TE Brad Allision, Moderator of Evangel Presbytery at their meeting last week, provided the following details of the actions of the Presbytery in dealing with the two overtures speaking to the issue of the role of women.

Two overtures addressing language in BCO 9-7 were considered by Evangel Presbytery at its meeting on February 9 in Birmingham.

The first overture, from the Session of Mt. Calvary Presbyterian Church in Pinson, Alabama, sought to amend BCO 9-7 by adding the following language at the end of that section: “These assistants to the deacons shall not be referred to as deacons or deaconesses, nor are they to be elected by the congregation nor formally commissioned, ordained, or installed as though they were office bearers in the church.” This overture, in every respect, was identical to Overture 2 from Central Carolina Presbytery. The Bills and Overtures committee of Presbytery recommended that it not be approved by Presbytery. Among other issues, they objected to the word “pretext” in the final “Whereas” of the overture, considering it to be an uncharitable word accusing those who commission deaconesses of saying one thing and doing another. When the vote was taken, a counted vote was not needed. A show of hands was all that was required to defeat the overture. I would estimate that those voting not to approve the overture were about 80-90% of those voting.

The second overture came from RE Tom Leopard, a member of Briarwood Presbyterian Church. It sought to amend BCO 9-7 with the addition of this sentence at the end: “These individuals who assist the deacons, selected by means determined by each Session, are not subjects for ordination.” A motion was made and defeated to amend this sentence with the addition of these words at its end: “or to be considered as an officer in the church.” Debate was not lengthy. Several commissioners pointed out that the additional language of the overture made no substantive changes to current procedures. The motion to approve the overture passed easily, again with no counted vote required. The Moderator estimates that about 90% of those voting approved the overture.

Original Aquila Report story follows:
Perhaps foretelling a similar contest at the 2010 General Assembly, Evangel Presbytery met on Tuesday, February 9th and had before it two overtures on the roll of women in diaconal service and clearly preferred one to the other.
First up was an overture presented by the Session of Mt. Calvary Presbyterian Church in Pinson, Alabama. The overture is similar to one already approved by Central Carolina last October (click here for story)

The action requested by this Overture was as follows:

“These assistants to the deacons shall not be referred to as deacons or deaconesses, nor are they to be elected by the congregation nor formally commissioned, ordained, or installed as though they were office bearers in the church.”

With the primary reason given as the fact that the overture was already before the Assembly and therefore did not need to be sent again, the Presbytery declined to approve it.

(As an aside, this same Central Carolina overture was being presented that same morning at a meeting of Providence Presbytery, the ‘daughter’ of Evangel in the North Alabama area. It was overwhelmingly declined by Providence.)

In a separate action at the Evangel Presbytery meeting, RE Tom Leopard of the Briarwood Church in Birmingham proposed a different overture (full text below). The action request by this new Overture is as follows:

“These individuals who assist the deacons, selected by means determined by each Session, are not subjects for ordination.”

The language of the Wheras list included in the Evangel overture explains the biblical evidence for the appearances of females who very well could have been deaconesses, for the prior work of an RPCES study committee that concluded that women could be unordained deaconesses, and for the tradition of commissioning lay workers in the PCA. This overture was approved to be sent to the General Assembly by an approximate 2-1 vote.

Thus it is clear that the two overtures are different on two separate issues:

Central Carolina = women (and unordained men) may not be referred to as deaconess
Evangel = use of the term deaconess is not denied

Central Carolina = women (and unordained men) may not be commissioned, ordained or installed.
Evangel = women (and unordained men) may not be ordained, but commissioning and installation is not denied.

A third overture, more similar to the Evangel than to the Central Carolina, was introduced recently at Metro Atlanta Presbytery but action was postponed until the next stated meeting. (See story here)

Full Text of the Overture as approved by Evangel Presbytery is as follows:

Proposed Amendment to the PCA Book of Church Order

WHEREAS, the biblical office of elder was instituted by a divine commandment, “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Gather for me seventy men whom you know to be elders of the people and officers over them and bring them to the tent of meeting, and let them take their stand with you. And I will come down and talk with you there. And I will take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you so that you may not bear it yourself along.’” (Numbers 11:16-17) See also 1 Timothy 5:17 and Hebrews 13:7-17; and,

WHEREAS, this plurality of elders was continued in the development of synagogues into the Second Temple Era and into the New Testament; and,

