The General Conference took on a new attitude Thursday. Wednesday, its opening day, was marked by a strong opening sermon, and a special guest at the end, there was litle time for the real, in the trenches business, the approving of the language of reports, the dissection of resolutions.
Thursday was just the opposite, it was all about business with very litle flash. The issues were numerous, and on more than on occasion, emotions ran high. It took good control at the wheel to steer through some of the potential minefields that arose.
One of the biggest problems of the day arose with the Judicial Council report. They apparently had been asked to rule whether Bishops had improperly placed two pastors. The cases came to the Judicial Council as a matter of appeal.
Yesterday they said that they oould not rule on the appeal. The reason they gave was that they could not interfer with anything that is perceived as the Godly judgement of the Bishops.
Delegates on the floor viewed this as an infringement on the Pastor's Bil of Rights which states that ministers should be placed in a church equal to or greater than that in which they served.
When the Judicial Council Report was brought to the floor for approval, the debate became acrimonious. Bishop Vinton Anderson was in the chairman seat at the time and he managed to maintain both his composure and decorum in the midst of raised voices, shouting and some insults, a few directed at him personally.
Sticking to the spirit and letter of Robert's Rules of Order, Bishop Anderson kept this discussion as much on course as anyone could. The final ressolution, after several hours of debate, was a special committee would be formed to address the issue of the supposed conflict between the Pastor's Bill of Rights and the Judicial Council's perception of what they could or could not do in the case of Pastorial appointments.
The Address was prepared by Bishop Donald George Kenneth Ming. The big question was, would Bishop Ming present it. He was seriously ill during he weeks leading up to the Conference and it was even questionable at one point whether he would be well enough to attend.
Each day, Bishop Ming seems to be growing a litle stronger. He asked Bishop William DeVeaux to read the highlights of the report for him but he was at the podium while it was being read. Bishop Ming also was celebrating his birthday as his Address was presented to the conference.
The Address covered a lot of territory. It chronicled the churches past achievements, it took a hard look at its present course and then set some thoughtful goals for the future.
There were a few points of the Address that were caled to task. There was a misworded reference to the lay, that was acknowledged and removed prior to the reaing of the address. A second inadvertent reference was found that could be perceived as insulting to women.
For a second, it appeared that the Conference again would become embroiled in a little acrimony but Bishop Frank Cummings, who held the chair for the evening session, quickly defused the situation. He called for Bishop Ming to be congratulated for pulling together such a project in light of his ill health. Aside from a printed report, Bishop Ming had brought to the Conference a Power Point computer presentation replete with narration. It was an impressive use of technology.
It was agreed that the Conference would approve the Address and would give Bishop Ming time to fine tune his effort and then it would be reprinted and released to the public.
During yesterday's mornig session, the majority of the time was used to familiarize the delegates with, and test, the new electronic voting procedures that will be in place this year at the Conference.
This should make the results available almost minutes after the voting occurs. This was lengthy process with some of the delegates quesioning privacy in voting as well as the overal integrity of the system.
