishop be elected at each national conference. Denny Miller offerd a motion that a recommendation be passed that the Nominating Committee for 2007 offer on the ballot only the name of the current bishop, Ron Ramsey. Then we can get the Constitution amended.

Well, that looks like it. The bishop is asking people to turn in their name badges so they can be reused. People are packing up their stuff. Pages are collecting expense vouchers.

Wow, this puppy went a whole lot more smoothly than I was expecting.

Brian Magnus came to the microphone and suggested that the General Conference start at 1:30, not at 1:00, in light of the current time.

Appreciation was expressed to Sherry Rupert, bishop's secretary, for handling the accomodations for everyone.

Appreciation is being expressed to others--Todd Fetters, Craig Burkholder. And now to the Bishop for leading the church during the past four years. "It has been an interesting four years," Paul said. Then he asked Ron Ramsey to come close the meeting in prayer.

Ron first announced that Gary Dilley has been appointed as the Global Ministries Director, and he has three of the four regions filled in terms of ELT members-at-large. Tom Datema will serve on the ELT representing the West, Sherwood Cook serving the east, Phil Whipple of Michigan serving the north. The central representative, who must be a layperson, remains to be filled.

Then he prayed. He mentioned the many churches that are struggling--under the weight of finances, of pastoral leadership, of "just trying to be what they are." He prayed that we'd know how to care for and nurture them. And that God would instill in us a spirit of revival and renewal.

Motion to adjourn. It passed.

Goodbye. It's been fun. Now go do something productive with your time. :)