UCG’s Roy Holladay, Lawyers first, then an Update

Ancient Laodicea

UCG blogger John Carmack posted the following:

Further Information Regarding Council Withdrawal of Officers Resolution:

Inquiries have been coming in from several elders asking for more details or specific reasons why the Council of Elders felt it necessary to withdraw the “resolution concerning governance” from the Call and Notice packet for this year’s General Conference of Elders.

I have asked our legal counsel to prepare a statement giving that explanation in response to those inquiries, which should be ready next week.

Roy Holladay

Chairman, Council of Elders

Presuming it is accurate (and John has never shown a tendency to post something official that was not in the past), it seems to mean that after lawyers get more involved, then UCG members will get more answers.

Here are some of John Carmack’s comments:

Um, “legal counsel”? There were lawyers in Jesus’ day, and it seems He wasn’t all that happy with them. What is definitely not clear is if this is the internal legal counsel or external. If external, this could be a big deal for some of the members. However, at this point, no one is saying.

OK, concerning, maybe even depressing, but not a cause for alarm yet, right? In reality I want to be optimistic about it all, but bringing in lawyers for “explanations” do not raise my comfort level!

Well, it seems that some people don’t like some of the Facebook groups that have sprung up, either. In particular, I am looking at United Church of God – current crisis? and I see “There are no admins left in this group!” It is pretty sad that some cannot get together to try to hash things out.

There are certain rumors circulating out there about all of this that, since they do not come from verifiable sources, I do not intend to post them here. One thing that is, however true, is that the letters and the comments that used to be at UCG member Mike Bennett’s website are not longer there (and have not been for several days).

Additionally, unofficially, some UCG members plan to fast about all of this on April 25th.

As regular readers of the COGwriter page are aware, although it is apparently wise for Roy Holladay to be careful, I have always had problems with UCG’s form of governance. Apparently more in UCG are noticing some of the problems with it during this and perhaps the last one or two governance crises that UCG has had.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, and Roderick C. Meredith on Church Government What form of governance did the early church have? Was it hierarchical? Which form of governance would one expect to have in the Philadelphia remnant? The people decide and/or committee forms, odd dictatorships, or the same type that the Philadelphia era itself had?
Differences between the Living Church of God and United Church of God This article provides quotes information from the two largest groups which had their origins in WCG as well as commentary.
There are Many COGs: Why Support the Living Church of God? This is an article for those who wish to more easily sort out the different COGs. It really should be a MUST READ for current and former WCG/GCI members or any interested in supporting the faithful church. It also explains a lot of what the COGs are all about.