Voted Against ’01-A’ now stands at 49-17
The Layman Online, January 23, 2002
With more than 10,000 Presbyterians having cast ballots at regional presbytery meetings, the overwhelming opposition to removing the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard from the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) continues.
Including Jan. 22 reports from six of the 174 presbyteries, the count stood at 49-17 against Amendment 01-A. That means that 74.2 of the presbyteries have voted against changing the constitution to allow the ordination of self-affirming, practicing adulterers and homosexuals. Amendment 01-A also proposes that the denomination invalidate the Presbyterian Church’s historic Biblical assertion that sex outside marriage is sinful.
In 1996, 59.1 percent of the same presbyteries that have cast ballots on Amendment 01-A voted in favor of what was then known as Amendment B, now the “fidelity/chastity” ordination standard that is designated as G-6.0106b in the Book of Order.
Ten presbyteries that opposed Amendment B in 1996 now favor the constitutional standard. None of the presbyteries that voted in favor of Amendment B has voted the other way — in favor of Amendment 01-A — during the 2001-02 referendum.
The six presbyteries reporting votes Jan. 22 were:
Against Amendment 01-A: Lehigh, Riverside and Carlisle.
For Amendment 01-A: Milwaukee, National Capital and Denver.
Lehigh became the 10th presbytery to switch from a “no” vote in 1996 to support for the constitutional standard by voting against Amendment 01-A this time. Actually, Lehigh had a tie vote in 1996, which is officially counted as a “no” vote against any proposed constitutional amendment.
With 66 presbyteries having voted, the number of written ballots cast in the Amendment 01-A referendum stands at 9,741. In addition, six presbyteries have said “no” by voice vote, pushing the total votes to more than 10,000.
That’s almost 20 times the number of commissioners who voted during the 2001 General Assembly on the proposal to send Amendment 01-A to the presbyteries.