{"id":6183,"date":"2011-01-31T07:04:45","date_gmt":"2011-01-31T15:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/?p=6183"},"modified":"2011-01-31T07:44:28","modified_gmt":"2011-01-31T15:44:28","slug":"ucg-conference-starts-today-elder-loss-now-163","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/cog-news\/ucg-conference-starts-today-elder-loss-now-163\/","title":{"rendered":"UCG Conference Starts Today, Elder Loss Now 163"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone\" src=\"\/bible.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"283\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/cogwriter.htm\">COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Abigail Cartwright (AC) site listed two more losses to UCG&#8217;s eldership:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<li>Mr. Howard Wills (Local Elder, Miami, Florida), January 10, 2011, resigned from UCG ministry<\/li>\n<li>Mr. Paul Cebrian (Local Elder, Mindanao, Philippines) January 30, 2011, resigned from UCG ministry<\/li>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>According to the list at the AC site, UCG has lost 163 elders\/pastors\/ministers since June 0f 2010.\u00a0 But this only represents about 1\/3 of its pre-crisis eldership.\u00a0 However, the losses have not seemed to have stopped and there are reporting delays, so UCG may be losing even more.<\/p>\n<p>Today, UCG is having a conference apparently to determine who should fill some of the vacated COE spots, quell the crisis, and figure out how the organization should go forward.\u00a0 By and large, UCG seems to be trying to tell its remaining membership that the organization is fine as it still has the majority of its elders, still will have Feast of Tabernacles sites, still will have youth camps, still is on television, and still is producing literature.\u00a0 The conference may be a unifying one for UCG, but it also could result in some losses.\u00a0 We will see.<\/p>\n<p>UCG has concerns about misinformation.\u00a0 On the Sabbath, I received a letter from UCG where its Chairman Melvin Rhodes reported:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It was in this spirit that Dennis Luker, president of the United Church of  God, wrote in an open letter to the elders of UCGIA on Dec. 13, 2010: \u201cI would  that we were all at peace together, working hard to serve Christ and preach His  gospel of the Kingdom\u2026 With all my heart I sincerely hope and pray that you will  rethink and re-pray your position and truly unite with us. But if not, then we  are at an impasse.\u201d His concluding comment here was part of a longer letter,  fragments of which have been unfortunately twisted and selectively quoted in  three divisive documents from proponents of a breakaway organization.<\/p>\n<p>Much false information was published in these three documents. What is the  reality of this?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The reality is that this crisis has been a real struggle for those in or once part of UCG as  parties on both sides seem to be offended by the actions of those on  the other side.<\/p>\n<p>I will simply add that some who have left UCG believe that falsehoods from UCG were factors.\u00a0 And while two wrongs do not make a right, it seems, to me at least, that both sides believe that they are right and that Christ is leading them.<\/p>\n<p>If you are or were part of UCG and are confused about what to do, please pray, fast, and study the Bible about this.<\/p>\n<p>Ask yourself what are the true priorities that the Bible indicates that the church most faithful to the words of Jesus would do and act appropriately.<\/p>\n<p><em>Some articles of possibly related interest may include:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"\/church_governance.htm\">Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, and Roderick C. Meredith on Church Government<\/a> 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?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/unity.htm\">Unity: Which COG for You?<\/a> Why so many groups? Why is there lack of unity in the Churches of God?        Has it always been this way? What can\/should be done about it?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/ucg.htm\">Differences between the           Living Church of God and United Church of God<\/a> This article    provides          quotes information from the two      largest groups which    had their         origins      in WCG as well as      commentary.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/ylcg.htm\">There are Many COGs: Why        Support the Living Church of God?<\/a> 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.<br \/>\n<em><em><span style=\"color: teal;\"><span style=\"color: black;\"><a href=\"..\/..\/cogwa.htm\"><em><\/em><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/em><\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/cogwa.htm\">Concerns about Church of God, a Worldwide Association <\/a> This seems to be the largest group that came out of the United Church of God.  Here is some history and concerns about it.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/work.htm\">Should the Church Still Try    to Place its Top Priority on Proclaiming the Gospel or Did   Herbert           W.     Armstrong Change that Priority for the Work?<\/a> Some   say   the       Church     should mainly feed the flock now as   that is   what   Herbert  W.       Armstrong    reportedly said.  Is that   what  he  said?    Is that  what    the    Bible says?   What did <a href=\"\/paul.htm\">Paul<\/a> and <a href=\"\/herbertwarmstrong.htm\">Herbert W. Armstrong<\/a> expect from evangelists?<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/laodiceachurch.htm\">The Laodicean  Church Era <\/a>has been predominant circa 1986 A.D. to present. These are non-Philadelphians who mainly descended from the old WCG.<br \/>\n<a href=\"\/when-will-the-great-tribulation-begin.htm\">Can the Great Tribulation Begin in 2011, 2012, or 2013?<\/a> Can the Great Tribulation begin today? What happens before the Great  Tribulation in the &#8220;beginning of sorrows&#8221;? What happens in the Great  Tribulation?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>COGwriter The Abigail Cartwright (AC) site listed two more losses to UCG&#8217;s eldership: Mr. Howard Wills (Local Elder, Miami, Florida), January 10, 2011, resigned from UCG ministry Mr. Paul Cebrian (Local Elder, Mindanao, Philippines) January 30, 2011, resigned from UCG ministry According to the list at the AC site, UCG has lost 163 elders\/pastors\/ministers since [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6183","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cog-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6183","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6183"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6183\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6185,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6183\/revisions\/6185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}