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Greater New York Conference - April 10th Update

Pastor Defies Local Conference –
also
calls police to bar member
from attending church

You can help - With your prayers

The power of united prayers

On January 16^th we announced our support for a church where the members have no voice in the affairs of the church because the pastor and the church board has not called a business meeting in over 30 months and no elections (via a nominating committee process) since April 2007. Which means that the members of the church board have been running the church for almost two years after the expiration of the term of office that they were elected to. Unfortunately the concerned members can not do a thing about this without a business meeting.
Several concerned members appealed to the local conference administration 24 months ago and in October 2009 the conference said they would deal with this promptly and put the following in writing. . .

Dear Brother _________

“This is to confirm our discussion on Thursday, October 15, 2009. As you described in your messages to G. Earl Knight and Claude Morgan, the four of us did meet for over two and a half hours. We listened to your concerns and discussed options for a process.

At this point we will proceed with developments of a process that will let you both present your concerns to our conference grievance committee. It will take us a few days to make those arrangements. Meanwhile, we are asking _______, the Multi-Ethnic Coordinator, to discuss with, Pastor _______, the two concerns of officer elections and business meeting schedule. . .”

G. Earl Knight, Executive Secretary

Greater New York Conference

Letter received: Oct. 20, 2009

After this meeting, two hearings were scheduled and both were postponed, then the conference asked for an opinion of a Vice President of the General Conference. In August of 2010 he met with the pastor and with concerned members but nothing else happened in 2010.

Concerned members accused the pastor of misconduct in May 2009, but the local conference refused to follow the working policy that deals with pastors and the Union Conference would do nothing except ask the local conference to do something.

The President of the North American Division would not get involved. See his reply. Then he clarified his decision on January 26th (see his second reply) that he would get involved if the Union Conference asked for help.

Finally the VP of the GC finished his report and personally presented it to the President, Executive Secretary, Treasurer and three leaders of the Greater New York Conference and on February 22^nd it was decided to ask the pastor to call a business meeting and start the election process. some details about this meeting He agreed to do this on Feb. 22^nd

Seven Sabbaths have passed and still no announcement has been made at the church regarding a business meeting or elections.

- - On April 9^th a concerned member was barred at the front door and police were called to arrest the member for trespassing if he entered the church. He did not enter.

- - On April 2^nd the pastor told a concerned member he could not attend worship service and communion. Pastor ordered this concerned member be leave the church and then called the police to show he was serious. The member left before the police arrived.

- - On March 26^th the Pastor became violent and forcibly confiscated the property of one of the concerned members. This was a member who went to the conference with grievances and is seeking a business meeting in order to follow the instruction found in Matthew 18: 17.

The conference still has no process to deal with over 40 issues and complaints (some of them over five years old) and now it seems that they have no stomach to deal with defiance by the pastor.

The pastor is out of control and the conference has no plan to deal with his rebellion.

Therefore, we are asking for your prayers

     The working policy says this is "a matter of general denominational concern"
-  so it is proper for any concerned Seventh-day Adventist to express their concern

If you are impressed by the Holy Spirit to take action
in support the concerned members

Please contact Don King, the President of Atlantic Union Conference
or
G. Earl Knight, President of Greater New York Conference

E-mail address below

The President of the Atlantic Union Conference has publicly spoken about the accountability of pastors, in theAtlantic Union Gleaner's Nov. 2009 issue, page 6, 7.

He says there have been improvements made in this area but in this situation we can't see the Union making the effort needed to resolve this problem. If Don King wants readers of this article to believe improvement has been made in Pastoral accountability, he should demonstrate that the Union will get more involved when a pastor defies conference attempts to uphold the rights of members.

The Pastor of this church ignores the church manual and working policies, he has defied the expressed will of his congregtion who voted to have two business meetings per year, (he has called none since they voted this in Nov. 2008), and now he defies requests made by all three conference administrators.

When does the Union Conference get involved?

I hope this situation concerns you as much as it does us.

Please ask Don King to follow Working Policy L-60 section 10 or to ask for help from the NAD in accordance with this policy.

The Greater New York Conference owns the church building and any charges for trespassing should come from the owner, but the Pastor has told police that he speaks for the owner of the building. Unless the conference says differently, the police believe the pastor.

Here are the e-mail addresses for Don King [email protected] G. Earl Knight [email protected] Please send a copy to [email protected] and we will keep you informed of developments.






	Please pray that The Holy Spirt will convict the church leaders that action is needed. There is power in united prayer

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