UCG News Items: Lawsuit, Move, India

The September-October 2007 edition of UCG’s United News arrived last night. Plus a UCG member was in the news recently, so this post will contain a few short news items.

Here is the item on the member in the news:

Lawsuit Alleges UPS Violated Employee’s Religious Beliefs

Memphis Daily News, TN – Sep 11, 2007

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) charges in a lawsuit it filed Friday that United Parcel Service violated federal law by not accommodating the religious beliefs of a UPS employee in the course of his job duties. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Western District of Tennessee.

Joe Koslowski, a 17-year employee at UPS’ Bartlett facility and a member of the United Church of God, according to the suit, has beliefs that include not working on the Sabbath – from sunset Friday to sunset Saturday. The EEOC filed suit after first attempting to reach a voluntary settlement, according to a statement issued about the litigation http://www.memphisdailynews.com/Editorial/StoryDaily.aspx?story=digest&date=9%2F12%2F2007

US courts sometimes rule in favor of COG members in such cases and sometimes rule against. However, with EEOC on the side of the UCG member, hopefully this means that the UCG member will find favor with the court.

Here is an article from the latest edition of United News:

President Clyde Kilough reported to the Council of Elders that due to potential environmental concerns, the pursuit of the property in Denton, Texas, has been dropped. Attention has now been turned to locating another property.

Before the Council meetings Mr. Kilough and Jason Lovelady traveled to the Dallas area, where Mr. Lovelady visited 75 properties across the northern tier of the Dallas area. Mr. Kilough also saw a number of those properties, and they narrowed the field to six to 10 prime prospects.

A real estate agent is gathering the details of each. Chairman Bob Dick reported that Mr. Kilough “reviewed a few of the most promising ones with the Council on Wednesday [Aug. 8] in executive session and as the search narrows will seek to have some of the properties viewed by Council members.”

Another item in that same issue was:

Jim Franks (Ministerial Services operation manager) and Dave Baker (senior pastor, Asia) traveled to India and the Philippines June 12 through 22. In India, they visited a group located in the northern state of Mizoram, called the Church of God (Israel), which has expressed interest in becoming part of United. This group first contacted United in 1998 and since then Mr. Baker has visited them on three occasions prior to this trip…

Mr. Franks reported that desire to become part of United seems to be sincere on the part of their elders and the 250 members, made up of three congregations. Mr. Franks and Mr. Baker discussed with church leaders doctrinal differences between the two groups.

Two articles of possibly related interest may include:

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.

India, Its Biblical Past and Future, Part I: Any Witness? The Bible discusses the origins of those of Indian heritage and discusses some of the witness to them.