Armstrongism has always mocked the Christan world when various churches met together to work towards a common goal. Now it seems United Church of God and Living Church of God are extending an olive branch to each other so they can work together in fulfilling the commission. Quite absent from this love fest is Church of God Worldwide Association, UCG's recently departed brethren. Why the hypocrisy?
As the end of this age draws near, it seems more appropriate than ever that God’s people, wherever they may reside, support one another in fulfilling the commission Jesus Christ gave us. With this in the forefront of our minds, representatives of the of the United Church of God, an International Association, met with the leadership of the Living Church of God at Living’s Headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina, on January 9-10 for a two-day visit.
The purpose of the visit was to rekindle friendships and discuss ways to cooperate in serving God’s people. The meetings were cordial and positive and included an open and frank discussion about those things that we have in common, and some of our differences, including church government and the way each Church is organized. We also discussed our different strategies for preaching the gospel in this modern age. There was no discussion of any type of merger.
Discussions about areas of cooperation within the greater Church of God community included humanitarian concerns, disaster relief and other unforeseen events where we can help our members meet critical needs by supporting and loving one another as Jesus commanded. Cooperation could also include helping members who have difficulty getting time off for the Sabbath and Holy Days, and other legal matters that affect both organizations. It was agreed that open communication between Church of God organizations will become more important as world events move towards their ultimate prophetic fulfillment.
Those in attendance at the meetings in Charlotte on behalf of the Living Church of God were Dr. Roderick C. Meredith, Mr. Richard Ames and Dr. Douglas Winnail. Those who traveled from Cincinnati for the United Church of God were Mr. Dennis Luker, Mr. Victor Kubik and Mr. Peter Eddington. Mr. Luker commented that the Cincinnati team felt most welcome and were treated very warmly. In addition to the meetings, the UCG visitors were given a full tour of the Living Church of God headquarters and adjacent media center.
Another tour? These tours are starting to be dangerous! Will the representatives immediately jump ship now to LCG because they were in awe and amazement at the magnificent work being accomplished in Charlotte? Will we have another Schurter 20 page resignation letter from these guys?
Ok, so...
ReplyDeleteSchurter leaves United, a huge sucking sound is heard by UCG. Its the sound of hardliners being wooed to RCG. So the next best thing is find a conserva-dox HWA-lover church that will make the HL's happy. Thus, run to the arms of the next viable church that has people to help prop up the smoking ash heap of United and stop the swirling of the drain water. Notice the quote in the statement, "There is no discussion of a merger". Which translates, we will hammer out our differneces and count the cost,em'payday (of the tithe payers United would bring in). Ta Da! We have a new Mega COG with everyone cooperating in love and brotherhood. Now, if Pack would unite with Flurry, then we could have a Celeberity Death Match of MegaManiac and Mega-Conservadox. Each battling it out as to who is more like HWA.
Perhaps we should send pictures of all the big boys to Jib-Jab and have them illustrate this. I'd pay to see that.
Dennis Luker and Roderick Meredith have a history, mainly involving their arch common nemesis, Garner Ted Armstrong. Of course they can have pleasant discussions.
ReplyDeleteCan you really see relatively happy liberal United members under the dictates of a harsh hard LCG?
For a merger to happen, Roderick Meredith must die and Living needs to make some major adjustments to accommodate the less Pharisaical liberal elements.
The next major hurdle is all those wonderful salaries and retirement for the men at the top of the UCG. For those of us who have listened to Dennis Luker personally for decades it is really a matter of salary and retirement: There is deep seated paranoia about having sufficient income in the latter sunset years.
I doubt Dennis Luker knows what to do any more. One sign is that he has formed a committee to determine what the UCG doctrines are. He may be tired already running the ship and looking to return to the "middle management" of the Church Corporate where he is most comfortable.
One other thing to consider is the move of United to expand facilities at a very bad time. The more prosperous congregations are very much against it because they see that they may be carrying the burden and left holding the bag. If it gets bad enough, some of these congregations will pull a "Big Sandy" and become independent, pushing the already struggling United into another crisis.
