Sabbath 18/10/29/120
Dear Friends,
The last week of December 2006 saw the conference of the Council of Elders of CCG in Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian Conference hosted the meeting and they were most courteous and generous with their hospitality as usual.
We were amused by the reactions of some of the Elders to the exotic fruits of Asia, much of which they had never tasted. Durian was in season and brought some amusing reactions. The food was most interesting for all and a new experience for some that I am sure was well appreciated. The work by the ladies over Sabbath meals was much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed.
The meeting, consisting of the board of voting Elders as defined by the Constitution, and under my authority, confirmed the appointments and ordinations of the Elder and Bishop and head of the Malaysian and Chinese work and the Elder and Bishop and head of South Africa and Coordinator for Africa assisting the Coordinator General, together with the Coordinator for the UK. The UK Coordinator will be travelling to West Africa to organise a number of churches there over Passover.
The US officer was ordained Elder and Bishop assisting the Coordinator General in North America. He will conduct some further instruction and appointment for the ministry at Passover in North America.
The Bishops will be placed in their positions as provided for under the Constitution.
The rank of Auxiliary Elder and Bishop was created for the purpose of providing assistants in travel in their areas of responsibility in assisting the World Conference. Appointments were made for the current areas of responsibility to the Sub-Continent in Indian languages. Ordinations and appointments were also made to cover the Indonesian work and also for Indo-Malay in Malaysia assisting the Elder there and also for the Tamil work both on the Indian Sub-Continent, in Sri Lanka, and in Malaysia and the Pacific.
The conference was pleased with the progress we have made in establishing the CCG Internet Radio Program. The first broadcasts were organised by the French team headed by the Coordinator for Canada. They were a success.
The US ministers from California are organising the English language broadcasts and we hope to have them going soon. The facilities there will be upgraded to the highest grade Internet connections, reportedly at over 15 megabytes a second. The system should be operational within two weeks. The web team is providing assistance to the radio teams where necessary. Links will be provided to the sites for each language. The Malaysians are now progressing to organise the Indo-Malay and also Mandarin broadcasts. China has progressed to number six in world access now. Mandarin will become increasingly important. We will also organise a site for Asia in English and the other Asian languages.
Churches and individuals in other nations are increasingly approaching us for affiliation. We are in the process of dealing with groups in East, West and Central Africa and also in Pakistan. The problems in the Congo are truly horrific. Please pray for their welfare. They need so much and we all have so little to help. The French work is sending printed materials for distribution there among the churches.
One of the people from New Zealand expressed his views over his initial encounter with the doctrine on the nature of God. He was at first extremely opposed to the doctrine that there was only One True God. He had been exposed to the ditheism typical of the Armstrong system and had to work through the Scriptures to identify what was actually true. He now says that as a result of genuine study he now believes many things that years ago he would have totally disbelieved and regarded as heresy. Many people are coming to a sound knowledge of the Scriptures and the Plan of God through thorough Bible Study and find the papers of great assistance.
The Children’s Bible Studies are also being organised by US and Australian representatives with a number of female recorders for the stories. When those are underway it should prove a very important service. We will stagger the broadcasts to cover the Americas, Europe and Africa and Asia/Pacific. The Children’s Studies are also easy to understand for those for whom English is a second language. The English site www.ccg.org is still the major entry point but foreign languages are being accessed from there also, and so the www.logon.org site, even though it is the multi-language main site, is way below www.ccg.org access figures. It was interesting to note that even though the traditional December holiday period saw US figures decline dramatically, we were still able to hold record levels for the week even though they were a little under the previous week’s figures.
It was rewarding to see the interested and dedicated team of faithful ministers that have worked with us over the years to develop a stable team of people dedicated to the Faith. Over the next two years more will be added to the Council of Elders as God determines and as others qualify in loyalty and service. Their integrity and dedication is a credit to both themselves and the national conferences they represent and who elected them.
While we were there the earthquake in Taiwan had disrupted the undersea Internet communications between North America through Taiwan. That northern network to Taiwan links with the network from LA to Sydney in Asia and on those two links depend the entire Asian and Australasian Internet connections with North America. That disaster shows how fragile the Internet connections really are. Communication with the Philippines has been damaged and is functioning at only a fraction of capacity as they are linked to Taiwan.
Rain is coming at last and the El Nino is dissipating. The floods in Johore, Malaysia, were the worst in 75 years, so it was claimed, and much flooding occurred there. Rain here in Australia at end December almost brought the total to normal levels for the month. The farmers are very hard pressed and whole towns are carting water.
Montreal has its hottest winter month for over 50 years and may get hotter. The snow has melted. The temperature this Sabbath is expected to be 16 degrees Celsius there. On the other side of the world Australia had snow in some places in High Summer. The patterns are all bizarre
Singapore has just woken up to the fact that Global Warming will sink the island state and concern is being expressed. We had actually discussed the matter of the fact that there is no ancient architecture on Singapore, and that points to its emergence after the end of the Medieval Warm Period and the fall in sea levels with the last mini Ice Age (see the paper Global Warming and Bible Prophecy (No. 218)).
As levels rise, so the land areas will disappear. The island near the mouth of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra has disappeared and the 10,000 inhabitants relocated. The six islands off Bougainville will also be evacuated soon. We can expect to see the end of Kiribati and the Maldives and so on as the levels rise.
Another event that took place just before the Moslem Holy Day of Aidulfitri was the execution of Saddam Hussein. A bovine is traditionally slaughtered on this day. This time the authorities gave them a martyr.
All executions are undignified affairs given the ending of a human life but this execution was a national and international disgrace orchestrated by political buffoons. If the state determines to end the life of a person for the serious offences involved there, then it should be done in accordance with the preservation of human dignity. How the individuals conduct themselves is a reflection on the society they represent and the standards of that society. The leaders of Iraq and the other nations involved showed an intellectual ineptitude of significant proportions. That the hangmen, of which there were several, should have been allowed to even speak, other than to give simple instructions, is improper. The fact that they were allowed to taunt and abuse the prisoner is a disgrace and an offence. A minister of state had threatened to walk out because of the behaviour. Comment was made to me that the only one with dignity appeared to be the prisoner.
There were a great number of Iraqis that wanted to see Saddam Hussein executed. It could have been done quietly and efficiently. The unauthorised photographing of the event should result in severe penalties now that the man has been arrested. The hangmen should be tried for incompetence and undue assault to the victim. What has been achieved is that a tyrant has been made into a martyr on a Muslim Holy Period. Civil War has been made so much more likely, and probably inevitable. Joseph Stalin’s quote has been given a twisted reality: “The death of a single human being is a tragedy. The death of a million persons is a statistic.”
As one commentator said recently, they would have done better if they had made Saddam Hussein a consultant to the occupation forces, as he was the only one that held the Iraqis in order. The coalition invaded without a workable plan, and anyone with previous experience could predict with accuracy that they would do what they have done. We told you exactly what they would do before the actual invasion. It has all unfolded like a nightmare.
There is no end to this matter until the wars are played out and the Messiah brings the armies of the nations down to destruction at Megiddo.
The Church is faced with the task of dealing with the sequence of Bible prophecy and giving hope to the world amid the escalating catastrophes.
Our people are concerned with the gospel and the truth of God’s message in the Last Days. It is satisfying to see the dedication of the team and the care and diligence displayed in dealing with the Plan of God as outlined in Scripture.
Next week we will deal with some other aspects of the work and our administration.
I am sure that many of you will be very interested in the developments over
the next few weeks and months.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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