On the 16th of July 2016 our Church Board and Ministerial Committee combined met with a delegation from the other United Baptist Churches from East Rand. Surface to say that one of those is UBC of God in South Africa, from where our church came. The minutes of this meeting are attached to this post.
Essentially, in the understand of our church, the meeting was called by Bishop Mavuso from Katlegong, and he wanted to discuss issues of importance with out leadership. To the meeting he was supposed to come with the Bishop from Ratanda and the Bishop from Duduza. The Bishop from Duduza did not come, and Bishop Mngcongo from Ratanda came.
The expectation from our congregation was than Bishop Mavuso was going to share his vision, whatever it is, with our leadership, and our leadership was going to report back and obtain a mandate on the responses.
Indeed the meeting took place on the 16th of July at Saulsville. After the meeting, an Extra-ordinary meeting was convened for the 7th of August for church members to get the report back, and for the mandate to respond to be formulated. This report back meeting took place at Winterveldt.
At the extra-ordinary church meeting, the minutes of the meeting of the 16th of July had not been received. Therefore, those who were present reported back based on their memory. Evangelist Moloi presided over the meeting.
The Feedback was that Bishop Mavuso is proposing that all United Baptist Churches be united. It is his vision for this to happen before he dies. United appeared to be the shared ideal from all those who represented. However, the church was cautious on the proposal, resolving on the following:
- Unity is ideal, and must be encouraged;
- The type of unity must be clarified in that, do they join our church, or do they propose that we join their, or do they propose that we start on a clean slate?
- If unity is agreed upon, subject to the above clarity, it must be taken slow, including that the upcoming Conference and Convention must not be combined. They must continue to hold theirs, and we continue to hold ours;
- If the church is comfortable with the details of the unity, a recommendation will be made to the Bishop, and he will make the final decision.
On the 13th of August we went to Germiston at Bishop Mavuso’s place for the continuation of the July 16 Meeting. We received the minutes of the July 16 for the first time at the meeting. Bishop Mavuso presided.
In representing the mandate of the church, we were shot down, and informed that there isnt any mandate required, that the decisions were already made on the 16th of July. Indeed, if one reads the minutes, one finds that indeed the meeting of the 16th was making decisions, and not listening to the presentation of the vision.
Surprisingly, it emerged that some of our very own are in support of this unusual conduct of a take over. Bishop did not clarify the mandate that we came with, and the majority of the people in the house concluded that the merge has already happened, and it happened in the following manner:
- The UBC in Jesus Christ will merge into the UBC of God in South Africa. This means that after the merger, UBC in Jesus Christ will cease to exist.
- The merge modalities will be finalised at a Conference and Convention which will be held on the 17th of September 2016 at Standerton from 20h00.
- For Good Friday, branches that are close to each other will combine of Friday for the seven words, and all branches will converge at Saulsville on Saturday at 16h00 and will disperse on Sunday at 5h00.
- There will no longer be Quarterly Meetings of the branches.
- Finer details of the merger, including uniform, labels, constitution, and other modalities will be discussed at the Conference which will be held at Standerton on the 17th of September from 20h00.
Delegates were informed not to hold meetings at the branches until the minutes of the meeting have been distributed.
As it is, it looks like UBC in Jesus Christ has been taken over by UBC of God in South Africa.
End of Report
Original Post: https://sites.google.com/site/ubcjesuschrist/classroom-news/isthisatakeover