The One Church Plan would allow local congregations, local clergy, and Annual Conferences to make their own determinations regarding same sex marriage and the ordination of homosexual persons. This plan was supported by a majority of our active Bishops and a majority of those serving on the Commission on a way Forward. This plan was amended and debated today, but was defeated. This means that the One Church Plan will not be move forward to tomorrow’s plenary session as a majority motion of the committee. This does not, however, mean that the One Church Plan is “dead.” It will most assuredly come to the plenary session tomorrow as a minority report and could be taken up by the plenary session by a majority vote. This seems unlikely to happen since the members of the legislative committee today are the same people who will be voting in tomorrow’s plenary session. Time will tell.
All Things Charity 
Can you explain what exactly a minority report is and how it works?
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Rule 29 of our rules of order allow for a minority report to be filed. A person wanting to file one is to do this within 2 hours of the end of the legislative session. 10% of the committee have to join this report by signing it. This basically gives the petition an opportunity to be taken back up as a substitute motion. It would take a majority of the plenary to replace the majority report with the minority report. In this instance a person supporting the One Church Plan could propose to substitute the Traditional Plan with the One Church Plan tomorrow. Again, it would take a majority of persons to vote for this. Since the committee and the plenary are the same people, it’s highly unlikely that a minority report would replace the majority report. I hope that helps.
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Yes, thanks.
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Rule 29 of our Rules of Order allow for a person (along with 10% of the committee) to file a “minority report.” This is a petition which was supported by fewer than 50% of a legislative committee. It’s basically a way to propose a substitute motion: substituting the majority report with the minority motion. In our case it would mean a group of delegates will move to substitute the Traditional Plan for the One Church Plan. It is unlikely to pass because in our case, the legislative committee are the same people as the plenary. I hope that helps.
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If the one Church plan was adopted , how would this be recorded in The Book of Discipline? I am confused how different conferences can choose their direction but still have one Book of Discipline.
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If the one church plan were to prevail it allows local churches to make decisions about same-sex marriages happening in their churches and individual pastors to decide if they will do a same-sex marriage. Our global churches outside the United States have books of discipline in addition to THE book of discipline. The one church plan allows the global churches to make their own rules about this issue.
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