Hello to All,

This is a very difficult message to write, and I know that many of you have somehow come to believe such accusations and rumors about me that you may not even care to read what I write. Nevertheless, it is my duty to write, and I will. This message is from the Board.

I am truly sad to say that after a full day of discussion and guts-out "negotiation," Dr. Meredith has separated himself from the Global Church of God, and as a consequence the Board had no choice but to terminate his employment with the Church.

In spite of the rancor apparent in the letter Dr. Meredith mailed to all members on Monday, today's meeting ended amicably, with handshakes and hugs. We bear Dr. Meredith no ill will, and told him we would continue to pray for him. He hoped we could have friendly contact in the future.

We, the remaining Board members, must respectfully but categorically deny the long list of charges and accusations contained in Dr. Meredith's letter. We consider the letter extremely libelous. Particularly alarming is the fact that Dr. Meredith revealed in his letter that he was already setting up
a competing corporation and that he was asking members to send all their tithes and offerings to his personal address, while still in the employ of Global and drawing his paycheck from Global. In addition, we consider this to be a breach of his fiduciary duties as an officer of the corporation.

It should also be understood by all that the aforementioned letter was written and mailed during an interim period in our discussions, which we had agreed to so we could all pray about these decisions. Let me amplify that. We held 8 hours of Board meetings on last Thursday and Friday without reaching a successful reconciliation. Both "sides" had proposed certain actions and neither was able to bend enough to solve the conflict. Dr. Meredith had posed the possibility that he would "leave Global," which he had also mentioned during our recent Council meeting.

We recessed the meeting until Tuesday, at Dr. Meredith's request, so that he could have time to pray about it. We asked him directly if he would "try to stir up the Church this weekend." He said "No, I won't do anything this weekend." Nevertheless, during the weekend we heard that he made many phone calls to field ministers asking for ministers to "stand with him."

Then, late Monday afternoon, in what could have only been miraculous intervention, we learned that more than a quarter of a million dollars had suddenly been drained from Global's bank account, through the use of unauthorized checks, signed by Dr. Meredith and another individual who had
no power to sign any checks. Further, one six-figure check was payable to the very person who signed it without authority. Thankfully, this miraculous intervention allowed us to stop payment of those unauthorized checks. But we learned that fully one half million dollars was moved from our investment account to the operating account to cover the checks. The only conclusion we can draw from this even larger unauthorized transfer of funds is that even more unauthorized checks were planned to be written later. A logical conclusion considering that all of this was done in secrecy!

By the way, these actions were justified by saying that the money was being used to pay back loans to individuals. Maybe so, but that process always involves authorization and is done according to strict agreements and payback schedules agreed to by all parties. In this case, the loans were not due and payable, and the checks were hand- written, apparently outside office hours, and not through the person who is responsible for such checks. The immediate effect would have been to put the Global Church of God in financial jeopardy and on the verge of bankruptcy. When pointed out that this action, in our opinion, might potentially constitute criminal activity, Dr. Meredith suggested that we could just tell the bank that the signer was a 68-year-old man who didn't quite know what he was doing. Incredible!

Meanwhile, rumors of a letter being mailed from outside the office gave us reason to be suspicious of the "prayer" interval.

By Tuesday morning, several of us, including Dr. Meredith, had received phone calls from concerned ministers and others, pleading with us to do everything possible to avoid a "split." We all agreed that this was urgent and important and went into the meeting with that in mind. Dr. Meredith
mentioned it right up front, but had concluded that a recommended "third- party" consultant would not understand our problems and that our relationship had deteriorated too far for this to be practical. Generally speaking, all agreed, though all parties still wanted to reach a settlement.

Shortly after the meeting began, Dr. Meredith produced copies of his 4-page letter and told us that he had had it mailed to the members on Monday. This was, of course, not only contrary to rules regarding the use of the mailing list, but was also done during the previously agreed upon "prayer period."

Reading the letter in the meeting, we were appalled at the distortion of facts, imaginary incidents, and the invective with which they were presented. All four additional men on the Board had been accused of everything from rebellion to conspiracy, and even a cancerous attitude.

We all stated our sincere desire to come to an amicable solution to our problems. But Dr. Meredith's opening suggestion was that we resign, receive generous severance and/or retirement, and go wherever we wanted to.

