Adventist Leader Gets Brief Reprieve

World leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church ended three days of tense emergency meetings Wednesday without deciding whether the church’s president should be disciplined over allegations of financial and ethical misconduct.

Instead, 40 senior leaders of the 10-million-member church, who came from as far as Korea and Australia, voted to pass the question of President Robert S. Folkenberg’s future to the executive committee of the church’s ruling body for consideration in March.

“This is all this group could do,” said church spokesman Ray Dabrowski. “It’s not passing the buck. It’s a process that this church must go through.”

But some Adventist followers were clearly disappointed.

“People expected [a resolution] this week, and it’s a little disappointing to have to wait even longer,” said Michael Bane, an editor at the college newspaper at the Adventists’ Andrews University in Michigan. “Obviously, President Folkenberg is a very important and visible figure in our church, and there has to be a decision soon.”

The 58-year-old Folkenberg’s job status has been thrown into doubt by a lawsuit filed in August by Sacramento businessman James Moore. He accuses Folkenberg and the church of cheating him and a charitable foundation he represented out of $8 million in promissory notes tied to the development of 1,300 acres of land in El Dorado County in the early 1990s.

Church leaders have been trying to sort through evidence in the case to better determine the exact nature of the financial relationship between Moore and Folkenberg, particularly in light of Moore’s conviction in 1989 for theft in an unrelated investment scheme.

In several dozen hours of taped phone conversations with Moore between 1994 and 1998, Folkenberg repeatedly expressed remorse for his role in the complicated land deal and said his actions could be perceived as fraudulent, sources have told The Times. He also discussed myriad ways of paying Moore the $8 million and of avoiding public attention to his “horrible mistake.”

“I’ve asked the Lord for forgiveness so many times,” Folkenberg said on one tape, according to the sources. “The Lord knows I’ve told him I regret having taken a nickel.”

Moore says that Folkenberg gave him written authorization to tape their phone conversations, but the church president’s lawyers insist that his signature was forged and that the conversations were taped illegally.

Church leaders called an emergency meeting to discuss how to handle the matter. Wednesday marked their third day of meetings at hotel sites near Dulles Airport outside Washington. The church’s world headquarters is in Silver Spring, Md.

Meeting behind closed doors throughout the day, church leaders prayed for direction on occasion, said church spokesman Kermit L. Netteburg.

It was the first time in memory that the 135-year-old church was considering the dismissal of a sitting president, who holds broad powers in the church’s hierarchical structure, officials said.

“It’s fair to say this is an unusual circumstance,” Netteburg said.

The meeting was held in tight secrecy at a Hyatt Hotel conference room. Attorneys involved in the case were barred from the room, staff members guarded the door, and an escort led church leaders to phones and restrooms during breaks to avoid interference from outsiders.

Members would say little about what went on inside.

Folkenberg was invited to the session, but attended only during the morning.

A spokesman said Folkenberg is anxiously awaiting the chance to resolve the Moore matter, both in the church and in the courts, and has no plans to resign.

Although the church had been discussing a possible financial settlement with Moore through December, it has gone on the offensive in recent weeks, pointing out Moore’s criminal history and his bankruptcy.

Rather than settle the case, Folkenberg wants his day in court, said Folkenberg’s spokesman, Bob Keyser. “Litigation is about to break out,” he said.