The Northern California Conference has disciplined the pastor at the Chico Seventh-day Adventist Church according to a letter the conference president sent to conference pastors.
In the letter it was stated: "In 2016 the Chico Seventh-day Adventist Church accepted into membership a person who is in a same-sex marriage. The pastor did not perform the marriage or the baptism of this person. NCC Administration met with the pastor and a disciplinary process was instituted. We are not able to discuss what that discipline was. Other actions may be taken in the future if deemed necessary. The person (a retired minister) who performed the baptism is not credentialed or licensed through the Northern California Conference." The letter was dated October 10, 2017 and was signed James E. Pedersen, President NCC.
There was no mention of the Conference asking the Union to deal with the local conference whose pastor did the baptism. Apparently, to this point, there has been no action taken to discipline that pastor. The South-eastern California Conference which is in the Pacific Union Conference is already in rebellion along with the Pacific Union Conference by operating outside of their by-laws which prohibit the ordination of women pastors.
Many have been warning that when the world church's decision to not ordain women pastors was thrown aside by non-compliant unions, that the acceptance of homosexuality in the church would follow. When the constitution and bylaws which govern conferences is set aside, then why would we expect any constituency in these rebellious unions to follow any church law? Are we free to accept and reject what we consider to be right or wrong in our own eyes?
We are hopeful the Pacific Union Conference will deal with the rebellious pastor who performed the baptism. And, we ask the question as to why the pastor was allowed to perform a baptism outside of his/her own conference? Was the pastor an ordained pastor? And if so, was the pastor legally ordained, or was the pastor a female pastor?