August 31, 2015:
United Religions Back in the Spotlight: Pope Picked to Lead One-World Church
Originally published in Catholic Family News, October 2014
Isn’t it extraordinary how something long in existence can be suddenly re-proposed as a brilliant new idea? Politicians and educators, hoping we have memory problems, often do this to fool us into thinking they are working hard to improve a situation. Another audacious example of this strategy was recently provided by the Holy See’s support of a proposal for a “United Religions”.
The proposal came from former Israeli President and Nobel Peace Prize-winner Shimon Peres. At a private audience with Pope Francis on September 4, 2014, Peres “proposed the founding of a United Religions organization — modelled after the United Nations — to fight terrorism”.
Click on Link:
http://canisiusbooks.com/articles/pope-francis-to-lead-one-world-religion.htm
Viewpoint: The Real Threat to Adventism is Biblical Literalism
26 August 2015
5:45am. Half awake in an airport, I scanned the New York Times headlines (August 14) on my iPhone. The very first headline caught my eye: ISIS Enshrines a Theology of Rape. I woke up.
A 12-year-old girl describes how an Islamic State fighter would pray before and after raping her. “I kept telling him it hurts–please stop. He told me that according to Islam, he is allowed to rape an unbeliever. “He said that by raping me, he is drawing closer to God.”
Click on Link:
http://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/08/26/viewpoint-real-threat-adventism-biblical-literalism
General Conference Says Unions Exercise "Delegated Authority" on Ordination
18 August 2015 | Jared Wright
Wednesday, August 19, the North Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Executive Committee will meet to discuss women’s ordination within its territory. The meeting follows two previous actions, as noted in the Gleaner.
Tuesday, in advance of the meeting, NPUC President Elder Max Torkelsen received an email from General Conference President Elder Ted Wilson, via the North American Division president’s office. The email included a lengthy document prepared by the General Conference Secretariat, which has supervisory responsibility for the General Conference Working Policy (GC WP), entitled “Unions and Ordination to the Gospel Ministry: Brief Summary and Comprehensive Working Policy Explanation.”
The "Unions and Ordination" document argued forcefully unions' authority on ordination is meaningless, except as delegated from the General Conference:
Click on Link:
U.S. Union Conference Rescinds Special Meeting on Women’s Ordination
Posted August 20, 2015
By Andrew McChesney, news editor, Adventist Review
A U.S. union conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has reversed a decision to hold a special constituency meeting about the ordination of women as pastors.
Leaders of the North Pacific Union Conference, which includes the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska, voted 26-4 on Wednesday to rescind their decision of Nov. 12, 2014, to hold the constituency meeting within 120 days of the North American Division’s year-end meetings in fall 2015.
“We do not believe that convening a special constituency meeting about the ordination of women as pastors would be productive at this time for the North Pacific Union Conference,” the union said in statement. “Therefore, we rescind our earlier action.”
