The Epic, Pt. 49

As the time for the vote on the vision statement grew near the Group was still gravely concerned about the prospect of a Sabbath vote with no discussion. A member of the Group called Elder Bediako and asked that he intercede for us with Pastor DeSilva to get the meeting moved. The response was that he would consider it. During the announcements Sabbath morning January 31, 2009 we were told that after consulting with Elder Bediako Pastor DeSilva had decided to move the vote to a business meeting to be held directly after the service instead of having it during the service itself. (We learned afterward that Elder Bediako had tried to convince Pastor DeSilva to move the vote to some other day, but after more than an hour of discussion the most he could convince Pastor DeSilva to do was to have the vote after the service.)

The meeting began at 12:40, and Pastor DeSilva declared that the meeting would be done by 1pm. At that meeting a motion was made to table the vote until the vision statement had been reviewed by the finance committee. Pastor DeSilva hemmed and hawed and squirmed and commented on this motion in such a way as to cast the idea in an unfavorable light, all under the guise of explaining a motion to table. When he finally got around to taking the vote the motion failed. Elder Bediako then got up to speak. He made a brief statement about preferring that the meeting not have been on Sabbath, and the importance of following proper process and procedure, and then expounded on the importance of the need for our congregation to do mission. When he got done it was four minutes to one.

Pastor DeSilva looked around for one last hand to recognize. There were far more hands in the air than could be recognized in the remaining time, but Sister L managed to catch his attention. She moved to amend the vision statement to state that it would not be binding regarding any financial expenditure until that specific expenditure had been approved by the finance committee and a duly called business meeting. The concern that the Group was attempting to address through this amendment was the possibility that Pastor DeSilva would use the vote approving the conceptual vision as full authorization for his favorite projects and not take the expenditures through the usual approval channels because they were "already approved." Pastor DeSilva refused to accept the motion, claiming that it was redundant to policy. Sister L asserted that if it were redundant there would be neither harm nor inconvenience in allowing it in order to ease worried minds. He still refused to allow action on the motion. Another speaker was recognized. When that speaker was done several Group members sought to be recognized on a point of order. (The point of order being that a chairman doesn’t have the right to refuse to recognize a duly made motion). Seeing this, Pastor DeSilva graciously decided to allow the motion made by Sister L to proceed. It failed. The vote on the vision statement was then taken and it passed.

Pastor DeSilva then asked Elder Bediako to close the meeting with prayer. When Elder Bediako got up he declared how pleased he was that the vision had passed. After the meeting several members of the Group clustered around him discussing what had just happened. There was a general sentiment that Elder Bediako had just done our efforts to restore proper governance significant harm by getting up and declaring what appeared to be such wholehearted support for the pastors and their plans. His response was "Oh no, no. You remember what I said at our meeting. I said we have to follow proper process and procedure."

Unfortunately, most members did not interpret Elder Bediako’s statement about proper process and procedure to be a statement in opposition to the change in structure. They took it as support for the new system of governance, particularly in the context of his gushing enthusiasm for the vision statement.

Next: The Meeting

Religious