Can an absent person have a written statement read

[Guest Mike]

At our recent church Business meeting our treasurer was unable to attend.  There was a resolution being proposed he was opposed to.  He sent in a written objection to the motion asking if it could be read during the debate period of the motion.  The church voted to hear the written statement (maybe 90% in favor of hearing the treasurer's written statement)  My question is:  Did we do this properly, and if not, is there another way to handle matters like this?

Thank you so much for your input.

[Richard Brown]

I see nothing improper about the assembly voting to allow the statement to be read, but the treasurer could have just as easily... perhaps more easily..... simply asked a member to read it on his behalf. 

Technically, having someone read the statement could be considered "reading papers" which is usually done by unanimous consent.  Any member can object to having a paper read, in which case a majority vote is required in order to read the paper. 

[Chris Harrison]

The Treasurer didn't have a right to have the written statement read.  However, a member could request permission to read the statement during debate and if someone objected to it a majority vote would be required to allow the reading and since you said "maybe 90%" were in favor of reading it you all did good.  See RONR pp. 298-299 for more details.