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Ambassador Watch
A weekly E-zine
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Ambassador Watch
is part of the Missing Dimension web site -
www.missingdimension.com .
It is published online each Friday. The contact
address is: missingdimension@ihug.co.nz
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Back
issues:
Issue One Issue Two
Update
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Draft copies of many of
the items that appear on Ambassador Watch
are made available first on the
Missing Dimension Yahoo! group. For the
rest of May anyone can view the group online.
Beginning next month (June) it will only be
available to subscribers. Registering with
Yahoo! and subscribing to the group are
free.
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Quotable: From JLF.
I've just seen the
WPRA website at http://www.wpra.net/index.html
It has some pretty good before and after pics of
the now defunct Legacy project.
What I'm wondering
now is, will there be comparable 'openness' re the
next sets of plans? Or will wcg continue its
traditional method of bullsh*t, denial and
secrecy?
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Letter of the
Week
Unfortunately the
past has left a two-fold 'war' to us who have been
a part of it. One theater is rightly placing blame
on the past leadership but continues to promote the
old doctrinal traditions because of greed and
merchandising that has been seen as apparent
"necessity" (according to some) due to HWA not
paying Social Security on his ministers. So it is
now left up to the already abused laity to pick up
their tab!
And so instead of
correcting the false teachings and encouraging a
relationship between God and the individual the
wolves in sheep's clothing continue to ravage the
prey and since they had no faith in the God they
claimed to serve - to begin with - they think that
they have a right to that monetary tithe because
they "do God a favor by keeping His flock in line
with Armstrongism or Judaism" (or something like
it). Of course God may be the One Who is tearing
down that system of Babylon just as He prophesied
that He would.
Another theater of
that 'war' is that we come to a place of such
self-pity (forgetting what our Savior went thru as
well as Paul and the true apostles) that it becomes
much easier to have these little pity-parties and
blame God for all the things that HWA and his
negligent ministry did-when we may be forgetting
that the Bible has been there all along (copies can
even be obtained free of charge) and all we have to
do is open it and ask God to give us that
understanding of His version of what He would have
us to do rather than following men and
organizations-and you know what? He will!
=^)
More letters in
the Mailbag
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Issue Three - May 10,
2002
The Hulme
Tune: You know
there's trouble in a COG sect when articles on "Authority"
start to crop up in church publications. By this rule of
thumb, the David Hulme led Church of God - An
International Community is going through a bad patch.
The April issue of Church of God News featured a
lead article by Hulme himself entitled "The Purpose of
Authority." In it Hulme asks: "Do we truly understand
what it means to be under authority?" The article
begins with some fairly innocuous statements:
Once we
commit to God's way, we are saying that we accept His
authority over our lives... It is essential to recognize
that God's authority over us is for our
good.
Then, clicketty
clack, Dave changes tracks:
In this
life, when we accept God's invitation to be called, we
agree to a framework of authority that is designed for
our benefit. It begins with God's authority over our
lives and our willingness to submit to it. Flowing from
this is the willingness to submit to all authority in the
way that God has instructed.
Framework of
authority? Dave, what could you mean?
Jesus is
under the Father, the disciples or apostles were under
Christ, the ministers and deacons - as the offices
developed - came under senior leadership, and so
on.
Which brings
back memories of Herb, circa 1979, standing on the stage of
the Ambassador Auditorium with a ridiculous chart showing
how HE was the boss, under Christ (who regrettably failed
to put in a personal appearance in support), in the
heavenly chain of command. Herb was big on hierarchy, as
long as he was the dude giving the orders. He was, however,
never much good at working under anyone else's
directions.
The
ministry are expected to carry out their responsibilities
with authority... Authority must be exercised by the
ministry in the work of watching out for our
souls...
Now children,
can we all say "paternalism" together?
We all
know who is the main perpetrator of opposition to God's
authority.
Let's take a
stab at it. How about those "pretenders" who claim God's
endorsement for their un-mandated and self-crowned
leadership role?
Part of
the submissive spirit is the willingness to suffer when
wrongfully treated.