After meeting from 10:00 am til 2:30 pm, we took a two hour break and reconvened. We insisted that since the well had been poisoned so badly by the unauthorized letter to all members, there would be no way to go forward unless Dr. Meredith would recant what he had written and acknowledge that it was a terribly divisive act to send the letter out. Eventually, after much
discussion, he went so far as to say that he would be willing to write a letter that would mollify what he had said. Nevertheless, Dr. Meredith would not retract the basic, libelous content of the letter.

We asked if he still felt that he would have to leave. He said yes. We then told him that we had to consider his actions over the last few days and the content of the letter as a decision already made by him to leave this organization. Therefore, to fulfill our ministerial and Board responsibilities, we had no choice but to formalize the dismissal of Dr. Meredith.

As stated earlier, the meeting ended on a friendly note.

We are fully aware that this tragic situation will make life difficult for you as well as us. We can only ask that you carefully and prayerfully seek God's will. We hope you will choose to get the facts and make a right judgment about how you will serve God's people at this time.

We intend to call a ministerial conference of all full-time men within the next few weeks to clear the air on all these accusations and to rebuild the infrastructure of the Church so that we might go forward. It is the full intent of those of us here in San Diego to continue to do the Work of God as
He opens doors for us.

We are prepared to work with any of you to sort out concerns about meeting halls, fleet cars and other matters of mutual interest. We do not have any desire to be antagonistic or unreasonable. If the new corporation is interested in purchasing some of our assets, we will certainly consider the
request. Meeting hall needs will differ according to what the brethren do and we will communicate about that.

Since both your personal situation and ours will depend on what decision you make, please let us know what your intentions are as soon as you are sure. If you're sure now, please say so, as we need your help to minister to those who remain in Global.

We will let you know the conference plans as soon as we get some feedback from you.

One final thought: Please remember the hurts and offenses that occurred among us when we left WCG and when UCG started, etc. Many people said and did things they now regret. Why don't we try to avoid such pitfalls this time around?

If I do not see you in the near future, I hope we will meet again at a better time. I appreciate your work and service among God's people. And I consider you friends. Our prayers are with you all.

I will be away for Thanksgiving weekend, but can be reached via mobile phone (619-840-8804). Edwin will also be out of town for the holiday weekend. Raymond and Norbert, however, will be available at the office or at home during this time.

Larry (also writing for: Raymond McNair, Edwin Pope, Norbert Link)


The rest of this message was drafted last night, and may be partially irrelevant in light of today's events. Nevertheless, you should read it as background.

[While writing this message, I have heard that some ministers are planning to hold Bible Studies or DELS meetings during the week to discuss the situation at HQ and "make decisions on what we will do." If that is the case, perhaps this information should be added to the mix to allow you to
make a sound and right "decision" based on more facts and with God's guidance and blessing.]

In spite of the overwhelming number of rumors circulating in the Church, I have labored over how to bring you into the picture without undermining your ability to do your job of serving the brethren. Yet, I also understand from experience that you cannot do your job if you do not have adequate
information to answer the questions you are asked. You get blindsided and could be caught in a situation where any answer you give may prove to be wrong when all the garbage clears.

That said, and having talked at length to a couple of pastors in the field about what the concerns are, I am now going to attempt to bring you up to date as much as possible. I am also quite aware that you alone will have to decide whether to take it or leave it.

I will mention at this point though, that we have as yet sent no mass communication to the membership about any of these problems. We will leave it to your discretion as shepherds as to how much of this message you choose to share at this time with the flock in your care. We do plan, however, to send out an official communication to our members in the near future.

What Dr. Meredith perceives as a power struggle probably began during the November '97 Council of Elders meeting, and really heated up during the February meeting, when we unanimously confirmed that we would practice government by consensus of the Council. It broke into the open during the latest Council meeting a couple of weeks ago, when Dr. Meredith made it abundantly clear that he had no intention of abiding by the unanimous agreements of the Council of Elders and the Board of Directors concerning the subject of "Church government," which had been discussed for endless hours over the last 5 meetings.

During and after this most recent Council meeting, Dr. Meredith repeated his previous threat that he might have to "pull a David Hulme." He has since told us in no uncertain terms that he will have to make a decision of whether to leave Global.

Yes, the real issue IS Church government!! But, even more than that, it is the integrity of the Church, the ministry, the Council, the Board, and our doctrinal positions and processes that are at stake here. There are many and varied reasons why the Board has recently had to take a stand on
principle, and they had nothing whatever to do with "taking over."

Volumes could be written about our discussions and the various writings, sermons, and actions that have flowed from them. Because how we all do our jobs and operate every day is a function of Church government. And this whole "debate" originated with Dr. Meredith's booklet, "When Should You Follow Church Government?" Many of the ministers and members who came to
Global in the early years had read and accepted the statements made in that booklet. In fact, it was WHY many came to Global at that time!

