7/28/05
Greetings y’all,
The following letter by Mr. Roderick Meredith is to be read to all congregations this Sabbath:
Dear Fellow Ministers and Brethren,
I want to announce the transfer of Mr. Charles Bryce from Charlotte to become Regional Pastor over the Southern region of the Living Church of God. Mr. Bryce has considered this option for some time and has written me twice in the last several months suggesting this as a possibility. With the untimely death of Mr. John Ogwyn, we have an “opening” in the Dallas/Gladewater area and the entire Southern Regional Pastorate. There is a crucial need for a capable, caring minister to fill this role. So I have asked Mr. Bryce to assume this responsibility and he now plans to continue helping us here for the next several weeks in the transition period and then plans to move to Tyler, TX to assume his new post.
Mr. Bryce is a native Texan. He has worked long and hard in Christ’s ministry and I hope that this less stressful responsibility will work well for him and his family as he approaches his 65th birthday. I am sure all of our prayers will go with Mr. Bryce and his entire family as they move to Texas.
Mr. Lambert Greer and Mr. Ken Frank will not be moved but continue in their present responsibilities.
After much discussion with our Headquarters Evangelists and other leaders, I have decided to appoint Dr. Douglas Winnail as the new Director of Church Administration. Over the next several weeks, he will wind up his responsibilities in Britain. He plans to move to Charlotte in early September. He, too, needs all our prayers as he assumes the important and stressful responsibilities of overseeing our churches and our ministry all around the world. Mr. Dibar Apartian as Assistant Director of CAD will fill the gap in Church Administration until Dr. Winnail completes his move to Charlotte. I feel that both these moves will work for good for the entire Church. We must move forward as a “team” to finish the Work to which the living Christ has called us.—Roderick Meredith
MEDIA
During the Ministerial Conference in May, Evangelist Syd Hull, Regional Director of the work in South Africa, asked us to begin looking for a television station in South Africa. We proceeded that very day to start the search. Well, just this very week, our UK agency notified us that a station has become available that reaches six million households in the Republic of South Africa. We asked the agency to book the time, which was done immediately. A number of details still need to be worked out, but the first airing is scheduled for August 21. The station reaches virtually all the major cities in South Africa. We’ll give more details as we get closer to the start date.—Wayne Pyle
FINANCE
Tithe of the Tithe and Festival Assistance Forms
As the temperatures soar in the southeast and much of the USA, we continue to do the Work that needs to be done, even though we have a number of people out for the LYC and on vacation. The extremely hot temperatures make all of us long for autumn and the Holy Days, especially the Feast of Tabernacles.
We will have many members who will need financial assistance to be able to attend the Feast this year. The Bible makes it clear that we should make provision for those in need (Deuteronomy 14:27, 29; James 1:27). Requests for Festival assistance are already coming in. (Pastors, please remember that the deadline for submitting these Festival Assistance forms to HQ, properly completed by the brethren and signed by you, is August 31).
Those who have not yet sent in the tithe of the Festival tithe, now would be a good time to do it, so that these urgent needs can be met on a timely basis. Your concern for others as we plan for the Feast will surely be pleasing to God.—Davy Crockett
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
We are saddened by the death of a long-time elder in God’s Church, Mr. C.B. Short, who died in his sleep last Sunday, July 24, after a long battle with cancer. Please remember his loving and dedicated wife, Leona Short, in your prayers as well as their family and our brethren in Corpus Christi, where Mr. Short lived and served since 1977. Funeral services will be performed this Thursday in Corpus Christi by Mr. Bob Parker. Cards and letters of encouragement may be sent to: Leona Short, 5806 Crest Cir., Corpus Christi, TX 78415.
Mr. Glen Gilchrist
We request your fervent prayers on behalf of Mr. Glen Gilchrist, Pastor of New Mexico and Arizona, who was bitten on a leg by an insect on June 16. The bite developed an infection that has not completely healed.
News from South Africa
Mr. and Mrs. Syd Hull will be in the island of Mauritius (east of Madagascar) from July 27 through August 3. He will be visiting some 31 people there. Please remember to keep both Mr. and Mrs. Hull in your prayers for a successful trip.
FEAST OF TABERNACLES 2005
Llandudno, Wales, UK
Anyone interested in singing in the choir or doing special music at the Feast in Llandudno, North Wales, should contact Mr. VG Larde. His e-mail address is vg@vglarde.net. –Douglas Winnail
For USA and Canada Ministers Only
Some ministers have asked if they will receive a Feast site transfer approval letter from the Festival Office if they have a speaking assignment at a site other than their assigned site. The answer is no. As in past years, the speaking schedule was the official notification to the ministers. All but those speakers assigned to travel to more than one site during the Feast should make their own housing arrangements.—Don Davis
COMMENTS
When I was a teenager (time does fly, doesn’t it?) I had no idea what television was. Nowadays, it has become a national pastime in many developed countries. A good number of families couldn’t survive without it, and many mothers would be sadly deprived of a very handy, inexpensive babysitter. What then are we to conclude? Is television good? Is it bad? Is it sin? The Bible defines sin as transgression of (God’s) law (I John 3:4). I remember Mr. Herbert Armstrong’s clearer explanation of this verse by saying, “Sin is not any particular thing; it is the misuse or the wrong use of a thing.” Television certainly falls into this category. It can be used for a good purpose (such as our preaching the Gospel to the world) just as it can be misused or used in a sinful way, as it generally is today. Years ago, in Pasadena, one day I heard the comment made by an American senator when he was asked his thoughts concerning television. “Actually,” he answered, “what this world needs is less ‘tell’ and more ‘vision.’” Consciously or not, that senator confirmed Salomon’ words, “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” (Proverbs 29:18, KJV). Something to meditate upon.
Y’all have a wonderful Sabbath,
Dibar Apartian
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COGwriter 2005