Citing her realization of remaining unanswered questions about an approved amendment to the conference Rules, Chris Ford, a lay member from the Fairway District made a motion Thursday morning to reconsider the amendment which had passed Wednesday afternoon.
Ford said that she was making the motion in the hopes of allowing the body to make a more informed decision regarding the Russell substitution amendment to the Standing Rules for In-Person Annual Conference (Section III, E.2). Before the session broke for lunch, votes on Ford’s motion were counted by the tellers.
As the afternoon plenary session began, Bishop Fairley shared that the motion to reconsider passed; the business of the Annual Conference then turned to continued discussion and debate about the Russell amendment’s merits. Speakers raised questions and concerns about the amendment which would require the Annual Conference’s voting approval each year for the appointment of a second Assistant to the Bishop.
After much discussion, information from conference staff, and clarifications from committee chairs about the process of adding the second position, the Russell amendment was defeated.
The Standing Rules for In-Person Meetings were then adopted (with the Stallsworth amendment from Wednesday).
Those rules, the Standing Rules for Online Meetings, and the Lay Equalization Plan were then overwhelmingly approved together.