Overture 23: Upon Further Review of the Numbers…

O23 failed by only a handful of votes in four presbyteries. Like we have been saying: REs *need* to show up in ALL of the courts of the Church. It absolutely matters!

After a more careful review of the spreadsheet curated by the indispensable @SEdburg, it appears clear that O23 would have passed if:

• it passed an additional 4 presbyteries,
• 9 votes in those four presbyteries flipped, or
• 13 additional elders showed up to vote for it in those four presbyteries

Here’s how it breaks down: O23 needed to pass 59 presbyteries to get the required 2/3 super-majority. But O23 only passed 55 presbyteries — a 62.5% majority of presbyteries, but not the 2/3 super-majority needed.

If you look at the four closest reported presbytery votes where O23 did not pass, you find that the closest such presbyteries were:

• Korean Northeastern, where O23 would have passed if one negative vote had flipped to affirmative or if two more affirmative votes had been cast
• Piedmont Triad, where O23 would have passed if two negative votes had flipped to affirmative or if three more affirmative votes had been cast
• Heritage, where O23 would have passed if three negative votes had flipped to affirmative or if four more affirmative votes had been cast
• Hills and Plains, where O23 would have passed if three negative votes had flipped to affirmative or if four more affirmative votes had been cast

– By Charlie Nave (MORE in the PCA) with thanks to @hmatthewlee for encouraging us to take a careful look at the numbers!