The New Chart

Just to remind everyone of what the organizational chart looked like previously, here again is the chart that was issued on January 28, 2008:













And here is the one that superceded the January chart on June 29, having been introduced as just a little "tweaking:"














These are the differences between the charts:

1) The Accountability Board is shifted to the side and the Ministries Board moved up so that both report directly to the business meeting. Previously, the Ministries Board reported to the Accountability Board.

2) Men's and Women's Ministries now reported to Family Ministries. Previously they had reported to the Boards of Deacons and Deaconnesses respectively.

3) Personal Ministries Leader was retitled "Outreach Leader."

4) Grief Ministry was added to the responsibilities of the Outreach Leader.

5) Sabbath School Classes was removed from the responsibilities of the Sabbath School Leader.

6) The Accountability Board was given "Ad Hoc Committees."

The most significant of these changes is the alteration of the relative positions of the Accountability and Ministries Boards. The Church Manual requires a single church board with a specific minimum membership which reports directly to the business meeting and handles all executive functions. Neither of these two Boards meets the membership criteria to be a church board, but the Ministries Board comes far closer than the Accountability Board. By moving the Accountability Board so that it no longer stood between the Ministries Board and the business meeting, an objection against the Ministries Board qualifying as a church board was removed. Of course, this does not resolve the membership difficulties or the problem of their being two competing boards splitting the executive power.

Reorganizing which ministries report to which leader would not be a big deal except 1) several ministries which these charts put under the administration of other ministries are supposed to have direct representation on the church board, and 2) to the best of our knowledge the ministries affected by these changes were not directly informed of the changes, making for administrative chaos. The leaders of men's and women's ministries, for example, are supposed to be church board members, but under this new chart they must instead report to the family ministries leader in order to reach the Ministries Board. (This also demonstrates a lack of understanding on the pastors' part of the intended nature of family ministries. This ministry is supposed to address the spiritual issues unique to family dynamics, not supervise ministries that address the different gender dynamics, but I digress.) This particular example is further complicated by the fact that at the time this new chart was issued the post of family ministries leader had still not been filled by the standing nominating committee, so there was no actual person for these other ministries to report to even if they had happened to notice that they were supposed to. The net result of all this is that men's and women's ministries have functioned as independant bodies that didn't report to anyone besides themselves within the Takoma Park Church.

What the pastors intended by giving the Accountability Board "Ad Hoc Committees" remains a mystery. To the best of our knowledge none have ever actually been formed.

The incredibly disturbing part of all this is that the pastors could make such significant changes to the governance organization simply by announcing them (and not really even doing that). If, without question, the pastors can alter the dynamics of the new governance structure to bring it slightly closer to the Church Manual, what is there to prevent them from later taking steps further away from the Manual, also without allowing anyone to challenge the decision? Throughout this struggle we have repeatedly attempted to point out to both the congregation and the conference leadership that the pastors were exercising dictatorial powers. Every time we have made a statement along these lines Pastor DeSilva has responded in his most wounded voice that he has never acted as a dictator and that every change that has occurred has been voted on by the congregation. This is a blatant falsehood. None of the charts which Pastor DeSilva has used to define this new governance structure have ever been voted by a business meeting. By making, issuing, and changing them at will without the congregation's formal input and approval Pastor DeSilva has definitely constituted himself a dictator.