On July 1, Elder Garth Gabriel became the Acting President of the Lake Region Conference. The position of President became vacant at that time when the former President, Dr. R. Clifford Jones, assumed the position as Dean of the School of Religion for Oakwood University.
For the past 3 years, Elder Gabriel has served as the Conference Executive Secretary for Lake Region. According to the Lake Region constitution, when the presidency becomes vacant, the Executive Secretary automatically becomes Acting President. If the constituency meeting is less than 6 months away when the vacancy occurs, the Executive Secretary remains President until said meeting.
If more than 6 months remain until the next Conference constituency meeting-as is the case now-one of two things will occur:
- If 20% of the churches in Lake Region request a constituency meeting to elect a President, then a special constituency meeting will be called and a President is elected in that manner.
- If 20% of the churches do not request a constituency meeting within 45 days of the presidential vacancy, then the current Executive Committee and the remaining members of the previous Nominating Committee will then select the President to fill out the rest of Dr. Jones’ term, which runs through May, 2022.
Lake Region becomes the 4th of the 9 Regional Conference to experience a change in Presidents in the past 10 months. They join Allegheny West (new President-Elder Marvin C. Brown), Southeastern (Dr. Michael Owusu) and Southwest Region (Dr. Carlton P. Byrd).
Meanwhile, in Allegheny East, President Henry Fordham, is currently on Family Leave, attending to his wife as she recovers from a health challenge. Standing in for him during this time is Vice President for Administration, Elder Pete Palmer.
In Allegheny West, Mrs. Keisha Stubbs Bone accepted a call to become Vice President for Finance, beginning July 1. Mrs. Bone formerly served as the Senior Accountant for the South Central Conference. She becomes the 5th of the current 9 Regional Conference Treasurers/VPs for Finance to come from the South Central Conference.
Positions still to be filled in Regional Conference leadership are: Treasurer/CFO for the Office for Regional Conference Ministries (ORCM), Executive Secretary, Southwest Region and Treasurer/CFO, Lake Region Conference.
Stay tuned as the Great Advent Movement continues.