{"id":7515,"date":"2017-06-26T20:40:52","date_gmt":"2017-06-26T20:40:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=7515"},"modified":"2018-10-12T20:44:43","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T20:44:43","slug":"standing-committee-agrees-to-new-process","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2017\/standing-committee-agrees-to-new-process\/","title":{"rendered":"Standing Committee agrees to new process for its deliberations this year, recommends adoption of new business items from Brethren Benefit Trust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Church of the Brethren Newsline
\nJune\u00a026,\u00a02017<\/b><\/p>\n

\"\"
Moderator Carol Scheppard and moderator-elect Samuel Sarpiya at the head table during Standing Committee meetings on Monday, June 26. The Standing Committee of district delegates meets in advance of Annual Conference every year. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Standing Committee of district delegates has begun its work ahead of the 2017 Annual Conference. Standing Committee meetings began Sunday evening, June 25, in Grand Rapids, Mich., and continue through Wednesday morning, June 28. The meetings are presided over by Annual Conference moderator Carol Scheppard, with moderator-elect Samuel Sarpiya and Conference secretary James Beckwith.<\/p>\n

The Conference officers recommended that, for this year\u2019s Standing Committee,\u00a0a process for deliberation akin to a consensus model be used<\/strong>. The moderator characterized this style of decision making as \u201cin the spirit of consensus building.\u201d The recommendation included\u00a0requiring a two-thirds vote within Standing Committee<\/strong>for each recommendation the committee sends to the delegate body of Annual Conference this year. The Standing Committee adopted the officers\u2019 recommendation.<\/p>\n

The officers explained that this process is being tried out after complaints were received last year when Standing Committee adopted a controversial recommendation by the slimmest of simple majorities, but then sent it on to the delegate body with a requirement for a two-thirds majority.<\/p>\n

Other intentions for the process include enhancing discussion and discernment, allowing for more questions and clarification of the \u201cbig issues,\u201d encouraging more open sharing of views, and the \u201cbuilding of motions together\u201d as a whole committee.<\/p>\n

The new process was put into practice immediately, as Standing Committee\u00a0began deliberation of the first two items of new business<\/strong>\u00a0coming to the Conference, which are two recommendations received from On Earth Peace: \u201cPolity for Agencies\u201d (see the full text of this item at\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2017\/business\/NB-1-Polity-for-Agencies.pdf<\/a>\u00a0) and \u201cPatient Hope in Matters of Conscience\u201d (see\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2017\/business\/NB-2-Patient-Hope-in-Matters-of-Conscience.pdf<\/a>\u00a0). The committee will continue deliberation of these two recommendations on Tuesday, June 27.<\/p>\n

Standing Committee\u00a0took action on the other two new business items received from Brethren Benefit Trust<\/strong>\u00a0(BBT). The committee recommended their adoption by the Annual Conference.\u00a0\u201cBrethren Values Investing\u201d<\/strong>recommends using that phrase in place of the term \u201csocially responsible investing\u201d in the denomination\u2019s documents (see\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2017\/business\/NB-3-Brethren-Values-Investing.pdf<\/a>\u00a0).\u00a0\u201cPolity for Electing Brethren Benefit Trust Board Directors\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0would reduce the number of nominations BBT is required to contribute to the ballot to a minimum of two, for each elected position on the BBT board (\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2017\/business\/NB-4-Polity-for-Electing-BBT-Board-Directors.pdf<\/a>\u00a0).<\/p>\n

\"\"
The district delegates held their pre-Conference meetings in one of the decorative ballrooms at the Amway Grand hotel in Grand Rapids, Mich. This room is in the section of the hotel that was formerly the historic Pantlind Hotel. Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Among other business today, Standing Committee received a report from the denomination\u2019s Leadership Team, held a consultation with the Council of District Executives (CODE), and engaged in some discussion of an item of unfinished business, \u201cThe Authority of Annual Conference and Districts regarding the Accountability of Ministers, Congregations, and Districts.\u201d This document responds to the \u201cQuery: Same Sex Weddings\u201d that came to last year\u2019s Conference. Because the Standing Committee does not act on items of unfinished business, no recommendations were made. Find the full text of the \u201cAuthority\u201d document at\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2017\/business\/UB-4-Authority-and-Accountability-final.pdf<\/a>\u00a0. A FAQ prepared by the Leadership Team and CODE is at\u00a0www.brethren.org\/ac\/2017\/business\/qa-regarding-ub4.pdf<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

Go to\u00a0www.brethren.org\/Newsline<\/a>\u00a0to subscribe to the Church of the Brethren Newsline free e-mail news service and receive church news every week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Standing Committee of district delegates has begun its work ahead of the 2017 Annual Conference. Standing Committee meetings began Sunday evening, June 25, in Grand Rapids, Mich., and continue through Wednesday morning, June 28. The meetings are presided over by Annual Conference moderator Carol Scheppard, with moderator-elect Samuel Sarpiya and Conference secretary James Beckwith.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":7517,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1258],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-7515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-annual-conference"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7518,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7515\/revisions\/7518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7515"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}