Advisory Opinions: Note 06
When the Presbytery Does Not Take Action on A Proposed Amendment

When the General Assembly sends proposed amendments to the presbyteries for their affirmative or negative votes, the stated clerk of each presbytery must report the results of that voting. This is now done on the PC(USA) Website, with appropriate features for verification. For each amendment, the stated clerk marks the name of the presbytery, the date the vote was taken, and whether the presbytery's vote was either affirmative or negative, or the clerk certifies that the presbytery took no action.

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? In sending actions to the presbyteries for their "affirmative or negative votes," it is the clear expectation of the wider church that presbyteries will ordinarily vote for or against an amendment rather than taking no action. 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 "negative" or "no action" choice is that the amendment does not get a vote to AFFIRM. The purpose of the third choice 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 (Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (2000), page 121). Both these 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" (Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (2000) page 138-145). The MOTION TO SUBSTITUTE is not appropriate because it applies to complete paragraphs of one or more sentences (Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised (2000) pages 151-154, 506-507).

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)).

Issued December, 2002

Last updated March, 2008