Details on the Pacific Union Crisis:
What Happened in Ontario

A brief report and comment on what happened at the meeting, including documentation and implications.

Larry Kirkpatrick, 10 September 2001

The Pacific Union Constituency meeting was held on August 26-27, 2001 at Ontario, California, with the Union's delegates there assembled to represent all its seven conferences. The item of particular concern to us was a voted change in the Union's Constitution and Bylaws. This item, knowingly voted in direct contravention of the will of the world church, bypasses the agreed requirement that a union conference president shall be an ordained minister.

The offending change comes to a section of the Bylaws previously worded as follows:

"The President who shall be an ordained minister of experience, is the chief executive officer and shall act as chair of constituency meetings and the Executive Committee. (If a new Union President is to be elected, the president of the North American Division, or his designee, shall chair the Executive Committee.) The President shall work in the general interests of the Union as the Executive Committee may advise. In this leadership, the President shall adhere to the policies of the North American Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and work in close counsel with the North American Division Executive Committee and with the division officers."¹

This section was recommended to be revised as follows (strike-outs represent wording to be deleted, italicized text wording to be added). (In this Brief Report I have highlighted by yellow background changes specific to the concerns expressed in this document.)

"The President who shall be an ordained or commissioned minister of experience, is the chief executive officer and shall act as chair of Constituency Sessions meetings and the Union Executive Committee. (If a new Union President is to be elected, the president of the North American Division, or his designee, shall chair the Executive Committee.) The President shall work in the general interests of the Union as the Union Executive Committee may advise. In this leadership, the President shall adhere to the policies of the North American Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and work in close counsel with the North American Division Executive Committee and with the division officers."²

Here we see the addition of the wording "or commissioned" into the requirements for a union conference president. All of this is of special interest because the Church Manual unambiguously states that "The president of the conference/mission/field should be an ordained minister of experience and good report. He stands at the head of the gospel ministry in his conference/mission/field and is the chief elder, or overseer, of all the churches."³

I was told by the President of the Pacific Union Conference that the linkages between the various organizational structures of the church amount to a "voluntary unity." However, as far as the relationship between the General Conference and the North American Division and "every organization" constituent in them, in the Working Policy North American Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists we have the following:

B 03 10 Adherence to Policy required--The North American Division Working Policy shall be strictly adhered to by all organizations in every part of the division. The work of every organization shall be administered in full harmony with the policies of the division. No departure from these policies shall be made without prior approval from the North American Division Committee except as stated below . . . . All conference, mission, and institutional administrators and all committee/board members shall adhere to and cooperate in maintaining these policies as they affect the work in their respective organizations.⁴

The exceptions to this requirement are not applicable to the Pacific Union Conference.⁵

Also of particular interest is this paragraph from even the Pacific Union Bylaws themselves stating the following:

"All policies, purposes and procedures of this Union shall be in harmony with the working policies and procedures of the North American Division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists."⁶

It is evident that the action of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists 100^th Constituency Session in voting and adopting the motion to amend the Bylaws by this item was out of order. It not only violated the express will of the world church from its General Conference Sessions, but even places its own Bylaws out of harmony with themselves.

If, as I am told, this matter was so unimportant as to "not merit broad publicity" by our denominational news service, then why was it so important that it was adopted in spite of the delegates' awareness that it not only placed the Union out of harmony with the world church, but even with its own Bylaws! Does not this stretch credulity?

The argument urged upon our delegates that they might vote for the motion was that on occasion certain of our treasurers are considered for potential calling to union presidency slots, but that the position requires that one be an ordained minister. Some of our treasurers are not ordained, but "commissioned." Most if not all of them are male. Besides, Elder Mostert was reelected as Union President, so some will say this item has only the air of theoretical application anyway. But such conundrums have never been too difficult to resolve in the past, nor can one think they would be in the future. If the matter were of so little moment as that, the Constituency Session could easily have sent it to the newly-elected the Constitution and Bylaws Committee to find another solution to be considered at a future meeting without placing the Union out of harmony with our world church and its own Constitution and Bylaws.

Instead, it was voted through, even though the delegates were alerted to its impropriety before voting. One pastor serving as a delegate pointed out that adopting the vote to make the change would place the Bylaws of the Pacific Union out of harmony with the Bylaws of the Pacific Union--and with the world church. That is, before the vote was taken, mention was made on the assembly floor that the action contemplated was out of harmony with the Bylaws, Article II. Delegates knew what was happening. Several who were present report hardly five hands raised to vote in opposition to the item, while that vast majority voted for it with some delegates abstaining (there were 328 delegates). After the vote, business simply proceeded to the next item.⁷ According to a pastor's newsletter sent out to some conference employees, the whole matter "took less than half an hour."⁸

A missile had been fired at the heart of the church.

