Young Widowhood Young Widowhood
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Adventist World President Resigns SPECIAL REPORT: February 18, 1999 Cutting Edge YoungYoung WidowhoodWidowhood WhenWhen youryour dreamsdreams collapsecollapse ForFor AllAll WhoWho FeelFeel AverageAverage ThirtyThirty TermsTerms EveryEvery NewNew AdventistAdventist ShouldShould KnowKnow SPECIAL REPORT Adventist World President Resigns BY CARLOS MEDLEY, news editor for the Adventist Review TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9 Ten days after top church officers In late December 1998 allegations would come,” Folkenberg told the voted to call a special meeting of the of financial and ethical improprieties headquarters employees as he church’s highest deliberative body to by Folkenberg surfaced in connection explained his decision to resign. consider allegations against him, with a civil lawsuit filed by James “There are things that are far more General Conference president Robert Moore, a Sacramento, California, important than Robert Folkenberg and S. Folkenberg announced his resigna- entrepreneur against Folkenberg, attor- the position of president of the tion, effective immediately. ney Walter Carson, and accountant General Conference, and that is this Folkenberg’s decision averts a Ben Kochenower, who had all at one movement that the Lord has raised up potential conflict between himself and time served on the board of two inde- and the task that He has given us to the General Conference Executive pendent charitable organizations. do. And that transcends all personali- Committee scheduled to meet at the The General Conference Corpora- ties. It is bigger than any mistakes, and church’s world headquar- Lord knows, I’ve made ters on March 1. my share of them. And I By provisions of the have confessed them, church’s working policy, apologized, and wept and General Conference prayed about them. But secretary G. Ralph above and beyond all of Thompson became acting those is this end-time president. He will serve in movement with a last-day that position until the message the Lord has 268-member committee given us.” elects a new president. Folkenberg also read (See “What Happens aloud the resignation let- Next?” p. 3.) ter that he sent to In an emotional state- Thompson on Sunday, ment to more than 600 February 7, in which he employees at the denomi- acknowledged mistakes in nation’s world headquar- his dealings with Moore ters in Silver Spring, but “rejoiced that the Maryland, on Monday, integrity of my motives February 8, Folkenberg cited the dis- tion and the church’s Inter-American has not been called into question.” tractions created by a lawsuit against Division were also named in the suit, A Special Ad Hoc Group appoint- him and the need for church unity as but are not expected to figure promi- ed by the General Conference reasons for his decision. nently in the litigation. No church Administrative Committee Folkenberg, 58, was elected presi- entity had any funds invested with (ADCOM) met on January 25, 26 to dent of the 10-million-member Moore, nor were any church funds at hear presentations by Phil Hiroshima, ALLAGHER denomination in June 1990 at the risk. The General Conference a General Conference-retained attor- G church’s international constituency Corporation never had any dealings ney, and Folkenberg and his attorneys. meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, and with him, and the Inter-American Hiroshima had discovered evidence of THAN ONA reelected at the 1995 General Division had cut off all contact with possible ethical irregularities as he pre- J BY Conference session in Utrecht, him 10 years ago. pared to defend the General HOTO Holland. “This is a day I never dreamed Conference Corporation and the P 2 (194) ADVENTIST REVIEW, FEBRUARY 18, 1999 SPECIAL REPORT Inter-American Division in the civil theft in 1987. The president’s failure Folkenberg had made the right deci- suit. The 19-member committee met to share information with the leader- sion even as they underscored their for more than 25 hours and concluded ship circle about the lawsuit when it personal pain about the events of the by an overwhelming secret ballot vote was still only being threatened seri- last three weeks. that the allegations against Folkenberg ously damaged his credibility. “All of us are saddened by this sud- were grave enough to warrant calling a There was also evidence that the den rush of events that has necessitated special session of the General office of the president had been mis- Elder Folkenberg’s resignation,” said Conference Executive Committee, used, according to those at the meet- Thompson in a phone interview from subsequently scheduled for March 1-7. ing. Several financial schemes were Loma Linda, California. “A series of The Special Ad Hoc Group deliv- attempted, invoking the influence and events has swamped and engulfed him, ered its report on January 27 to an even the letterhead of the General and for the good of the church and his ADCOM meeting which included 10 Conference to introduce