This is 2012, of course. This is the year where everyone has lost the map to the future.
Until we have some of the missing pieces, we have nothing but rampant speculation upon which to base our prognostications.
Lots of things could happen.
Jim Franks just got to be the big cheese over at COGawa. He played dirty politics for a long time to earn that title. He is not about to give that up any time soon.
ReplyDeleteSo essentially, what we have are a bunch of sinking ships (financially) looking to unite on a bigger sinking ship with a slower leak. None of the ships are going anywhere. They are just buying some time until retirement.
Definitely an unlikely match based solely upon how liberal UCG is and how hard-line Living is. UCG was relieved to finally get rid of the hard-line faction of their own church (COGWA), and are now running over to cooperate with the even harder-line Living? And why would Living want anything to do with the reprobates of UCG? The only explanation is some political objective. Something that the leaders can do for each other that they cannot do for themselves. Whatever dark deals may or may not be done in smoky back rooms, I cannot imagine the leaders of either side being enthusiastic about their members mingling with each other though.
ReplyDeleteDoug is right in that the UCG-COGWA split was very much about future finances and retirement packages. The current UCG head cheeses-I mean-big honchos, saw a new Texas HQ as coming directly out of their pensions. Solution? Take away the pensions of the Texas supporters, of course! That's what my yellow WWJD jellybracelet told me was the right thing to do too. Oops, it's a LiveStrong bracelet, sorry. Go figure, it told me to take steroids too!
ReplyDeleteAs far as Denny goes, not knowing what to do is kind of irrelevant. All of the surviving COE members got too much bad press during the split and they needed to put a new face on their regime. Denny was called in out of the field as a figurehead who they could trust to do what he was told, so that everyone could pretend that UCG was under new management. But Denny is just a puppet and it's still very much the regime of the old COE barons. What Denny believes is irrelevant because he accepted on condition that he wouldn't think for himself. Denny would have made a great Nazi, as that was all Eichmann had to say for himself before the Israelis executed him. Alas, Denny was born too late.
As far as committees revamp doctrines go, that's what Joe Tkach Sr./Jr. and Mike Feazell did in the late 80's and early 90's. In hindsight, it was a ruse to make doctrinal changes and then claim it was arrived at organically instead of the foregone conclusion it was. I'm sure that's what any UCG doctrinal review committee will be too. It certainly has nothing to do with Denny. These guys just use the same old tricks. They're not smart enough to come up with new ones.
Andrew, thank you for your remarks -- remarkable insight, indeed.
ReplyDeleteDennis Luker is a tragic manipulated figure in a situation where nothing is as it seems.
It begs the question: Who is actually the power behind the throne?
The obvious candidates have left the scene for greener pastors... er... greener pastures.
I would guess that the power behind the throne is a current oligarchy of Kubik, Holladay, McNeely, Webber, Dean, & Ashley. The rest of the newbies, including Rhodes, who is also a figurehead, are merely sympathizers and corporate ladder-climbers.
ReplyDeleteTrouble is, oligarchies don't tend to be very stable, especially since the common enemy that bound them together in the past is gone. I don't know who will become the next common enemy, but I wouldn't be surprised to see relationships between these oligarchs at the top weaken and fragment into new factions and coalitions, eventually producing more sizable splits not unlike the two that "United" has already had, Hulme and Cogwa.
Kubik, Holladay, McNeely, Webber, Dean, & Ashley sounds more like a law firm.
ReplyDeleteCooperation could also include helping members who have difficulty getting time off for the Sabbath and Holy Days...
ReplyDeleteSo let me get this straight if I had a job that required me to work on Friday nights or Saturdays and chose to keep my job because I have no other way to survive and I'm a single parent etc so attend church only when I'm given time off then all those times I've worked on the Sabbath would be forgiven because God understands my situation just like IDK eating pork or urine or God forbid human flesh to survive on because it'd be that or die?! Is that right or am I missing something? Besides I highly doubt they'd even baptize you if you didn't show your face EVERY Sabbath either.