One of 2023’s major religion-news events was the decision by the Southern Baptist Convention, by far America’s largest Protestant denomination, to expel two congregations and to exclude any others that ordain women to be “any kind of pastor,” thus barring assistants, educators, chaplains and ordained missionaries as well as lead pastors.
The 2000 rewrite of the SBC’s crucial Baptist Faith and Message document had stated somewhat ambiguously that “the office of pastor is limited to men.” Debate continues to swirl on a new constitutional amendment, which needs second and final approval at next June’s meeting.
That’s a big story. Journalists tend to ignore smaller denominations that also provide news potential on these issues along the following lines.
Many conservative evangelicals are “egalitarians” who favor women clergy and lay office-holders, but an interesting example on the opposite “complementarian” side is the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), based in Lawrenceville, Georgia. As it happened, the PCA General Assembly was discussing the role of women in ministry during meetings in Memphis the same week as the Baptists’ New Orleans showdown.
The PCA is a story in and of itself.
This denomination began in 1973 as 41,000 southern Presbyterians broke from a more liberal “mainline” church and then managed notable northern outreach. While the SBC slowly shrinks, as of this year’s 50th anniversary the PCA boasted nearly 400,000 members in 2,000 congregations, 600 career missionaries, annual proceeds exceeding $1 billion and a new church opening on average every two weeks. The career and then death of its well-known New York City Pastor Timothy Keller earned MSM coverage.
From the beginning, the PCA has opposed female clergy. Its Book of Church Order states regarding clergy, lay elders, and lay deacons that “in accord with Scripture, these offices are open to men only.” But there’s continual agitation. Some prominent PCA congregations formally “commission” female deaconesses or deacon “assistants” (.pdf here) who help the fully “ordained” deacons.
At Memphis, delegates approved by 75% a bill specifying that such “unordained” church workers cannot “be referred to, or given the titles of the ordained offices of pastor/elder or deacon.” Delegates bounced back a second, more dramatic bill for a clearer rewrite. It would declare that “no woman shall preach, exhort, or teach at a public worship assembly, including assemblies or chapel services where men are present.”
Such restrictionists cite the Bible’s I Timothy 2:12, which the “ESV Study Bible” interprets as barring women from teaching doctrine “to men in church,” although they are allowed to teach other women and children.
The current round of PCA discussion began with a 2017 committee report (.pdf here), whose two female voting members alongside five men rankled the PCA right wing.
It concluded PCA congregations can hold varying views on whether women “without ordination” who are not church “officers” could be deacon assistants, asking for “mutual respect” for this among dissenters. It also urged that women be allowed to serve on denominational boards and agencies. Further, this panel asked congregations to consider letting unordained women during worship lead singing, testify about God or describe ministries (as opposed to preaching), offer the pastoral prayer or at least other prayers, and read Bible lessons.
Since the PCA breakaway from what later became the “mainline” Presbyterian Church (USA) , other doctrinal conservatives left in 1980 to form the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, with offices in Orlando, Florida. Because “people of good faith” who believe in “the infallibility of Scripture differ” on women, each regional unit decides whether to ordain women clergy and local congregations decide on women elders and deacons (The Christian Reformed Church, in which The Guy held longtime membership, has the same policy.)
A third conservative walkout began in 2012, with the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians, nicknamed ECO, with offices in Irving, Texas. Like “mainline” Presbyterians, ECO requires “full affirmation of women to any and all positions of ministry.”
As for the “mainline” PC(USA), a 2016 status report found “pervasive” gender problems, with eight out of 10 female clergy experiencing some discrimination and four out of ten claiming bias in hiring. The report said 38% of actively serving clergy and just over half of lay elders are now women.
Then this: Mark your calendars for October 4-29 when Pope Francis presides at the first of his two "synodality" confabs at the Vatican. Ordination of women as Catholic deacons — including duties serving at Catholic altars — is virtually certain to come up for serious discussion there.
FIRST IMAGE: Feature art in “WHAT'S THE PROBLEM WITH WOMEN IN THE PULPIT?” article at Leading the Way website.