{"id":712,"date":"2008-10-23T16:38:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-23T23:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=712"},"modified":"2008-10-23T16:38:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-23T23:38:00","slug":"pcusa-amendment-voting-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"PC(USA) Amendment Voting Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the present time Amendment 08-B<\/a>, changes to the “fidelity and chastity” section, is going down to defeat… There are currently no presbyteries for and one against.<\/p>\n

OK, humor aside, a couple of days ago I got a report from Josiah F who left the comment to another post<\/a> with the news from Palo Duro Presbytery<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\nJosiah F wrote:
At the 111th stated meeting of Palo Duro
\nPresbytery. The amendment altering the ordination standards failed by a
\n29 for, 47 against. The bulk of the Presbyteries across the country
\nwill be voting on this in February. <\/p>\n

Even
\nthough it was in Texas, the make-up of the voting body in this
\nPresbytery is very mixed and the majority are moderates (with just a
\nfew far left and right). When it comes to the political make-up of the
\nvoting body, this issue had a real shot.<\/div>\n

In verifying the Presbytery vote I contacted Janne Brumbelow, the Stated Clerk of the Presbytery, who not only verified the vote, but included some helpful information about the process the Presbytery used.  I would remind you that the Assembly added a comment to this item, 05-09<\/a>, which is not in the Amendment Booklet<\/a>.  The comment reads “Presbyteries are strongly encouraged to consider this overture using a process of listening and discernment.”  With Ms. Brumbelow’s permission, here is her description of how Palo Duro did it:<\/p>\n

Yes, the vote was 47 to 29 against but the process was very helpful for
\nall.  <\/p>\n

We had two 15 minute presentations by respected ministers in our
\npresbytery — one for and one against.  Then we discussed the
\npresentations and amendment around tables of 6-8 persons.  All were
\ninvited to speak even if they were not voting commissioners.  Then a
\nperiod of silence and a speakout time limited to 15 minutes total with 2
\nminutes per speaker.  Then silence and prayer and vote by only
\ncommissioners by ballot.  There was little rancor and all appreciated
\nthe process.  I think the way we handled it helped to build up
\nrelationships rather than divide.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

My own Presbytery is encouraging dialog and discussion on the issues and the amendment in a series of events spread over several months before we vote.<\/p>\n

I know that voting will extend from now to March and one presbytery does not make a trend.  But, considering Josiah’s assessment of his presbytery this could be an up-hill battle for 08-B.  Within the next month several more presbyteries will probably be voting so we will begin to see if any trends develop.<\/p>\n

I won’t be doing play-by-play on the voting but will provide “color” when warranted.  To follow the voting there is usually a chart over at the Layman Online<\/a> and the Stated Clerk’s office has their official vote tally<\/a> that is delayed since it needs the official report from each presbytery’s stated clerk.<\/p>\n

[Update 10\/28\/08: The Layman now has the chart online<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

So stay tuned and we will see where this journey takes us.<\/p>\n

Update<\/span>:  No sooner do I post this than the Layman has their first article<\/a> on the voting posted as well.  In addition to Palo Duro they also have the result from Presbytery of Central Washington<\/a> which likewise defeated the amendment, in this case by a 55 to 7 vote.  The Layman does not have their chart up yet, as far as I can tell, but the Layman observes divergent results in these two votes relative to the previous vote in 2001:  for the votes in the negative the Central Washington vote was a few percentage points higher and Palo Duro was a few points lower.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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