Nov-Dec 2007 Issue of “The Journal: News of the Churches of God” is Now Out

Early this afternoon, the latest edition of The Journal: News of the Churches of God came out.

It contains reports on the Norman Edward’s legal matter (some of which was covered at this page earlier, please see Norman Edwards Case Settled), a general religious conference attended by Dixon Cartwright and Ken Westby, letters from readers, UCG’s Texas move (some of which was covered at this page earlier, please see United Church of God Buys Texas Property, but The Journal has more on opposition to the move than I covered), some Feast reports, and some news items (including one similar to the following: ICG’s Mark Armstrong: David Pack and the Misuse of Herbert Armstrong’s Name).

One front page item was a conference called for “old-timers”, which seems to mainly be directed towards “independents” (though those associated with other groups appear welcome to attend. Here is some from that article:

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—Al Carrozzo would like to see the fragmented groups, as he calls them, of the Churches of God descended from the Worldwide Church of God come together in some form or fashion, so he and Art Mokarow plan a “symposium” to talk about things in Dallas Jan. 30 through Feb. 2, 2008.

Mr. Carrozzo, of Escondido, Calif., and Mr. Mokarow, of Montgomery, Texas, are both former members, elders and employees of the Worldwide Church of God. “Many of you will remember me from my final position [in the WCG] as regional director over the churches and ministers in the western half of the United States,” Mr. Carrozzo wrote in a recent “open letter to ministers and members once associated with the Worldwide Church of God.

While I always liked Art Mokarow in the old WCG, his current doctrinal positions suggest, to me at least, that he may have left the COG (although he probably does not view it that way).

The back page had something I had contributed to:

Mergers and rumors of mergers
ARROYO GRANDE, Calif.—Robert Thiel of www.cogwriter.com wants to lay to rest rumors of a merger between the Living Church of God, of which he is a member, and the United Church of God an International Association. “A general merger will not take place,” Dr. Thiel said. “The leaders of the Living Church of God have told me that they do not see any possibility of merging due to major differences in government and approaches to preaching the gospel.”

THE JOURNAL talked with a highly placed UCG source and heard the same thing: No merger of the UCG and LCG is in the offing.

The front and back pages can be accessed from the following pdf URL:

www.thejournal.org/issues/issue123/jf123107.pdf