Year end voting analysis on ordination standards
By Carmen Fowler, The Layman, December 29, 2010
As of Dec. 15, at least 24 of the 173 presbyteries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) have reported votes on proposed Amendment 10-A which seeks to strike and replace G-6.0106b from the denomination’s constitution.
The vote stands at 6 for, 18 against or what appears to be a 3-to-1 margin in favor of maintaining the current standards. The last time presbyteries voted on the issue the proposed amendment was called 08-B and it was defeated 78-95.
Excluding Northern New York presbytery, which voted “yes” on both 08-B and 10-A by a show of hands but did not report numbers, a compendium of the data to date includes:
Yes
No
Total # votes cast
% voting yes
% voting no
08-B
994
1676
2670
37%
63%
10-A
1072
1310
2382
45%
55%
Net change
+78
-366
-288
+8%
-8%
With only 14 percent of presbyteries voting to date, it is too early to predict outcomes. However, some observations can be made about trends.
Fewer voters are turning out.
In the first 24 presbyteries to vote on the measure, fewer people voted on 10-A than voted on 08-B. A greater percentage of those voting are in favor of changing the ordination standards of the PCUSA. With 288 total fewer votes cast, there were 366 fewer votes to affirm the current “fidelity and chastity” language of G-6.0106b.
The vote margin is narrowing.
Although the overall presbytery vote margin remains the same for this 24 presbytery sample: 6 for and 18 opposed, the popular vote totals have a more nuanced story to tell.
In 2008 the margin was 63-37 percent in favor of maintaining the current standards. That margin has fallen to 55-45 percent.
Let’s look specifically at the record for the presbytery of the James. Which went from a 75 percent affirmative vote in 1996 to a vote on 10-A that was dead even.
In 1996, the vote in the presbytery of the James to make the implicit standard of “fidelity in marriage between a man a woman or chastity in singleness” the explicit constitutional standard for ordained leaders in the PCUSA was 81-27 or 75 percent. The following year, efforts to strike it were defeated 34-62, 65 percent. In 2001, the next effort to strike it was defeated by a voice vote of “no.” Seven years later, 317 commissioners voted on amendment 08-B, again affirming G-6.0106b by a vote of 125-192 or just 60 percent. In 2010 the vote was tied 152-152 with three abstentions. The amendment failed, but by quite literally the slimmest of possible margins.