Good News!! Presbytery of Western North Carolina approves Ordination Amendment 08-B

Sunday, February 01 2009 @ 07:10 AM by Michael Adee

By a vote of 144 Yes, 108 No, the Presbytery of Western North Carolina recently approved Ordination Amendment 08-B.

By a margin of 57% approval, we believe that this is the first presbytery to "flip" from opposition to approval. In 2001, the vote was 38% Yes and in 2009 it is 57% Yes, making this a 19% positive gain.

The Presbytery of Western North Carolina is Morganton, NC at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

We have 115 congregations with over 20,000 members. We span to the east to Gastonia, north to Banner Elk and west to the Tennessee line.

Mission Statement of the Presbytery of Western North Carolina:
In partnership with Sessions, the mission of the Presbytery is to foster vital and faithful congregations to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ. By God's grace we will see changes in our lives, share what we have seen, and be signs of the grace of the triune God at work in the world.

Special thanks to all those working to end discrimination against LGBT Presbyterians and their families now in the Presbytery of Western North Carolina. You are an inspiration.

We want to alert all of you working in local presbyteries to pass 08-B to prepared for any of the "No Action" efforts in your presbytery and be ready to address them.

For educational resources and our new Resource Packet from our Answering God's Call to Serve! Yes on 08-B Campaign -- go to www.mlp.org

Thanks be to God for this victory in Western North Carolina! Together We are building a Church for all God's people.

with hope and grace,

Michael

PS -- Special thanks to Bruce Hahne, recent National MLP Board Member and Elder, First Presbyterian Church, Palo Alto, CA, a More Light Church for number-crunching and analysis of trends so far for Amendment 08-B. See below.

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Presbytery Voting, Trends & Analysis of the Ratification Campaign for Amendment 08-B:

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I was just now updating the 08-B vote comparison spreadsheet that I started at http://tinyurl.com/dkmoe7 and I noticed that we had our first Presbytery vote flip today compared to 2001-2002. Western North Carolina shifted a huge 19% pro-LGBT since 2001, when it voted down 01-A. This year it voted in FAVOR of 08-B.

Here's a summary of the votes that appear to have happened today, or recently. The full details are on the spreadsheet.

So far, 22 presbyteries have shifted pro-LGBT, and only 11 presbyteries have shifted anti-LGBT. Almost all of the presbyteries with anti-LGBT shifts are presbyteries which had 30% or less support for equality to begin with.

I've also added a section at the bottom of the tracking spreadsheet that shows the vote by count of presbytery commissioners (1 person = 1 vote). This is presently running at a +5% pro-LGBT shift since 2001-2, which means that we're within striking distance of having a majority of total COMMISSIONERS vote to delete B. Regardless of what happens with the presbytery votes (which are winner-take-all), the total commissioner vote will also be an important symbolic metric.

Cayuga-Syracuse:
2001-2 01-A: 54 yes, 21 no --> 72% YES
2009 08-B: 33 yes, 12 no --> 73% YES (+1%)

Huntingdon:
2001-2 01-A: 26 yes, 62 no --> 30% YES
2009 08-B: 26 yes, 36 no --> 42% YES (+12%)
This is a 12% shift in just 7 years, which is excellent. Many of the
presbyteries with very low pro-LGBT support levels appear to be
difficult to shift pro-LGBT, but in Huntingdon it happened.

Santa Barbara:
2001-2 01-A: 39 yes, 101 no --> 28% YES
2009 08-B: 20 yes, 85 no --> 19% YES (-9%)
This anti-LGBT trend is consistent with percentage swings that are showing up in other low-LGBT-support presbyteries. Santa Barbara wasn't about to vote yes on 08-B anyway, though the -9% shift is somewhat annoying.

Southern Kansas:
2001-2 01-A: 42 yes, 94 no --> 31% YES
2009 08-B 35 yes, 69 no --> 34% YES (+3%)

Western North Carolina:
2001-2 01-A: 100 yes, 165 no --> 38% YES
2009 08-B: 144 yes, 108 no --> 57% YES (+19%)
This presbytery wasn't even in "swing" voting range, but it just flipped. Congratulations to More Light supporters in Western North Carolina presbytery, and please feel free to share your tips about presbytery get-out-the-vote strategies. :-)

Bruce Hahne
hahne at io.com

Disclaimer 1: I might have typos or other errors in the vote counts, but I do my best...

Disclaimer 2: I don't speak for MLP, this is just me.

Full comparison info at: http://tinyurl.com/dkmoe7

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