• 
  • Map of Churches
  • Search by Name-City-Zip
  • Schools and Other
• HOME
• Bishop's Pages
  • Bishop's Homepage
  • Diocesan Vision
  • Staff
  • Sermons and Addresses
• Katrina Response
  • Restoring Hope in Mississippi
  • Camp Coast Care
  • Mission on the Bay
  • Contributions
  • LESM
  • Hallelujah Housing
  • Episcopal Relief and Development
• News & Events
  • News
  • Events
  • Parish & Mission Activities
  • Diocesan Calendar
  • Lectionary
  • Event Photos
• Gray Center
  • Gray Conference Center
  • Center for Formation and Mission
  • Camp Bratton Green
• Church Resources
  • Clergy Deployment
  • Our Clergy
  • Diocesan Staff
  • Diocesan Publications
  • Planned Giving
  • Constitution and Canons
  • Lay Leader Manual
  • Cycle of Prayer
  • Employee Benefits
  • Finance
  • Diocesan Scholarships
  • Lectionary
• Governance
  • Annual Council
  • Constitution and Canons
  • Episcopal Church
  • Officers of the Diocese
  • Elected Committees
  • General Convention
• Visitors
  • About Us
  • Our Bishop
  • Find a Church
  • Calendars
  • Gray Center
• Calendars
  • Diocesan Calendar
  • Parish & Mission Activities
  • Cycle of Prayer
  • Anglican Cycle of Prayer
  • Center for Formation and Mission
  • Youth Ministries
• Youth Ministries
• Young Adults
  • Bishops Mission Corps.
  • Vocare
  • St. Alexis
  • College Chaplains
• Mission & Outreach
  • Anti-Racism
  • Bishops Mission Corps.
  • Congregations for Children
  • Hallelujah Housing
  • Prison and Justice Committee
  • Gay and Lesbian Ministries
  • Ministry for Persons with AIDS
  • Episcopal Outreach Foundation
  • Honduras Medial Mission
  • Episcopal Relief and Development
  • Katrina Response
  • Environmental Stewardship
  • Panama Medical Mission
• Contact Us

Click here to read the Mississippi Episcopalian

Rules of Order

---

APPENDIX I
Rules of Order
Adopted at
The One Hundred Seventy-seventh Annual Council
February 6-8, 2004
Trinity Church/Church of the Ascension, Hattiesburg

1. Robert’s Rules of Order (latest edition) shall be used unless provision otherwise be made in these Rules of Order or  the Constitution and Canons of the Diocese.
2. The members of the Council, clerical and lay, shall, on the day appointed, assemble at the place of meeting designated, immediately before the hour for the opening thereof.
3. When the President takes the chair no member shall continue standing, or shall afterwards stand up except to address the chair.
4. When Council shall convene, the President shall determine if a quorum be present from the first report of registration by the Committee on Credentials.
5. No member shall absent himself/herself from the session of the Council unless he/she has leave, or be unable to attend.
6. The President shall appoint such committees of Council as may be deemed necessary to carry on the work of Council and to implement its decisions.  Such committees of Council will be appointed no later than 45 days preceding the opening day of Council.
7. When any member is about to speak or deliver any matter to the Council, he/she shall, with due respect, address himself/herself to the President, confining himself/herself strictly to the point in debate.
8. No member shall be permitted to speak more than once on the same subject, except the member submitting a resolution, who, in every instance, shall be permitted to close the discussion.  All speakers shall be limited to five minutes.
9. While the President is putting any question, the members shall continue in their seats, and shall not hold any private discourse.
10. All resolutions, except courtesy resolutions, to be considered by Annual Council shall be submitted in writing, to the Secretary of the Council no later than December 15 proceeding the convening of Council.  Resolutions submitted after that time may be considered for action only upon a two-thirds vote of Council.
11. All resolutions submitted for consideration by Annual Council will have the name of the submitting cleric or delegate to Council attached.  All resolutions, except courtesy resolutions, shall be submitted without prefacing clauses or paragraphs, but may be supported by an accompanying explanatory paragraph.
12. No motion shall be considered as before the Council unless seconded.
13. When any question is under consideration, no motion shall be received unless it be to lay on the table, to move the previous question, to postpone it for a certain time, to postpone it indefinitely, to commit it, to amend it, or to divide it; and motions for any of these purposes shall have precedence in the order herein named.  The motion to lay on the table or to adjourn shall always be in order.
    
14. If the question under debate contains several distinct propositions, the stated question shall be divided at the request of any member, and then a vote taken separately, except that a motion to strike out and insert be indivisible.
15. All questions of order shall be decided by the chair without debate, but any member may appeal from such a decision; and on each appeal no member shall speak more than twice on the same subject without leave of the Council.
16. All amendments shall be considered in the order in which they are moved.  When a proposed amendment is under consideration, a motion to amend the same may be made; no after amendments to such amendment shall be in order.  But, when the amendment to an amendment is under consideration, a substitute for the whole matter may be received.
17. No proposition on a subject different from that under consideration shall be received under color of a substitute; and a question once decided shall not be reconsidered without the consent of two-thirds of the members present, and not without being made by one of the majority on the prior decision.
18. On the requisition of any two members, the yeas and nays shall be called and entered on the Journal.
19. At any time before the President has ruled on the vote on a matter before the house, any two members may call for a division.
20. Five members may demand a vote by Orders.  A vote by Orders will divide the Council into two orders, lay and ordained.
21. On all elections held during Council in which lay or clergy persons are nominated for positions on Diocesan Committees or organizations, e.g. Executive Committee, Trustees of the Diocese, etc., on the 2nd and each succeeding ballot, there will be retained only twice the number of nominees as there are unfilled positions, said nominees to be taken from those receiving the highest number of votes for said office.  If, under this provision, two or more candidates receive the same number of votes, then all of said candidates receiving said number of votes shall be placed on said next succeeding ballot.  The foregoing procedure shall not apply to any election requiring a vote by orders.  In all cases, no one shall be declared elected unless he or she receives a majority of the votes cast.
22. The reports of all committees shall be in writing and shall be received, of course, and without mention, unless recommended by a vote of the Council.  All the reports recommending or requiring any action or expression of opinion by the Council shall be accompanied by a resolution for action by the Council thereon.  Reports of committees appointed to sit during recess shall be in order at any time.
23. All diocesan committees shall be appointed by the President, unless otherwise ordered by the Annual Council or specified by the Constitution or Canons.
24. When the Council is about to rise, every member shall keep his/her seat until the President leaves the chair.
25. All correctly pre-filed nominations for the various elections to be held at Annual Council shall be accepted as official nominations without further action of Council.  Opportunity for open nominations shall be made during the first business session of Annual Council.
26. None of these Rules shall be suspended or changed without the assent of two-thirds of the members present.