WHEREAS, Scriptures specify that Elders are set apart and necessary for every local church and the broader Church, 1) Acts 14:23: “And when they {Paul and Barnabas} had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.” 2) Titus 1:5: “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you…” (See also Acts 11:30; 13:1; 15:2, 4, 22; 20:17; 1 Timothy 4:14; James 5:14; 1 Peter 5:1-2; and Philippians 1:1); and

WHEREAS, the Presbyterian Church in America Book of Church Order, in obedience to Scripture, therefore, requires a plurality of elders for the particularization of a local church (BCO 5-9) and for the ongoing functioning of a local church (BCO 12-1); and,

WHEREAS, the office of elder is that of spiritual and ecclesiastical governance, “Let the elders who rule well be considered wort4hy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching (1 Timothy 5:17). (See also Acts 20:28; {BCO 12-5}; and,

WHEREAS, the New Testament office of deacon was established, not by the direct revelation of a diving command, but by apostolic prudence, and not in a governing office but as an office of service, Acts 6:2-4: “’It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.’”; and,

WHEREAS, Scripture reveals that only the churches of Philippi (Philippians 1:1), Ephesus (1 Timothy 3:8-13) and Jerusalem (Acts 6:1-6) are specified as having deacons, though Phoebe in the church as Cenchreae was called a deacon by Paul in Romans 16:1: “I commend to you our sister phoebe, a servant {Greek, diakonos} of the church at Cenchreae…”; and,

WHEREAS, the diaconal ministry is that of sympathy and service, not of spiritual and ecclesiastical governance, and any authority that may be attached to the office of deacon is a derivative authority, with plurality of elders serving as the final authority in a local church (BCO 9-1; 9-2; 9-6); and,

WHEREAS, though the office of deacon is “ordinary and perpetual,) (BCO 9-1) it is not one that is an absolute necessity for the particularization (BCO 5-10) or ongoing ministry (BCO 9-2) of a local church; and,

WHEREAS, in the PCA, individuals at all levels of the church, including missionaries, vacation Bible school workers, Sunday school teachers, Women in the Church officers, and countless other church workers (both men and women) have been commissioned throughout the entire history of the PCA1 and the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod; and,

WHEREAS, upon completion of Joining and Receiving (J & R), the RPCES practice of commissioning deaconesses was carried over to the PCA, (Minutes of the Ninth General Assembly), PCA, 1981, P.305); and,

WHEREAS, the RPCES had conducted a detailed study of the issue of deaconesses during the period 1974-8 and adopted the following resolution:

“Resolved: that in light of the action of the 155th General Synod, we do not recommend allowing each particular church within the denomination to determine whether its diaconate shall include men as well as women, nor that they be allowed to ordain a woman as a deacon. We also remind churches that they are free to elect Spirit filled women as deaconesses and to set them apart by prayer (156th General Synod Minutes of the RPCES, 1978, pp 133-134). (A copy of the full study report is attached); and,

WHEREAS, in connection with J & R, the PCA acknowledged the practices of denominations so received by stating, “In receiving these denominations, the Presbyterian Church in America recognizes the history of the respective denominations as part of her total history and receives their historical documents as valuable and significant material which will be used in the perfecting of the Church (Minutes of the Ninth General Assembly, PCA, 1982, p. 305); and,

WHEREAS, the PCA Book of Church Order (since it First Edition, published in 1975, and continuing to the present in the Sixth Edition) authorized its church Sessions to appoint “godly men and women of the congregation to assist the deacons in caring for the sick, the widows, the orphans, the prisoners, and others who may be in any distress or need.” (Emphasis added.)

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Evangel Presbytery hereby overtures the 38th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America to amend Book of Church Order 9-7 to include the following sentence to be placed at the end of the section:

These individuals who assist the deacons, selected by means determined by each Session, are not subjects for ordination.”

The entire section 9-7, therefore, would read:

“9-7 It is often expedient that the Session of a church should select and appoint godly men and women of the congregation to assist the deacons in caring for the sick, the widows, the orphans, the prisoners, and others who may be in any distress or need. These individuals who assist the deacons, selected by means determined by each Session, are not subjects for ordination.”
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1 The minutes of the First General Assembly, 1973, item 1-56, p. 37 report that the Assembly commissioned six missionaries {two were ministers, one was a Ruling Elder, and three were women} at a worship service on December 5, 1973.