In a recent meeting of our presbytery, we voted on proposed constitutional amendments. The vote was a tie, meaning the motion to approve the amendments failed. After the meeting, members of the presbytery asked for a called meeting to determine whether a member of the body that day had voted legally. He was a member of our presbytery and was being transferred to another, but hadn't been received there yet. At the called meeting, the moderator ruled that his vote was out of order and that we would need to revote on the proposed amendments at our next adjourned meeting.
The ruling was appealed to a higher judicatory (synod), and at that judicatory the motion was made to declare the minister's vote to be out of order. That motion was defeated.
For other reasons this ruling was appealed to another higher judicatory (Our denomination's Permanent Judiciary Committee). Part of the opinion of that judicatory was that since the motion made was defeated, no action took place. That judicatory then did not discuss whether the original vote was out of order or not.
Is it true that when a motion is defeated that means no action has been taken? I found in another question on this forum that in the case of whether a defeated motion should be recorded in minutes, "defeated motions constitute a decision of the assembly."
My stance is that since the Synod ruled that the vote was not out of order, the original vote should stand. If it is to be overturned that would require rescinding an action already taken, since voting on the constitutional amendments required reporting to another body (our General Assembly). That means even though the motion to approve the constitutional amendments was defeated, an action occurred.
Thank you in advance for your insight. I am having trouble finding an answer to this situation.