Our bylaws, the Council, the Board, and our Articles of Incorporation as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization were all based on the concepts and teachings contained in that booklet and in sermons and conversations about this subject. Personally, I had several such conversations with Dr. Meredith at the time I was deciding whether to come to Global. I expect that some of you had similar conversations and concerns.

Even when the subject was thoroughly reviewed by the Council in February, Dr. Meredith added his voice to the unanimous decision to continue to preach and proclaim that form of government, based on "multitude of counsel." This governmental structure also contained a system of checks and balances to prevent one person from leading the Church off course, with provision to correct doctrinal, administrative or personal problems.

Amazingly, even after sending a letter to the entire membership confirming this structure, on June 11, 1998, Dr. Meredith continued to contradict the decisions of the Council of Elders, both in private conversations and in sermons and in meetings. Additionally, he has said several times, including in the initial Council meeting on the subject, something like this: "Well, I wrote the booklet on government to help people come out of WCG, but I never believed it was the way the Church should be governed." What??

In fact, when Mr. Raymond McNair recently asked Dr. Meredith whether he believed God had guided the Council, after we had opened the meetings with prayer and fervently requested God's inspiration and blessing, the reply shocked us all. He said, "Well those are just words. Don't you think the Catholics pray before their meetings?"

I use these examples only to give you the tiniest bit of flavor of what we have been dealing with for some time. We did not share these things with you because we honestly believed they could be worked out and that Dr.Meredith would come to see where he was wrong.

A lot of our members, and perhaps a lot of you, don't care much about government structure. However, the more obvious spiritual problem we are dealing with arises out of this conflict. The way Dr. Meredith began to deal with this issue was to say that some of the men at headquarters were trying to tie his hands, and take over the Church. These "accusations" began to surface in the field, and the rumor mill took over. Frankly, it was some time before those of us on the Board knew where they were originating. Nevertheless, a lot of discord was sown.

This is ugly and I know it, but I must put this in a little more context for you.

While most of you don't give a hang about how the Board works, or why, let me tell you that it is the focal point of all business and legal liability for the Church. In addition, the Board members can in some cases be held individually and collectively liable for debts of, or judgments against, the corporation. We are also responsible to state and federal governments for the way the Church conducts it's affairs.

The fact that some of you know about this is clear from the immediate call today for repayment of large loans some ministers and brethren have made to the Church during our financial crisis a couple of years ago. They are being used as leverage to pressure the Board to yield to Dr. Meredith's
persistent claim to be in sole authority and make unilateral decisions, while the Board bears the liability. This of course could possibly bankrupt the Church, which would serve no one's purpose. I have to liken it to a "scorched earth" policy in battle.

Dr. Meredith has previously threatened that he would, "take it over your heads to the lay members of the Church." (Doesn't this sound like democracy?) What is the Church saying now? Don't I recall that you were angry with senior ministers in WCG who never stood up to repeated wrongdoing, even chiding me personally for not having done more? And now am I to understand that the ministry and members are saying, "We are comfortable and happy. Tell us smooth things"?

Men who believe they have a duty to God and His people to stand up for the Truth cannot do that. There is much more detail and many different aspects to the current situation, but I see no need to cover it now.

Fellow ministers and brethren, we are in a collossal crisis in the Church. But it is the Church of God. Christ is the Head, and it is to Him that we should look for deliverance from this trial.

Having counseled with others here, several members of the Board would like to ask the brethren to join us in a fast, to humble ourselves before our Creator and seek His will, not our own, in resolving this crisis. Many of you will recall that this is the approach Mr. Armstrong took in 1974 when
the Church was in danger of coming apart. He quoted the prophet Joel, saying, "Sanctify a fast, call a solemn assembly" (1:14). We must not fast for a particular outcome, or ask God to do what WE want, but rather that He will help us to see clearly and understand His will.

Let us as members of the Body of Christ set aside the Sabbath of December 5, 1998, to fast together and draw close to God. Let us beseech God for His mercy and favor, and that He will reveal His perfect will to us.

It is our hope that those of you receiving this message will announce this fast to the brethren, regardless of your present personal "understanding" of this whole matter.

I am grieving over having to write this, especially since I am well aware that I have been made out to be one of the evil people. But such is life. I will greatly appreciate your prayers, because praying is the most valuable thing any of us can do.

Thanks for listening.

Larry