When the Presbytery Does Not Take Action on a Proposed Amendment Office of the General Assembly olity Reflection, Note 28 November 2000 A ballot is sent to stated clerks of presbyteries for each proposed amendment to report the result of presbytery action. It has on it the title of the Amendment and space for the name of the presbytery, the date of the meeting, and a line at the end for the stated clerk’s signature. In the middle of the card there are three spaces to check off: _____ Affirmative _____ Negative _____ I hereby certify that the presbytery did not act on this amendment. We are asked from time to time what is the effect of the third possibility. The General Assembly asks the presbytery one question: Does the presbytery concur/not concur in the proposed amendment? Since there are 173 presbyteries it takes 87 affirmative votes for the Book of Order to be amended. (G-18.0301d) The effect of a presbytery stated clerk marking the second or third lines is that the amendment does not get a vote to AFFIRM. The purpose for Office of the General Assembly of the third line is to enable the presbytery’s stated clerk to completely account for each amendment sent to the presbytery by returning the ballot, reporting that the presbytery did not act. The amendment process does not ask for the presbytery’s reason for not acting. It is our advice that a presbytery may follow the procedure used in the General Assembly and take a vote on a motion by its committee “That the presbytery TAKE NO ACTION.” In the alternative the presbytery may vote on the motion made from the floor during the debate to “POSTPONE INDEFINITELY,” (RRONR [1990]) page 123). The motions are debatable and require a majority vote. We also believe it is permissible for a presbytery to adopt a report on the proposed amendments which simply fails to recommend a vote one way or another on the controversial amendment. The presbytery could receive and act on a motion to STRIKE OUT its committee’s recommendation and INSERT “Take No Action” (RRONR [1990]) page 142-145). The MOTION TO SUBSTITUTE is not appropriate because it applies to complete paragraphs of one or more sentences (RRONR [1990]) page 131-132, 150-159). There is no provision for the presbytery to enclose a comment or statement of reasons with its vote. If a presbytery wants to communicate something more than its aye or nay, or the fact that it has not acted on an amendment, such as asking the Assembly to formally consider doing something else instead of what is proposed in the amendment sent down it may do this by sending an OVERTURE to the General Assembly. [See G-11.0103t(3)] Advice on the presentation of overtures is found in another note in this series.

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