{"id":812,"date":"2008-05-15T19:51:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-16T02:51:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2008-05-15T19:51:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-16T02:51:00","slug":"upcoming-pca-general-assembly-role-of-women-in-ministry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.gajunkie.com\/?p=812","title":{"rendered":"Upcoming PCA General Assembly — Role of Women in Ministry"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot has happened in the last couple of days and my sincere thanks to Marshall<\/a> for leaving the comments<\/a> alerting us to the developments in the Presbyterian Church in America<\/a> during that time.<\/p>\n

These relate to the developing discussion over women as deacons, and more generally to the role of women in the church.  While I have mentioned this at various points in the past, I have particular posts in January<\/a> and February<\/a> that focus on this issue.  Up to this week, there were two overtures before the General Assembly asking for a study committee to clarify the scriptural, confessional, and polity basis of deaconesses.  The first is Overture 9<\/a> from Philadelphia Presbytery and the second is Overture 15<\/a> from Western Canada Presbytery.<\/p>\n

In the last day four more overtures have been posted to the overtures page<\/a>.  I will only mention that overtures 16<\/a> and 18<\/a> are matching procedural overtures from Piedmont Triad Presbytery and Western Carolina Presbytery to modify their shared presbytery boundary moving one church from Western Carolina to Piedmont Triad.  Overtures 17 and 19 deal with the question of women and ministry, the first to expand the charge of the study committee and the second asks the assembly to decline to establish the study committee.<\/p>\n

In Overture 17<\/a>, from Rocky Mountain Presbytery, the text cites the fact that this issue has not been addressed in this or a similar Presbyterian branch in 20 years.  It also notes that this issue has caused churches to leave the denomination, and while not naming names, a recent example is City Presbyterian Church<\/a> of Denver which recently left (or is in the final stages of the process of leaving) that Presbytery and affiliated with the Reformed Church in America<\/a>.  The overture concurs with overtures 9 and 15 and goes further to ask for clarification on the broader role of women in the church including what roles they may serve in as well as leading in worship and teaching when the group contains both men and women.<\/p>\n

At the other end is Overture 19<\/a> from Central Georgia Presbytery.  Their overture, to paraphrase and summarize, says that 1) Scripture is clear and there is no dispute, 2) that “commissioning” in this case is a way to side-step the polity restrictions on ordination, 3) that titles must be scriptural, 4) that overtures 9 and 15 are challenges to the Westminster Standards and should be defeated, 5) that in the polity the status quo<\/i> is appropriate, and 6) that sessions are free to appoint Godly men and women to assist the diaconate.<\/p>\n

Well, the first two overtures that addressed the current understanding of the ordained offices were already looking to make the Assembly interesting.  Now with two more that stretch the discussion in both directions this should make this meeting one that will be talked about for a while, not to mention the Assembly where the Study Committee reports, if such a committee is established.<\/p>\n

But it is not just the overtures that have appeared in the last few days.  Once again the Bayly Brothers have a blog entry<\/a> addressing this issue and it also argues for the status quo<\/font> and better Presbytery oversight and guidance because the church should never have gotten to this point in the first place.  As Tim concludes:<\/p>\n

We’re repeating the endless error of American Presbyterians who trust
\nstudy committees to do nasty work that would better be handled by
\nloving, local, personal, compassionate, discerning, biblical church
\ndiscipline.<\/div>\n

In a “variations on a theme<\/a>” sense, this entry could be written about several of the Presbyterian branches that are debating ordination standards.  You could take this entry, fill in the PC(USA) for the church and practicing homosexuals for the group under discussion, and the entry would read like one side of the argument in that debate.  And while I can’t cite an example from the other side of the PCA debate right at the moment, the same could be done for that and with some word substitution it would cover the other side.  That is one of the reasons that I write this blog:  The issues that you see around the world in the church frequently take many variations on the same basic theme.  May God Bless Us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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