Apparently there is no one in UCG who is younger than can lead the ministry into new vitality and new directions. That was the complaint I heard from a UCG member today about the appointment today of Roy Holladay over the Ministerial and Membership Services of UCG.
Jame Malm had this up:
13:45 EST: CINCINNATI, Ohio – Following the recommendation of Church President Victor Kubik, the Council of Elders of the United Church of God confirmed the appointment of Roy Holladay, 73, as operation manager for Ministerial and Member Services December 11. Holladay will assume his new role immediately and complete the transition moving back to Cincinnati in January. Roy’s son David (a local elder) attends UCG-Seattle and is the Associate Pastor under Steve Shafer.
Ok, now I have to laugh! First off, all of us will agree that when they had ministers who were 24 years old, and without much life experience or "being in the real world" or having grown children or lived some life, that it produced some very bad fruit.
ReplyDeleteNow, when Roy Holladay is named head of the ministry, the voice cries out..." Apparently there is no one in UCG who is younger than can lead the ministry into new vitality and new directions."
So which is it?... too old and too young are bad? Only ministers who are 43 years old qualify?
Holladay is 73 and has had a long experience in dealing with the cast of characters, and with hands on ministerial experience. Human nature does not change much over time, only style and fashion.
A couple of assumptions are made by the above post... 1) New and Change are always better 2) Older and Staid is always bad.
Truth is, sometimes this is true, and sometimes this is not true! There is no set rule in stone. However, to be in charge of a ministry that has a median age of 65, does require someone who has maturity and experience. I do believe that Chris Rowland , who is about 40 years old , is serving as an assistant in this department.
UCG listens to its younger members, empowers them, and uses them. Consider Jonathan Magee , ala the Jelly Fame, or web and computer designers , Disher and Booth, or United News Editor Mitchell Moss, who is still in his 20s.
However, never forget the old adage...
Old Age and Treachery, Always Overcomes Youth and Skill!
Luv,
Joe Moeller
Cody, WY
I don't know what this means. I do know that as people progress further and further beyond what society has determined to be "retirement" age, they generally become weird and out of touch. I can't imagine that Roy Holladay would be more effective than a "forty something" in this position.
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Who cares whether he is effective or not? It's the same old armstrongist crock. Roy will be peddling the same nonsense they have been dishing out for decades now. I remember Roy. He's from my general generation and I wouldn't sell him short just because he's 73. That's six years younger than me! I'm sure he can still write, speak, etc. I can.
ReplyDeleteThere's an Old Boys Club among the ministry. There has been ever since the first three men "graduated" from "god's college." In UCG, there was a core Club of about 20 or so who were politically eligible to be either voted in to the council or appointed to be officers of the corporation by the council, with the two "international" spots on the council being wild cards that could go in unusual directions. That works nicely because it provides a small, controlled, and controllable appearance of "diversity" on the council, while effectively limiting international influence and preserving the U.S. Old Boys Club status quo.
ReplyDeleteUsually, vacancies in the Old Boys Club arise one at a time, such as when Denny Luker passed away, when Melvin Rhodes was publicly outed as an adulterer, or when Paul Kieffer was privately outed as one and forced to resign from the Council. It's my understanding that the sorts of punishment that are meted out within political realms, be they governmental, ecclesiastical, etc., have little or perhaps even nothing to do with the obvious "sins" such as adultery, which in churches supposedly carry the weight of divine moral mandate since they appear in the "holy scriptures," and everything to do with much more grievous, harshly judged, and efficiently policed "political sins" that do not appear in the bible, and therefore, outsiders to The Club will have a hard time appreciating. It is odd that within a church that's supposed to be about the things their god has said, that the things Old Boys say carry so much more weight. Makes one wonder who the real god is in any particular "church." It certainly isn't some incorporeal being, that's for damn sure. It's a guy whose words carry a lot more weight within the context of that organization than the words of any ethereal, distant, capricious, and slow-acting god.
In December of 2010, about half of that core of Old Boys got the boot, and with about 150 others, went off to start the same game elsewhere. Secret collusion to create voting blocs among the GCE, essentially putting the fix in regarding those elections was one of the accusations and complaints that the soon-to-be-outcast ministers leveled against the remaining Old Boys who still control UCG with the same velvet-gloved iron fist. It's fine as long the corruption is working in your favor, but when it turns against you, then it necessarily becomes a problem. But why did the corruption start working against them in the first place? Two words: political sins. It's just another case of how it is that written "sins" against incorporeal gods will be forgiven by men without limit, meaning that there's no perceptible teeth in the mandate against such "sins." But sins against the gods of flesh and blood will not be forgiven. Ever. And you will feel the teeth that enforce those unwritten rules quickly. Interesting how that works, but not unusual.
Although the remaining Old Boys found it within their hearts to fill the constitutionally mandated numbers of the Council by rewarding some of their staunchest and most ambitious supporters such as John Elliott, Rex Sexton, Mark Mickelson, and Roc Corbett, lets face it, the minimum necessary number will pass through the semi-impermiable membrane that separates the Old Boys Club from the rest of the GCE. Those with the lesser political astuteness, gravitas, ambition, etc. will be put back out to pasture. And in the future, provided the Old Boys Club's apple cart is not upset again by similar "United" schisms (a liberal assumption I know), upcoming vacancies in the Old Boys Club will be nepotistically filled by the children of current Old Boys, such as David Holladay.
The UCG "ministry" has been stretched to the limits since many "ministers" left UCG and jumped aboard COGWA.
ReplyDeleteMr. Holliday is very loyal to the UCG organization. He supposedly left Cincy, to "retire" in TN. I agree with Head Usher. The "ministry" is an Old Boys Club. Mr. Holliday is a fatherly and grandfatherly figure to many of the up and coming in UCG.
Maybe, he can help stop the b.s. that some of them are teaching...including some of the presenters on the TV program.
Allen, I apologize, as no ageist slights were intended. You are exceptional in many ways, and I know others who are in their mid 80s who are marvelously viable.
ReplyDeleteCulturally, many of the Armstrongist ministers had been yanked by HWA back into the 1890s or turn of the century. Basically, the words I was looking for would have expressed the fact that these AOCGs, in order to grow and survive, need a ministry that can appeal to the average or median demographic. Their doctrinal approach is already foreign enough, and therefore self-limiting.
BB
Given that we have proved that the entire Cult of Herbert Armstrong religion has been proved to be stupid rubbish by disproving British Israelism over there at Silenced, DNArefutesBI.com and the soon to be opened for business, BritishIsraelism.com (among others), the question should be, just what are you leaders going to do to make this right? Don't you have a responsibility as caretakers of a system as viable as Scientology to fix the problems created by your dead false prophet?
ReplyDeleteWe all know the answer to that.
And if there is a God, it looks like the only real solution will be the Lake of Fire for you.
Is your salary, retirement and ego perks worth that? Is it worth being in power in a doomed system?
How do you feel about that?
Was Roy from the country? If so, we might could call him Kubik's Rube!
ReplyDeleteRoy Holliday needs to be walking the halls of a prison with keys hanging on his belt. All this guy cares about are rules and regulations and the money he gets paid for keeping the sheep in line. What a corrupt church with corrupt leaders. Only a fool refuses to see through this bunch. But without the fools that send them all their money these guys could not even get a real job. This church needs to be exposed for the cult it is.
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