The Epic, Pt 12

The first business meeting of the new year was held on January 28, 2008. It was announced by Pastor DeSilva as a purely informational meeting to explain the new governance system to any who had questions. He specifically stated in his official verbal announcements that there would be no votes of any kind taken at the meeting, but it was evident to us that that was not truly his intent.

There was a relatively popular member of the congregation whom Pastor DeSilva disliked. He had managed to find evidence of some legitimate wrongdoing on the part of the popular individual and was determined to disfellowship the individual while no one was looking. The information came to us from multiple reliable sources that Pastor DeSilva’s intent was to hold an official meeting during bad January weather without any strong agenda to draw a crowd so that he could have the room to himself with just a few hand-picked followers who would vote the way he wanted. That way he could do the dirty deed without any fuss or notice. We should note at this point that none of the Church Manual-stipulated reclamation efforts had been made with this individual prior to this attempt at disfellowshipment.

When we heard of this dastardly plot we launched a “get out the vote” campaign. It was successful; the room was packed. Pastor DeSilva, seeing his secret, easy vote go up in smoke, didn’t bring up the proposed disfellowshipment. Instead we had a prolonged discussion about the nuances of the new governance system.

Pastor DeSilva had another new chart to issue (included below) and discussion centered around the duties and membership of the two new “boards.” When questioned about the number of people to be on the Support and Accountability Board, Pastor DeSilva stated that there would be five. The questioner expressed concern that it would not be possible to find in only five individuals all the skills required to perform the duties listed for the Accountability Board. Several other meeting attendees seconded this concern. Pastor DeSilva, never one to defend an unpopular position against a fair majority, attempted to brush off the critique by saying that the exact number of members would be determined by the nominating committee.

Next: Feet to the Fire

Religious