Votelaw, Edward Still's blog on law and politics

AP reports: Episcopal clergy and lay delegates Tuesday rejected a demand from fellow Anglicans that they temporarily stop electing gay bishops, leaving little chance the proposal could be revived at a national church meeting.

Anglican leaders, angered by the 2003 consecration of an openly gay Episcopal bishop, had asked the Episcopalians pass a moratorium _ at least for now _ on homosexuals leading dioceses.

But in a complex balloting system, a majority of the Episcopal House of Deputies voted against a measure that would have urged dioceses to refrain from electing homosexuals to lead them. Conservatives said the measure stopped short of a moratorium, but supporters argued it would have at least signaled that the American church understood the concerns of Anglican leaders. -- Episcopalians Reject Ban on Gay Bishops

My comment: Notice the third paragraph's reference to a "complex system." This is a newspaper code word for "it is not like the way we vote in the good old US of A, but we don't want to explain it right now." Well, I will explain it to you.

The House of Delegates has four lay delegates and four clergy delegates from each diocese. Some states have one diocese, some more, and a few are shared between states. (Alabama for instance has the Diocese of Alabama and the Diocese of the Gulf Coast which also includes West Florida.) As you can see in these Rules of Order (page 16 of the PDF), the vote may be taken "by Dioceses and Orders." The "Orders" are the lay and the clergy.

By the way, the vote at the U.S. Constitutional Convention was taken by States, so the vote there could be "aye," "no," or "divided" -- just as provided in the Episcopal Church rules.

Here endeth the Lesson.