Altogether, 55 presbyteries thus far have voted their support for the proposed amendment, and 40 have cast negative votes (including one tie vote, which counts as a “no”). The actual headcount of each has changed somewhat, but the vote that counts, the simple majority of these particular presbyteries, shows a net shift of 11 out of these 95 from the 2008-09 vote, which rejected an amendment that would have eliminated the “fidelity in marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness” ordination standard.
There remain 78 presbyteries still to vote. If 32 of those presbyteries cast positive votes, then the amendment will be approved. Put in a different way, if all 78 vote as they did two years ago, the amendment will pass by a margin of 5.
At present, momentum in support of the new amendment continues to strengthen. Nevertheless, many presbytery votes have been close, so it’s too early to every presbytery vote is unique, and favors the movement to change the policy, but the vote may well go right down to the wire.
Do you want to track the voting on Amendment 10-A? Some affinity organizations are tracking the votes on their Web pages. The following Web sites offer each organization’s up-to-date, unofficial* reports:
Covenant Network – which support ratification
Presbyterian Coalition – which opposes ratification
*The official report is tracked by the Office of the General Assembly. It records the votes only when the official forms are received by mail from the respective presbyteries, often a week or two after the actual votes are taken.
