Clearer News, at least

OK - what it REALLY means is that Council recommended to Assembly that ANY Task Force report recommending a change in standards require a 2/3 majority vote to pass. This is a non-binding recommendation and I believe can be ignored by the Assembly. But the recommendation is a positive.

Here is the salient passage of a new, revised news release:

In the rules of procedure recommended by the council for the
assembly are requirements that a two-thirds majority vote is
needed to adopt recommendations from a task force that require
amendment of a constitutional or bylaw provision, or establish a
practice or policy that is contrary to an existing practice or
policy of the ELCA, such as a policy or practice contained in a
social statement.

Following is a very interesting little part of the article:

In a report to the council, the Rev. Kenneth M. Ruppar,
Richmond, Va., chair of the council's legal and constitutional
review committee, proposed on the committee's behalf that the
assembly rules be recommended except for the section regarding
task force recommendations, most of which which require a two-
thirds majority vote to be adopted. Instead, the committee
suggested the section regarding the rules on task force
recommendations be considered at the council's April 2005
meeting.
But many council members said they wanted to adopt the
assembly rules, including task force report rules now -- as the
council indicated at its April 2004 meeting -- before the Studies
on Sexuality task force report and recommendations were completed
and made public.

Quotes following prove the wisdom of this. Any decision AFTER the Task Force made its report on whether to make Task Force recommendations either simple majority or 2/3 would have constituted an implicit referendum on the Task Force. By doing this, in the words of a council member, the Church Council has "protected their integrity."

It seems that most, if not all, task force recommendations of any sort require a two-thirds majority. Some were eager to suspend in this case.

Read the whole article here - although it is all messed up with question marks on the webpage (how ironic!)