Results of the Referenda

Bishop Paul Hirschy used the December 2004 issue of his monthly newsletter, Bmail, to publish the results to the UB constituency. The newsletter is sent to all UB ministers, as well as to some other UB leaders

I am using this issue of the B-Mail as the official report of the results from the three referendum items which were voted on during the month of October in all of the local churches in the United States National Conference. The box on this page gives those results.

The voting on the referendum items went as follows:

• The Property referendum passed with a strong 89% in favor.
• The Missionary Church referendum did not pass, receiving only 43% of the "Yes" votes.
• The National Conference Representation referendum passed with a strong 86% in favor.

This means the Property referendum and the National Conference Representation referendum will be considered by the US National Conference in June 2005. The Missionary Church referendum will not advance, since it did not receive at last 50% of the "Yes" votes.

I am very pleased with the strong percentage on the Property and National Conference Representation referenda. I do not see any reason why those two items should not pass the US National Conference. Each of those items will need to receive a two-thirds vote of the National Conference in order to become official. With this level of support, I will do everything I can to encourage the National Conference to pass those two items.

The October elections also determined the 62 persons who will represent their conferences as delegates to the 2005 US National Conference. Those persons, along with the alternates, are listed on the UB website at: www.ub.org/nc.

What's Next?

Many of you are probably wondering what will happen next, since joining the Missionary Church is no longer an option. To help answer that question, I am calling for a special session of the US National Board. It will be held February 14-15, 2005, in Huntington, Ind. I will be sending a special letter to each member of the US National Board informing them of this meeting and spelling out some of the items we will deal with. According to the Discipline, the National Board meets only during the first and third years of the quadrennium (in this case, 2002 and 2004), and would not normally meet during the year of the National Conference.

The National Board will talk about what changes, if any, they want to make in the present structure. Obviously, dealing with the National Conference Representation referendum will necessitate several changes in the Discipline, so that National Conference meets every other year (instead of every fourth year) and includes representation from every local church.

During the discussion regarding the Missionary Church, there were other items, such as the UB Hope proposal, which were presented for discussion. The US National Board will determine if any of the suggestions from the UB Hope proposal or any other ideas will be brought before the US National Conference in June. My sense is that many people who favored joining the Missionary Church will be disappointed with these results, and those who were not in favor (a strong majority) will be relieved that the discussions about joining the Missionary Church have come to a halt.

The challenge I want to hold before all of us is that Jesus wants to build His Church. He makes that very clear in Matthew 16:18, where Jesus tells Simon Peter, "I will build my church and the gates of Hell will not overcome it." I do not have any doubt that Christ is building His Church around the world. The question is, do we really want to be a part of the healthy, reproducing, growing church that Jesus is building? I do not think it is appropriate or acceptable to say that, yes, we want to be part of the church but we don't care if it grows or not. I am hopeful that all of the people who voted against uniting with the Missionary Church are at least open to the fact that we must do some significant soul-searching to make sure that we are a part of the team which is building the body of Christ, the Church.

Clearly, the strong vote indicates that the majority of our members think we will be a stronger, healthier church by remaining United Brethren in Christ as opposed to uniting with the Missionary Church. Since this is our choice, we must step up and agree to do our part.

My prayer had been that the referendum voting would be decisive so that we would know which way to move, and so we would not have a lot of contention as we take our next steps. The results in all three referenda are very decisive. Now, we need to move ahead with the plans for the US National Conference that will advance the two referenda that have passed, and address any changes needed to help make our present structure effective in accomplishing the purpose that Christ has for us, His Church.

I pray that each of you as pastors and lay leaders of local congregations will join in praying for our US National Board and the elected US National Conference--that they will be inspired by the Holy Spirit to make the difficult choices that will help us be all that God wants us to be as the Church of the United Brethren in Christ in the US National Conference.