Press Release:
Ex-WCG members and ministry form United Church of God

In recent years, and particularly during the last six months, extensive doctrinal changes have been promulgated in the Worldwide Church of God. The changes strike at some of the essential identifying beliefs of the church.

Unwilling to abandon foundational beliefs and practices, many ministers in the employ of the church reluctantly resigned. To date approximately one fourth of the church's full-time ministers in the United States have ceased from employment with the Worldwide Church of God.

At the same time many members of the church began to seek out their former ministers for advice, counsel and teaching. This grass-roots movement produced several "alternative" churches overnight.

The Worldwide Church of God has no precedent for dismissal of its leadership. Several requests were made, therefore, for a peaceful and amicable separation between those who wished to maintain the traditional beliefs of the church and those who wished to move closer to the Protestant mainstream. These requests were rejected, including a formal request made on April 5, 1995, by three of the church's regional pastors, who represented the views of over 100 full-time ministers in the United States. As a result of the rejection, an ad hoc conference of concerned elders was arranged, financed in part by "alternative" church funds.

In Indianapolis, April 30 - May 2, 1995, 155 church elders convened (each at his own expense) to seek a reconstruction of the church and to maintain its traditional beliefs, including adherence to the Ten Commandments and observance of the seventh-day Sabbath and the annual Holy Days.