Annual conference of the Central Texas Conference happened from June 6-8. It the the "annual business meeting" of the Conference in which the 300+ churches in the conference come together and give reports on the state of the different ministries of the conference. In addition to these reports (some great and others not so great), there are conference resolutions. These are bits of legislation for the conference which can call us to action on a wide range of issues. Most of the time, in my experience, these resolutions are usually not calls to actions but more like statements of belief for the conference.
This year there was a resolution in which the conference voted to approve. It was a statement on "Welcoming the Migrant". (If you click the link you will go to the entire conference report by which you can just search "Welcoming the Migrant" and it should get you there.) This resolution passed with zero debate. Not a single question or comment. I am glad, as I think this was a good resolution and responsible for the conference, but I was amazed it passed without a single comment because of what happened next...
The next resolution took three votes before it was upheld (which meant the resolution failed as the conference church and society committee did not recommend, or think this resolution was "concurrent" with the Central Texas Conference. A vote to uphold the recommendation of the conference church and society committee and thus reject this resolution was actually to vote "I". If you are confused, you can thank Robert's Rules.).
The three votes were:
1) To allow the creator of the resolution to speak on this resolution for three minutes. He was not a delegate to annual conference and thus did not have the free option to speak on this without the consent of the body. The body voted to allow him to speak.
2) To call the body to a vote on the resolution. (There were three speakers 'for' and three speakers 'against' the resolution each of which were allowed three minutes to speak their position. After these speakers, in order to not allow any other questions or debate, one member of the body called for a vote to see if we were ready to vote on the resolution - of which the body was.)
3) To uphold the recommendation of the conference church and society committee and reject this resolution.
What was the resolution that took so long, had the maximum speakers and a "call for the question" vote?
The Resolution to "Support the Teaching of Creation Science".
Why we spoke so long on this topic and not very long on the topic of the conference supporting a path way for the migrant? I do not know. I think it is interesting.