Moore to family it is important to let a time of of the denomination’s 12 division pres- leaders of foreign countries as a way to healing begin. We admire him for his idents. raise money and pay off what Moore decision and look forward to his con- According to several persons at the claimed Folkenberg owed him. tinued contributions to the church he ADCOM meeting, members were ADCOM members deemed that so much loves.” troubled by Elder Folkenberg’s long behavior unacceptable. “Elder Folkenberg reminded us business association with Moore, who Church leaders reached for com- when he was first elected nearly nine had been convicted of felony grand ment expressed their belief that years ago that the real president of the What Happens Next? BY BILL KNOTT, ASSOCIATE EDITOR OF THE ADVENTIST REVIEW The Executive Committee is composed of nearly 270 layper- sons, pastors, and church administrators from around the The decision by General Conference president Robert world, and is charged with giving leadership to the worldwide Folkenberg to resign his office has set in motion a never- church between the five-year international sessions. before-used policy for replacing the highest officer of the 10- At the March meeting, a nominating committee will be select- million member denomination. ed with representatives from each of the world church’s 12 divi- G. Ralph Thompson, secretary of the General Conference and the sions and will meet to bring a recommendation to the Executive second-ranking officer, became acting president upon Folkenberg’s Committee. The person elected as president will serve until the resignation, and will serve until a new president is elected and next General Conference session in June 2000 in assumes the responsibilities of the office. Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Thompson, 69, has served 18 years as General Only rarely has the church had to act to fill a Conference secretary, and was first elected at the midterm vacancy in its highest post. In October church’s international session in Dallas, Texas, in 1978 President Robert H. Pierson surprised the April 1980. He was subsequently reelected in Annual Council gathering in Takoma Park, Maryland, 1985 and 1990, and most recently at the July with an announcement that he was resigning his 1995 General Conference session in Utrecht, post and retiring from denominational service on the Holland. Originally from Barbados, West Indies, advice of his physicians. Members of the General Thompson is the first non-North American to serve Conference Executive Committee at that meeting as the church’s second-ranking officer and subsequently elected Neal C. Wilson, then vice pres- becomes the first person in its 135-year history to ident for North America, as the new president. function as an acting president. He has served as Fifteen persons have served as General a pastor, evangelist, theology teacher, union presi- G. Ralph Thompson Conference president since the church was orga- dent, and general vice president of the General nized in May 1863 in Battle Creek, Michigan. Conference during 48 years of denominational service. Terms of service were only two years during the first decade of The General Conference Administrative Committee the church, but gradually increased to four and then five years (ADCOM) has scheduled a special meeting of the full as the denomination lengthened the span between its interna- Executive Committee for March 1-7 at the world church head- tional sessions. quarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, to elect a new president. ADVENTIST REVIEW, FEBRUARY 18, 1999 (195) 3 SPECIAL REPORT General Conference is the Lord Jesus Review special report to his congrega- church’s leadership in higher educa- Christ,” Thompson continued. “The tion. “We appreciated that the matter tion,” Geraty adds. “I personally felt church moves forward, and, as I always was handled forthrightly and with his leadership style of ‘management like to say, the future is as bright as dispatch. But we concluded that these by destabilization,’ while perhaps the promises of God.” events won’t sidetrack us from the useful in other settings, was not Others echoed Thompson’s senti- mission of our local church. While appropriate for the church where ments about the denomination’s need one person has apparently stumbled, ‘doing justice, loving kindness, and for stability. the rest of the church’s processes have walking humbly with God’ is what “The history of recent events succeeded.” we expect of our leaders.” cannot be undone,” said Jan “The resignation of a GC president “He’s been a good president for Paulsen, General Conference gen- under these circumstances is an un- the church,” says Steve Timm, mod- eral vice president. “But we owe it precedented event,” says Reinder erator of the 600-member SDANet to God and the church to look for Bruinsma, secretary of the Trans- computer forum, an Internet discus- ways of healing and a sense of a European Division, headquartered in sion group that focuses on issues strong, deliberate march forward.” St.