THE 2022 CONTRACT

The world’s false standards you should shun,
And do not follow every one
The paths our leaders undertake
Though all the world may sing their praise.

       – Hallgrímur Pétursson, Hymns of the Passion, 22.8, translated by Gracia Grindal

On 18 January 2022, the EXCOM and Eden signed a new contract concerning mining in Mt. Lambafell and Mt. Litla-Sandfell.[1] The contract is unusual in several respects.

First, the negotiations were completely secret.

Negotiations are often secret or confidential to some extent. Even though it is known that two parties are negotiating, that does not mean that the negotiations take place out in the open where the public can hear everything that is discussed in detail. 

But the EXCOM did not keep some aspects of its negotiations with Eden 2021–2022 secret. The EXCOM hid the negotiations completely from church members so they did not know they were taking place. The EXCOM has never negotiated like this with any other company. What caused this great secrecy? Who asked for it? Whose interests were being protected by it?  

Even though some business contracts between other parties are made in perfect secrecy, that does not mean that that is something that the IC should do. The IC is part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and is not a company. If a potential contracting party demands such secrecy, it is reasonable for the IC to turn to other potential contracting parties. In the Working Policy of the Trans-European Division, transparency is demanded in the financial decisions of administrators: 

S 04 Financial Operations and Environment

S 04 05 Role of Leadership in Financial Matters—It is the responsibility of organisational leadership to manage financial matters with integrity. Every leader must model behaviour that is guided by a commitment to ethics, transparency, and accountability. This behaviour is critical for building confidence in the overall Church organisation. To sustain this confidence, open communication must take place among the employees of the organisation, between management and the controlling board or executive committee, between the organisation and its constituents and other stakeholders, and between the organisation and higher organisations. Beyond modelling behaviour, it is imperative for leaders to promote and design the most appropriate systems that will safeguard the resources which are used to support the mission of the Church.[2] 

It is impossible to follow such a policy if church members do not even know what is involved in the financial decisions of their administrators. 

Second, unlike the IC’s former contracts, the contract has not been publicly registered at the District Commissioner’s Office,[3] even though the contracts implies that this is to be done.[4] 

Third, part of the new contract is secret. Those church members who requested a copy realized this in their interaction with the EXCOM. They only received part of the contract.[5] Besides the EXCOM, no church member has seen the contract in its entirety. 

In their open letter, dated 16 March 2022, the EXCOM asserted that they had only participated in normal business confidentiality.[6] This stance was affirmed further in the EXCOM’s statement which was published in Hafnarfréttir on 27 January 2023.[7] It is hard to see how this stance is correct. The IC has made many other contracts before and they were not secret like this. Why is part of the contract secret? Who asked for that? 

The EXCOM has described the contract as a special blessing from God[8] and

both the EXCOM and Eden have discussed the contract as if it is the financial foundation of the IC.[9] Since the part of the contract that discusses the finances is secret, church members have no way of affirming or knowing whether the conditions of the contract are good, let alone if they are some kind of a special “blessing.” And to talk about the contract as the financial basis of the IC contradicts Adventist theology. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is financed by tithe and offerings. It does not need mining operations to survive financially. To express such a view is not only to belittle the modus operandi of Adventists (tithes and offerings) but it exaggerates this new contract and the value of the mining operation. 

Fourth, the negotiations took place during the same time as when Eden’s practices were being investigated by the EXCOM’s request. According to the EXCOM and the President, the negotiations with Eden commenced a year ago from late May 2022, i.e., in spring 2021.[10] What is extraordinary about this timing is that in the spring 2021, the EXCOM also decided to ask GCAS to investigate whether Eden had operated in compliance with the contracts that were valid at the time. What kind of ethics is it to investigate whether a company has been faithful to a contract one has made with it, and, at the same time, while the investigation is ongoing, to enter into negotiations with the same company with a new contract in mind? Would it not have been normal to wait until GCAS finished its investigation to evaluate whether Eden had indeed kept the old contracts and to see whether it was worth it to renegotiate with the same company? 

The IC is part of a Church which emphasizes transparency in its working policy. Christ taught publicly and he told his followers to be the light of the world; the metaphor entails both transparency and integrity. It was up to the EXCOM whether they wanted to keep the contract secret or not. It could have made transparency a condition in its negotiations with Eden—if indeed they wanted to renegotiate with that company. By doing so, the EXCOM would have shown church members respect: the EXCOM works on their behalf with an authority borrowed from them and they have a right to know what the EXCOM does. Or did the EXCOM not want church members to know what they were doing when they renegotiated with Eden? 

Fifth, the new contract was not made with the same company as the previous contracts, even though the company has the same name and the same two owners. The new contract from 2022 was made with a company with a different ID number than the contracts from 2008 and 2009. Just as humans have ID numbers, so companies have their own ID numbers. To clarify this to the reader, this has been explained in a table:[11]