Nærum SDA Church in Denmark Expresses Its “Disappointment and Concern” With General Conference
On September 29, 2018, the Nærum SDA Church, located just north of Copenhagen Denmark, unanimously voted a strongly worded letter to the General Conference expressing “its grave concerns about the recent efforts to enforce compliance.”
The letter begins by giving its full support to the joint statement issued by the Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish Unions on September 24. “We support their constructive suggestions and their courage to speak clearly and conscientiously about their concerns for the church, its leaders and members.”
The Nærum Church statement goes on to say that “we are horrified to see the previous threats of ‘grave consequences’ can now result in union leadership being publicly placed in pillory while under investigation. In addition, this disenfranchises the members who have elected the union leadership and voids the mandate the members have given them.”
“We are deeply saddened to see our church move to a strongly centralized set of five small compliance committees,” the statement continues. “Their structure is frightfully far removed from the grassroots of the church, with a triumvirate of three ex-officio members as well as a lawyer in all committees. This consolidates the power to investigate, execute judgment and handle appeals in a small, closed circle. We feel estranged and alienated. But most of all, we are saddened by the focus of the five committees. The priorities are turned upside down with the church and its uniqueness being more important than our core belief in the grace of Christ.”
The English version of the letter is below. Both the English and Danish versions are available on the Nærum Church website here.
Further Reading:
Responses from Church Entities and Timeline of Key Events, Annual Council 2017 to Present
Alisa Williams is managing editor of SpectrumMagzine.org
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