Just like
Herbert Armstrong suffered and submitted to the leadership
of the Church of God (Seventh Day)? Just like Dave suffered
and submitted to the "framework of authority" in the WCG,
then the UCG?
Following
Hulme's "do-as-I-say" logic, the fight of the abolitionists
against slavery was Satan inspired, the American War of
Independence was orchestrated by demons and David Hulme has
wilfully rebelled against God TWICE. The article
continues:
We have to
willingly submit to God the Father and the structure and
plan He has put in place.
So there you
have it. Submit! Don't complain. SUFFER! (Suffering is good
for you.) Do what the minister says, even when he's wrong.
The (Hulme) ministry knows best! Senior leadership (Dave)
stands at the apex of "God's framework of authority." And
if you have the faintest stirring of spiritual independence
- the devil made you do it!
There's another
"A-word" that we wish Dave, Joe, Spanky and their
collaborators would start to use:
accountability. We're not holding our
breath.
Perhaps
Armstrong ministers should try watching out for their own
souls.
Antipodean UCG
"stable": The UCG's
Council of Elders has been meeting this week. Minutes have
been published on the UCG web site. Two international
stories caught our eye. The first indicates just how much
grief United has gone through in establishing its
Australian operation:
Bill
Eddington is the chairman of the Australian National
Council. He pointed out that the Church in Australia is
enjoying a certain amount of stability now. A few members
left last year, and about 20 from the Church of God, a
Christian Fellowship, joined with United. About 500 are
now attending United (down from about 750 in
1995).
Matters "across
the ditch" appear to be not dissimilar, with local minister
Jeff Caudle reporting that "things are now very much
stabilized for the Church in New Zealand." (We were
saddened to learn of the death this week of NZ UCG trustee
Marcel Morreel following a heart attack.)
The second will interest those
who have been following the disfellowshipment and firing of
the British UCG's treasurer, Barbara Fenney, after she
questioned some of sect CEO John Jewell's actions. There
had been a call, reported in The Journal, for Jewell's
reappointment to the Council to be reconsidered, and for a
formal inquiry. The minutes record: John Jewell was returned to the Council as
an international representative.
Kilough
Crowned: While on the subject, the UCG Council has
chosen Clyde Kilough as its next chairman. He replaces Roy
"Chuckles" Holladay, who was recently elevated to the
presidency of the church. And these comments were entered
into the minutes with an apparently straight face:
Mr. Pinelli pointed out that
that he has received very few complaints in the last year
about ministers being “boring” – that he used to see
more. The connection he has made is that the publication
of World News and Prophecy seemed to coincide
with the drop in the number of comments! He wondered if
the earlier complaints expressed the frustration of some
about not hearing enough on prophetic topics. He stated
that he does occasionally field questions about the
precise doctrinal accuracy of particular statements made
in individual sermons.
Larry, Curly and
Moe: The Living Church
of God has added a third speaker to its "Tomorrow's World"
speaking schedule. Joining Meredith and Ames will be John
Ogwyn. According to Meredith: "Mr. Ames and I are both in
good health and appreciate the privilege of presenting the
telecast. But I will soon turn 72 and that same month Mr.
Ames will turn 66. God has never promised us
eternal life in this flesh. So I feel that it is
prudent that we bring a younger man on
board."
Saturday
Pentecost? Pentecost is
on a Monday, right? Wait, hold on, didn't that change to a
Sunday? No, wait: hold everything! Pentecost is now on a
Saturday! At least in Pasadena. This item comes from the
WCG Pasadena church bulletin.
Pentecost Service -
This year our Pentecost service will be on Saturday, May
18 with guest speaker, Jeb Egbert, our national youth
coordinator. Communion will be offered at that service.
For those who would also like to worship on Sunday, May
19, we invite you to join our brothers and sisters at
Friendship Baptist Church for their 10:00 a.m. service or
our sister church, NewLife Fellowship, for their 10:30
a.m. service at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, 3230 E. Del
Mar Blvd. in Pasadena.
After the
"Passover Purge", we wonder if there will be a similar
"witch-hunt" over any members who dare meet on the
traditional date in their own homes.
