Table of Contents

Preview of Session Agenda

The Church's business session in Toronto will hear numerous reports about the state of the Church and its activities during the years 1995-2000. The Nominating committee will consider names to the Church's top governing body, the General Conference, and the agenda will present recommendations adjusting the current Church constitution and bylaws, according to Athal Tolhurst, Undersecretary of the General Conference responsible for preparing the agenda for the Session. Changes will include selection process for delegates attending the General Conference Session, but will "not significantly change the balance relative to the lay and employee participation," Tolhurst said.

"Experience has indicated the need for realistic adjustments to eliminate difficulties of choosing delegations from different Divisions and their institutions, and at the same time meet the acceptable criteria for such selection," he explained.

The Session delegates will consider several Church Manual items. These will include a recommendation for a significant change to the format of the Church's guidebook for local congregations and its members.

"The proposal calls for reformatting that would designate mandatory and advisory parts of the Manual," Tolhurst said. The Church Manual Committee identified numerous procedural passages in the Church Manual that would be included at the end of each chapter in a section called Notes. These information passages (mostly in chapters 6-8) are largely based on cultural differences and modern advancement. These notes could be updated as needed without bringing the proposed changes to a General Conference Session.

Among the recommendations for Toronto is a proposal for new wording of chapter 15 of the Church Manual on "Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage."

"This recommendation, however, does not call for any major changes to the Church's position on this subject," Tolhurst said. Many of the proposed changes came out of a report produced by the Divorce and Remarriage Study Commission set up in response to a request made from the floor of the 1995 General Conference Session in Utrecht, Netherlands.

The thrust of the revisions which were discussed and now recommended to the Session by the 1999 General Conference Annual Council underscore the biblical basis for the Church's teaching on marriage, divorce, and remarriage. A new section is being introduced on the Church's role in ministering to families and providing programs for engaged couples, instruction for married couples, and "support for broken families and divorced individuals." Some of the recommended changes alter the tone of the Church's position. Gone are such words as "guilt" and "disfellowship" being replaced by "removal from membership." The proposal also affirms that separation or divorce as a result of physical violence is also allowable. Such cases, however, would not give either partner scriptural grounds to remarry.

The Toronto Session will deal with several Church reorganization recommendations in different parts of the world including establishing new unions. Also, the delegates will hear a recommendation for a name change of the Health and Temperance Department. It is recommended that the department be named Health Ministries. Among other recommendations, the process for electing auditors and the Auditing Service Board of the General Conference will be featured in the agenda.

The overall agenda of the Session will no doubt be impacted by statistical reports of membership increases as well as organizational and economic challenges brought on by rapid growth of the Church in different parts of the world.

"How to be effective in our mission to the world will be on top of the agenda. It is important that such focus is kept before the delegates to the Session. That's why the Church exists and it is important for all believers to keep the 'finishing of the work of God' in mind in all aspects of our Christian life as Seventh-day Adventists," said Tolhurst. [Ray Dabrowski]