Version History
Current published version
Today's Business, Issue 1. pp. 174-175. Original floor committee resolution.
No later published versions have been added.
Official Resolution Source Text
Resolution: 9-13
Canonical number: 9-13
Committee: Structure and Administration
Source: Today's Business, Issue 1
Printed pages: pp. 174-175
PDF pages: 174-175
Version: original, current-published-proposal
Source reference: Issue 1, pp. 174-175
Line numbers follow Today's Business, Issue 1, with numbering reset on each printed page, so delegates can compare this page with the official PDF.
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- To Adopt Recommendations of 2023 Res. 9-06A Task Force on Electoral Circuit Parameters
- RESOLUTION 9-13
- Reports R59–59.2 (CW, 143–60); Overtures 9-19–20, 33 (CW, 476–77, 485)
- Rationale
- 2023 Resolution 9-06A, “To Appoint Task Force to Evaluate Current Electoral Circuit Parameters,” (2023 Proceedings,
- 206–9) was adopted with the acknowledgement that “due to demographic changes over the past several convention cycles,
- it has become necessary for more and more visitation circuits either to request an exemption from the President of the
- Synod or to be combined in order to qualify to meet the parameters for an electoral circuit. The result has been a gradual
- decrease in the number of electoral circuits within the Synod and the number of delegates attending conventions.” The
- charge to the task force was described as to “consider the parameters for the electoral circuits which select delegates to
- conventions of the Synod to determine if they are adequate as they are or should be changed.”
- In preparation for the first meeting, the Secretary of the Synod drafted a whitepaper (later updated) with the history of
- selecting delegates; trends in convention delegation size and exceptions requested and granted; and a view toward the
- shape of the future based upon past and current demographics. The task force met nine times from October 2024 to
- December 2025 to review the charge by the 2023 Synod convention, offer a report, and recommend to the Synod changes
- to the Bylaws to address the concerns raised.
- The task force commissioned several surveys to determine the health and viability of the current visitation circuits and the
- opinions of pastors, circuit visitors, district presidents, and the Praesidium on the size and effectiveness of Synod
- conventions in view of their purpose “to afford an opportunity for worship, nurture, inspiration, fellowship, and the
- communication of vital information” (Bylaw 3.1.1). The general conclusions from these surveys both set the direction for
- the work of the task force and undergirded the recommendations made in their report.
- The surveys revealed a profound desire on the part of all to strengthen visitation circuits and the functioning of winkels
- (circuit pastors’ conferences). They also indicated that when the number of active participants dropped below five actively
- serving pastors (with the emeritus pastors who reside in the circuit), it directly impacted the health and effectiveness of
- the visitation circuit. With respect to the electoral circuits, the surveys found they need to be flexible enough to provide
- adequate and fair representation at the Synod convention and yet maintain a viable connection to the visitation circuit
- wherever possible.
- The discussions and proposed changes in the Bylaws recommended by the task force flowed from the concrete data of the
- whitepaper, the opinions of 1,682 parish pastors, 772 candidate or emeritus pastors, 393 circuit visitors, and 27 district
- presidents, and the combined experience of the members of the task force across the regions of the Synod and within the
- districts and circuits where they reside.
- Even early on, the task force felt the urgency of the task and the consequences of making no change to the status quo.
- Failure to make any changes would create an untenable situation due to the rise in the number of exceptions for electoral
- circuits from triennium to triennium and the increasing difficulties in forming circuits within the current parameters of the
- Bylaws. An increasing number of electoral circuits for the 2026 Synod convention and beyond are approaching the
- minimum numbers of communicant members required to constitute an electoral circuit (1,500) and others are very close
- to the maximum number of congregations allowed (20). Details of these trends are outlined in the whitepapers along with
- projections for the situation three to six years beyond the 2026 Synod convention.
- Having considered all the foregoing, the task force made the following proposal to the 2026 Synod convention:
- 1. Change the Bylaw 3.1.2 standard from congregations to parishes;
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- 2. Remove from the bylaw entirely the possibility of exceptions (except that no district shall be left without any
- circuit); and
- 3. Remove from the bylaw the upper limits for the number of congregations, number of confirmed members, and
- how many visitation circuits may combine into an electoral circuit.
- The task force believed that this realignment would more closely connect the number of delegates to the actual size of the
- Synod and the number of its parishes.
- Therefore be it
- Resolved, That Bylaw 3.1.2 be amended as follows:
- PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
- Voting Delegates
- 3.1.2 Electoral circuits shall meet as required by the Bylaws of the Synod to elect circuit voting delegates to the
- Synod’s national conventions.
- (a) An electoral circuit shall consist either of one or two of one or more adjacent visitation circuits, as
- shall be determined by the district board of directors on the basis of the following requirements: each
- pair of delegates shall represent from 7 to 20 member congregations at least six (6) parishes (as defined
- in Bylaw 2.5.5; each congregation of a parish divided across circuit lines counts, for this purpose, as an
- equal fraction of the parish, i.e., ½ for each congregation in a parish of two congregations; ⅓ for each
- in a parish of three; etc.), involving an aggregate confirmed membership ranging from of at least 1,500
- to 10,000.
- (b) Exceptions to these requirements may be made only by the President of the Synod upon request of
- a district board of directors. No exceptions shall be granted, except that each district shall have at least
- one electoral circuit.
- (c) Voting delegates shall consist of one pastor and one layperson from each electoral circuit. These
- pastoral and lay delegates and their alternates shall be elected according to the regulations of the Synod
- (Bylaw 3.1.2.1).
- (d) The lay delegate shall serve throughout the triennium following the convention as an advisory
- member of the forum or fora of the visitation circuit(s) comprising the electoral circuit forum.
Published Proposed Amendments
This amendment is printed as a proposal and is not incorporated into the current resolution text unless official convention action confirms adoption. The printed amendment may reference an earlier version of the resolution.
Published Proposed Amendment to Resolution 9-13
Issue 5, p. 413, Issue 5, p. 413, lines 23-31, status: Proposed
Submitted by Jonathan Burkee, Pastoral Delegate, Pacific Southwest District
To Adopt Recommendations of 2023 Res. 9-06A Task Force on Electoral Circuit Parameters AMENDMENT TO RESOLUTION 9-13 Resolution 9-13 (TB, 1:174–75) To revert, at TB 1:175, lines 20–22, to the original wording of Bylaw 3.1.2 (b), so as to read: (b) Exceptions to these requirements may be made only by the President of the Synod upon request of a district board of directors. Jonathan Burkee Pastoral Delegate, Pacific Southwest District
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