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Home > General News
Good News! Presbytery of Charlotte approves Amendment 08-B |
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Wednesday, February 18 2009 @ 07:46 PM by Michael Adee
 Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, NC
On February 14, at Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina, the Presbytery of Charlotte affirmed the 218th General Assembly's Ordination Amendment 08-B by a vote of 133 YES, 124 NO with 1 Abstention.
The Ordination Amendment Vote by the Presbytery of Charlotte in 2001 was merely a voice vote of opposition. So, the Presbytery of Charlotte is another presbytery in this extraordinary trend of presbyteries "flipping" their votes from NO in 2001 to YES in 2009.
The Presbytery of Charlotte is the fourth largest presbytery in the denomination. Located in the Southern Piedmont region of North Carolina between the mountains and the coast, The Presbytery of Charlotte serves seven counties: Anson, Cabarrus, Mecklenburg, Montgomery, Richmond, Stanly, and Union, which include: 133 Churches (1 in Chesterfield Co., SC); 40,082 Members; 292 Ministers and 46 Educators. Its ministry center is located in Charlotte, NC.
Rev. Dr. Doug Oldenburg, HR, Presbytery of Charlotte, former PCUSA Moderator and President of Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, preached the sermon "Celebrating Diversity while Affirming Unity" during the worship service at the meeting. Rev. Kate Murphy and Rev. Tom Tate offered presentations in favor of Amendment 08-B as part of the education and discernment process of the meeting.
Special thanks to all those working to end discrimination against LGBT Presbyterians and their families now in the the Presbytery of Charlotte. You are an inspiration.
We want to offer particular gratitude to John Mayes, Rev. Debra Peevey, MLP, Rev. Lou East and Rev. Tricia Dykers-Koenig, CN, for providing outreach and serving as resource persons with this presbytery.
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.
Thanks be to God for this stand for justice and call to the end to discrimination in the Presbytery of Charlotte! 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 -- go to http://yeson08b.blogspot.com/
Michael J. Adee, M.Div., Ph.D., Executive Director & Field Organizer
Answering God's Call to Serve!
For resources, stories, presbytery vote tally, and news from More Light Presbyterians
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Charlotte Presbytery Votes To Allow Gays, Lesbians To Become Ministers
Sunday, February 15, 2009 – updated: 4:54 am EST February 16, 2009
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- The Charlotte Presbytery is one of the largest in the country. Saturday, it voted in favor of allowing gays and lesbians to become ordained as ministers.
Hundreds of church leaders were involved in the vote.
Before the change can go into effect, all of the leaders of the 179 presbyteries in the U.S. must vote. To pass, the issue just needs a simple majority.
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
Charlotte presbytery flips pro-LGBT
In yet another vote shift that I certainly didn't expect, Charlotte presbytery, which took a voice vote "no" on 01-A in 2001-2, has now voted YES on 08-B. Many thanks to the equality supporters in Charlotte presbytery for the nice Valentine's Day present.
This is the third presbytery to vote that had previously taken a voice vote "no" in 2001-2. The first was East Tennessee, which also flipped pro-LGBT this year. The second was Wyoming presbytery, which voted no on 08-B this year. So we're two for three in shifting previous voice-voice presbyteries to a pro-equality position. That's a really good track record -- I was originally guessing that all previous "voice vote no" presbyteries would also vote no on 08-B this year.
The lesson here seems to be "count the vote, don't just do a voice vote". You never know how the vote might turn out, and even if you lose, taking an actual vote count allows equality supporters to realize that you're not alone in wanting pro-equality change.
Here are the stats that I know of for today's votes:
Charlotte presbytery:
2001-2 01-A: voice vote "no", no percentage available
2009 08-B: 133 yes, 124 no --> 52% YES
Pines presbytery:
2001-2 01-A: 31 yes, 45 no --> 41% YES
2009 08-B: 34 yes, 36 no --> 49% YES
So we have another "close, but not quite" situation in Pines, similar to Cincinnati earlier this week, however it's still a solid 8% pro-equality shift.
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