@Brent Stanyer: You either misrepresent or misunderstand. My meaning was …

Comment on Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference by Larry Kirkpatrick.

@Brent Stanyer: You either misrepresent or misunderstand. My meaning was that the administration of NCC (with a number of delegates) has intentionally chosen a position of separation toward the world church. This separation is manifested in a vote exceeding the grant of authority the Church makes to them as a conference, in a practice which the world church has quite specifically NOT approved. The world church, operating within its appropriate purview, has not approved the ordination of women. NCC has voted to follow a different practice, even though the world church does not grant to individual conferences the authority to set criteria for ordination. Really, more than all of this, the NCC administration has generated its position of separation not at random but by putting into practice a different plan for interpreting the Bible than is the practice of the Church. Meanwhile, not all NCC stands in this separated position, for a significant percentage of constituency delegates agrees with SP, at least to the point of viewing the decision to act in opposition toward the world church to be something they cannot agree with. I was pointing not to a declaration by myself but to the repeated voted actions of the NCC–actions which are separating the NCC from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. I cannot help but wonder if it is really the will of the broader NCC constituency to have leaders who are leading the conference into this situation. But whatever you or I think, time will tell. It always does.

Larry Kirkpatrick Also Commented

Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference
@Sean Pitman: On the contrary, the GC has such authority. The GC sets the criteria for ordination; unions decide who meet those criteria but do not set the criteria. You can read a short item on this very question here:

http://www.fulcrum7.com/blog/2016/10/10/gods-end-time-church-is-to-be-an-organized-church

If the unions have the kind of authority we (suddenly) hear that they have, then what use is the GC? (If Divisions and Unions have this authority, then why did they seek for permission via the GC session to make provision for the ordination of women in their territories?) If the Church has no ability to establish global cohesion of belief and practice, then the Church is fundamentally broken and fundamentally effectively regionally congregational. Then when conferences in the Pacific Union feel its time for LGBTQ, you’ll be faced with the same questions about fundamental loyalty.


Northern California Conference Votes to Act Independent of the General Conference
Sean, I want to say that I appreciate your determination to remain faithful in this remarkable situation. I want to strongly affirm your commitment to continue to return tithe to God through His Church. It is clear that NCC and some other conferences are operating in opposition toward the Church and indeed have rather intentionally chosen a position of separation from the Church. It would be folly to see it as other than it is. Since some entities are operating in what is in essence a separated situation from the church, entirely refusing the authority of the world body, there is a logic in your decision that many will find difficult to disagree with. Since it is obvious that the members themselves in NCC are sharply divided on this question, I believe it would be well for the NCC to hold a special session to reestablish harmony with the world church and with their own members. I personally entertain the hope that the members of NCC and other entities which are in a position of separation from the church will rethink and repent of their voted actions which have placed them in defiance.