Ghost members

A few days back, I entitled a thread Landmarkism Under Fire, re the book by that title.

In "Appendix VI, Terms" in Landmarkism Under Fire, Elder Settlemoir mentions "ghost members":

"Ghosting members. Ghosting members is a term I have borrowed to describe a procedure by which some churches receive members who are not present, never have been present and never will be present in the assembly where they are supposed to be members. Such churches receive these members by proxy and carry these members on their roles by proxy and letter them out by proxy! The church does not even know these members nor do these members know the church! They are therefore not under the discipline of the church. These ghost members have no voice in the church. Ghosting members is usually done for the purpose of granting EMDA. The Ghost members will, at the time of constitution, be granted letters stating they are members in good standing (which is not true) and they will be lettered out to form the new church. Churches who can defend this as a scriptural procedure will have no problem baptizing a baby on the proxy faith of its god-parents!"

*No this is not an April Fools' joke!