Some of us had early warning on this when under a previous NAD administration strong steps were taken to promote this gender agenda. Back to at least 1997 the NAD had determined to seek to open union Presidency to women in its voted document President's Commission on Women in Ministry--Report. In that report, under "Section V. Working Policy Revisions," it was to be recommended to the upcoming General Conference Session that the language of the universal Union Conference and Bylaws Constitution pattern document be modified to read "President. The president, who shall be an ordained/commissioned minister of experience . . . ."⁹ An identical change was aimed at the language for conference presidents.¹⁰

The change in the language was rejected by our world church, and NAD even called a new president to replace the one retiring. That was in the year 2000 General Conference Session in Toronto, Canada. But the intentions of few have changed. They still have their document, and it still advocates this change in the wording. Only before, the changes were sought for and then rejected at a General Conference Session. But now, after the Session, they are being pressed forward anyway. Perhaps then we may be pardoned for not finding the commissioned-treasurer argument convincing. The same changes had been sought before this, but without that argument. With these facts in view, the new argument looses its luster.

The authority of the world church is being shamelessly challenged before our eyes. For this the word "rebellion" is appropriate. The Working Policy has a solution for this. B 11 05 Discontinuation of Conferences and Unions by Dissolution addresses the point:

If a situation arises where it is determined by the higher organization that the majority of members of a conference or a union are in apostasy, or that the organization refuses to operate in harmony with denominational policies and constitutional requirements, and is in rebellion, the higher organization has a responsibility to act for the protection of its loyal members, and the good name of the Church . . . If conciliatory efforts fail and discontinuation appears to be the only solution, the higher organization shall have authority to act as set out under NAD B 11 10 and NAD B 11 15."¹¹

NAD B 11 15 is titled "Dissolution of Union Conferences."¹²

The Working Policy is pointed in how it defines evidence of rebellion: "If a union conference appears to be in apostasy or rebellion, as demonstrated by a constituency meeting action . . ."¹³

We do not think that the vast membership of the Union meant that its delegates act or appear to act so brazenly. Nor are we anxious to advocate rash or heartless measures. At the same time, what has been done strikes deeply against the unity of the world church, and plainly requires a firm response by the North American Division and the General Conference. We urge them to resolute action.

Today Pacific Union stands face to face with the world church. Have we arrived at the Cuban missile-crisis of the battle over women's ordination? Last year we urged the church not to jump.¹⁴ Now we urge it not to blink.

1. Constitution and Bylaws of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Bylaws, Article VIII, Section 2.
2. Constitution and Bylaws of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, February 11, 2001, Constitution and Bylaws with Amendments Recommended by Constitution and Bylaws Committee, Hand-out prepared for delegates, pp. 13-14.
3. Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual, Revised 2000 16th ed. (Hagerstown, MD: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2000), 135.
4. Working Policy North American Division of the General Conference, 2000-2001 ed., 35.
5. The exceptions given in B 03 10, one and two (Ibid. pp. 35-36) are only valid if the policy of a conference/mission/field unit is in violation of laws imposed by external national entities local to that section of the field.
6. Constitution and Bylaws of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, Bylaws, Article II.
7. The events of this portion of the meeting are reconstructed from the personal accounts of several delegates.
8. "A Few Notes to Pastors," From Southeastern California Conference Communication, August 29, 2001.
9. Found then in Working Policy North American Division of the General Conference, p. 100, now (2000-2001 edition) on p. 130.
10. Ibid., CA 20 05 then on p. 110, current edition now on p. 143.
11. Working Policy North American Division of General Conference, pp. 49-50, emphasis mine. These paragraphs authorize the dissolving of Unions.
12. Ibid., 51. These paragraphs authorize the dissolving of Unions.
13. Ibid.
14. Larry Kirkpatrick, "Great Flying Leaps: The Use of the Writings of Ellen G. White in the book Women in Ministry," Chapter 14 of Prove All Things: A Response to Women in Ministry, Mercedes H. Dyer, ed., (Berrien Springs, MI: Adventists Affirm, 2000), 247.

Other items on this topic:
5 Sept 2001: Pacific Union Conference Defies World Church
6 Sept 2001: Supporting the World Church in Crisis
7 Sept 2001: SDA News Services Hide Union Action
8 Sept 2001: Express Yourself and Lift Up the Hands of Moses and Aaron
9 Sept 2001: Will This be Another Case of Institutional Paralysis? by Kevin D. Paulson
9 Sept 2001: What is at Stake
9 Sept 2001: Action That Could be Taken by Kevin D. Paulson
10 Sept 2001: The Details: What happened in Ontario, by Larry Kirkpatrick

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