A quorum of the Council of Elders met by teleconference today to discuss an amendment proposed to Article 12 of the Bylaws and to review a request from the Prophecy Advisory Committee.

At the recent meetings in Clearwater Florida, the Council reviewed two proposals to amend Section 12 of the Bylaws. The Council itself had submitted one, and General Conference of Elders member Warren Poland had put forward another. The Council decided in Florida that they preferred Mr. Poland’s version, but wished to suggest minor edits. Robert Dick was asked to discuss the matter with Mr. Poland, which he did. Mr. Poland has submitted a slightly revised version of his amendment. As a result, the Council rescinded its proposal to amend Article 12, and unanimously passed the following resolution (Aaron Dean and Mario Seiglie absent):

Leon Walker next updated the Council regarding a proposal from Jim Franks, chairman of the Prophecy Advisory Committee. Mr. Franks outlined a list of more specific areas of prophecy that the advisory committee believes should be addressed. The Doctrine Committee of the Council had previously reviewed the proposal and suggested a few edits as well as some additions to the list. Mr. Walker submitted the final proposal to the Council prior to this teleconference. The Council as a whole agreed that the list was a good working document. Gary Antion asked for a general prioritizing of the subjects, and Mr. Walker agreed to ask the subcommittee to provide this if possible. However, it was stressed that this is a long-term project and the advisory committee should be allowed to be flexible in its research and presentation of papers, depending upon the needs of the Church at the time. As individual papers are completed and approved by the Council, Mr. Franks envisions placing the material into a prophecy resource book for general availability.

Ó 2002 United Church of God, an International Association