Update-Unity Oversight Committee Continues to Gather Data

By: Unity Oversight Committee

The General Conference (GC) Unity Oversight Committee recently provided the following update to members of the GC Executive Committee through its Executive Committee Newsletter at https://executivecommittee.adventist.org/newsletter/. The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is comprised of 13 world divisions and one attached field.

The process of gathering qualitative and quantitative data from the world church is currently underway. Last month, surveys were sent to all division and union presidents, and to the president of the attached field. Of the 150 surveys sent out, 144 were already returned by mid-February. The deadline for submission is March 15. Each recipient received the survey in his native language. The survey was designed by the world church’s Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research (ASTR), and is being administered by its staff.

Dialogue meetings with world division leaders are currently taking place. During these personal visits, division leaders talk with various members of the Unity Oversight Committee (UOC) and are asked to offer written suggestions to the committee on how to address the issue of compliance with voted actions of General Conference Sessions and of the General Conference Executive Committee. In addition, Division leaders are ­­invited to submit any other suggestions or comments they might have.

Dialogue meetings have already taken place with Southern-Asia Division, Euro-Asia Division, and Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division, and others have been scheduled and will soon take place.

Both the qualitative and quantitative data will be used in helping to craft a document that will be brought to the 2018 Annual Council for approval.