Keeping the sheep
dumb? The draft WN
article (see AW2) has been popping up in a number of
places, but perhaps most notably on the Pasadena WCG
congregation web site. We noted with interest that the
article seemed substantially shorter than the original and
did a quick comparison. Eight paragraphs had been cut
completely, and of those that remained, some had also had
sections deleted.
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Website
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Alexa Ranking
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1. Garner Ted
Armstrong Evangelistic. Assoc.
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109,287
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2. United Church of
God
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136,730
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3. Worldwide Church
of God (Tkach)
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155,174
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4. CEM (Ron
Dart)
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164,096
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5. Barnabas
Ministries (Alan Ruth)
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257,880
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6. Triumph
Prophetic Ministries (Dankenbring)
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350,787
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7. ASK (Ernest
Martin)
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395,121
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8. Good News
Magazine (UCG)
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422,106
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9. Church of God,
International
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435,313
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10. Living Church of God
(Meredith)
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443,658
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11. Key of David
(Flurry)
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458,166
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12. Cogwriter (Bob
Thiel)
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488,584
|
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13. Plain Truth
Ministries (Tkach)
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491,300
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14. Tomorrow's World
(Meredith)
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576,456
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15. Painful Truth (Ed Mentell) at
www.wwcg.info
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691,616
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16. Philadelphia Church
of God (Flurry)
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695,353
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17.
Exit and Support Network (Dee Hubbert)
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747,194
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18. Victor Kubik (UCG
affiliated)
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807,116
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19. Church of God
(Seventh Day)
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809,309
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20. Philadelphia Trumpet
(Flurry)
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943,932
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21. Vision Magazine
(Hulme)
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1,019,051
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22. Church of God AIC
(Hulme)
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1,026,086
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23. Ambassador Files
(MD affiliated)
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1,092,365
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24. The Journal (Dixon
Cartwright)
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1,280,169
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25. Painful Truth (Ed
Mentell) at herbertwarmstrong.com
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1,417,014
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26. Servants News
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1,631,714
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Top COG Web sites: Richard
Burkard, a regular contributor to JLF and webmaster at
www.laughline.com, has been doing some digging on the
Internet (http://www.alexa.com/), uncovering some
interesting statistics on popularity of various web sites
in the COG tradition. We added a few more searches to
Richard's to create the data table (see
box.)
According to an article published in The
Journal (Jan. 2002), Alan Ruth's biblestudy.org (Barnabas
Ministries) had over a million page views in 2001, making
it "the COG's biggest Web site." These statistics, however,
don't seem to confirm that claim, although its listing is
still relatively high.
What strikes us is how ineffectual the PTM site
appears (no.13 on the list) compared to far more amateurish
efforts like Bill Dankenbring's. This ranking must be a
major wake-up call for Greg
Albrecht.
Storm Warning for Bernie: Who would
have thought that the real estate business in Southern
California would become a consuming concern for an
apocalyptic sabbatarian cult turned evangelical (sort of)?
The LA Times this week must have provided nightmare reading
for Bernie Schnippert.
Pasadena's Poor Lack Housing, Suit Claims
Court Action calls for a ban on building until city
complies with law requiring a plan for low- income units.
Officials say they're trying.
The article states:
The action asks the court to impose an
injunction that would bring a halt to all
development--not just residential, but commercial--until
the city complies with state
law.
According to Dateline Pasadena, this could
put another serious damper on the sale of the Pasadena
property. Also this week, Pastor General Joe rejected calls
for a day of prayer and fasting to twist the Heavenly
arm.
I appreciate the intentions behind the
suggestion, but I do not feel it to be the thing to do in
this situation. Certainly, any day is a good day for
fasting and prayer, but we must be careful not to look
upon fasting and prayer as a sort of magic
wand.
Which just goes to show that Joe can still surprise
us. The sect leader, however, goes on to
say:
I received a note from one pastor, whose
congregation had just concluded a period of forty days of
fasting and prayer for me. I am overjoyed and filled with
vigor just to have read their note of
encouragement.
Forty days fasting for Joe? We'd love to know what
this entailed. Perhaps they all just gave up one favorite
food... baloney perhaps?
