Subject: Important Announcement For All Congregations
Date: Thursday, June 1, 2000
From: Les McCullough
To: Church Pastors

CONFIDENTIAL: NOT TO BE DISCUSSED UNTIL AFTER THE APPROPRIATE ANNOUNCEMENTS ARE MADE DURING SABBATH SERVICES OF JUNE 3, 2000. ON THAT DAY, PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE AND THE TWO ATTACHED LETTERS TO YOUR CONGREGATIONS.

Well, greetings to all of you!

Because of the above note I am sure I have the attention of all of you. Let me explain a little to begin with. Due to the nature of this announcement this message will be sent only to each church pastor. If you will not be speaking in each of your congregations this

Sabbath, you may make arrangements for an elder or other designee to read the enclosed material. However, we do ask that none of the information be discussed until it is announced at services in each area.

As you may be aware, some months ago an initial discussion was entered into between representatives of UCGIA and three ministers of what was then called the Global Church of God. We wanted to get together to discuss the basic beliefs and teachings held by each group to identify where there is common ground. There was only one meeting and then the discussions were discontinued.

I won't go into all the details, but at the May Council of Elders meeting it was proposed that the Council send a letter to the board of the Church of God, a Christian Fellowship, seeking to renew those talks. The point was made that if the discussions were to be re-opened, both organizations would make a simultaneous announcement about the matter. Neither group wanted the pastors of one group to be informed and the pastors of the other group to be in the dark. You can understand the problems that this would present.

I have just completed a teleconference with Robert Dick, Victor Kubik and Larry Salyer. The Church of God, a Christian Fellowship, has just finished a board meeting where it was unanimously agreed that they would establish a task force to meet with a task force from UCGIA to begin exploring the possibilities of working together it, and to discuss the many areas of mutual agreement. Please understand that nothing has been agreed to yet. Once the groundwork is laid, the task forces will address any areas of potential disagreement. I have no idea what those could be and believe they are few. We will then see where that will lead us.

You can appreciate the reasons we do not want this announcement to be pre-empted by some people talking about it with a friend or rushing to be the first to put it on the Web. We all at times have to battle the natural desire to be the first to make something known. The letter from our Council to them and their reply to us are attached to this message. This material will be put on our respective Web pages Saturday night to make it available to the general public. Please read this message and both of the attached letters to your congregations this Sabbath. I also request that you ask the brethren to seek God’s direction in all of this.

I hope you are as excited by these developments as we on the Council are. It is something we have been hoping for and praying about for some time. There is little doubt in my mind that the respective congregations will also be excited and rejoice in this initial move toward unity and harmony among our two groups. Who knows the mind of God and what His thoughts are for the future?

Thank you for your confidence and efforts in serving our great Creator.

Have a truly magnificent Sabbath.

Leslie L. McCullough

President