In the Question Chair

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 4, 1902

In the Question Chair.

[Designed for the consideration of such questions as will be of interest and profit to the general reader. All correspondents should give their names and correct post-office address, that queries not replied to here may be answered by mail.]

853.—CHURCH ORDER.

1. SHOULD a member moving from one Conference to another Conference and permanently locating there, still retain his membership in his former Conference? 2. Should a member send his tithe to a different Conference from the one in which he lives, because he thinks it more needy than the other? 3. If one is ordained in one Conference, as elder or deacon, is he qualified to act as elder or deacon in another Conference without being reordained?

T. J. W., Fellsburg, Kan.

ANSWER.—1. The custom recommended and adopted by our Conferences is that when a member moves from one church to another, or from one Conference to another, he should take a letter of recommendation from his home church, and on the strength of that, unite with the new church.

2. He should pay his tithe where his membership is. It is left to the officers of the Conferences to decide which is the most needy field.

3. At the session of the General Conference in November, 1885, action was taken on the reordination of local elders. It was decided that a church officer being once ordained, that ordination should stand good for the same office without being repeated. But if he is required to act in that capacity in another church, it should be by the call and vote of the church, the same as at first; that is, his first election does not enable him to take the position as elder of another church without a re-election by the last church; but he need not be reordained. A report of this will be found in the Year Book of 1886, page 47.