Church clings to Legacy approach (from
the Pasadena Star News)
By Elizabeth Lee
Staff Writer
PASADENA -- Now that the surprise has worn
off from Monday's announcement that Legacy Partners won't
be developing the Ambassador College property, neighbors
are starting to speculate about its
future.
The Worldwide Church of God, which owns
the property, has said it will move forward with Legacy's
plan to convert the land into more than 1,700 housing
units. But that
statement hasn't stopped some neighbors from dreaming of a
savior -- much like some locals did with the Raymond
Theatre -- who would come in to buy the picturesque
property and preserve it much as it
is.
"I hope they scratch the plan and some
financial angel comes through," said Ned Boyer, who lives
in southwest Pasadena. "I think there ought to be some sort
of consortium to buy the property and do something really
good with it, and give it its highest and best use."
One possibility would be to use
the campus as a regional arts center, he
said.
"I just would hate to see that property
cut up and I would hate to see it made into a virtual
fortress the way it was planned by Legacy, with the kind of
castle walls around the perimeter," Boyer said of the
current proposal. "... I hope it doesn't get developed in
anything close to the way it (is)
planned."
But the church has announced it will move
forward with the Legacy project, hiring a development team
to manage it. Unlike in the Legacy plan, the developer
wouldn't ever own the property, according to church
Director of Finance and Planning Bernard Schnippert.
A single buyer, or two buyers,
for the property have not been ruled out, he said. He has
received calls from interested purchasers this week,
although he would not say who they
were.
"The church has told the city that we're
going to pursue the Legacy plan," Schnippert said. "I think
they understand that we mean that sincerely, but that
doesn't mean that the right ... user at the right price
wouldn't supersede those
plans."
According to Gordon Odell, a southwest
Pasadena neighbor who co-founded Save South Orange Grove
(Boulevard) to oppose the development, said neighbors he's
talked to have suggested the property could once again be
used as a school campus. "(A) different type of utilization of the property
would certainly be a lot more acceptable than a large
development such as Legacy was proposing," Odell said.
"It's my guess that in due course, others will step forward
with some ideas ... institutional rather than
commercial."
Irvine-based Legacy proposed to develop
more than 1,700 apartments, condominiums and homes on the
49-acre property, which is split into two "campuses" that
flank the Long Beach (710) Freeway stub. Legacy was in escrow to buy the property
for more than three years, and spent more than $12 million
in the process. But its purchase contract with the church
expired at the end of March, and the two sides were unable
to reach an agreement on an
extension.
A Legacy official was mum on the
developer's reasons for abandoning the project. But
certainly Legacy saw its profit margin dwindling as the
project came under expensive pressure from neighbors, who
demanded a reduction in the number of housing units, and
who threatened to make an already lengthy process
longer.
In addition, Legacy had hoped to finance a
certain portion of the sale through a special tax district,
and the City Council --which would have had to authorize
the tax district -- wanted to limit its dollar
amount.
In recent negotiations to renew the
purchase contract, Legacy asked the church to reduce the
sale price, but that combined with the other agreement
terms was unacceptable, Schnippert said. Some observers predicted that now that
Legacy's profit margin doesn't have to be accounted for,
the church will be able to reduce the density of the
project and still make an acceptable return on the
property.
"My hope is really that they'll look
especially at the west campus density," said resident Paul
Vert. "If there's any way they can maybe put more density
on the other side ... that would make so much more sense. I
just think that when you look at that (development) model,
and see what they were proposing for the west campus,
everybody went crazy."
Schnippert said a reduction in density is
likely, but wouldn't offer details. "I believe the fine tuning will be in the
area of density and in the direction the neighbors hope.
Exactly how far ... I'm not prepared to say," Schnippert
said.
The general sentiments of neighbors were
optimistic, despite some uncertainty over the church's
plans -- and some uncertainty over whether Legacy is truly
abandoning the project for
good.
"At first I thought maybe Legacy would be
OK, but when they put out some of those diagrams, like at
the corner of Green (Street) and Orange Grove, it was solid
walls," said west Pasadena resident Virginia Crockett. "I
finally decided I didn't like it. I guess I'm glad they're
gone, and maybe something better will come
along."