Christ, as her King and Head, has given officers to His Church; it is not for us, therefore, to add to them. Whether we call those new church offices shepherdess, deaconess, pastoress or any other pretended title, they have no legitimacy. So indeed, the BCO doesn’t explicitly prohibit churches from electing and installing women to the office of deaconess or shepherdess. But it doesn’t need to, since the BCO never positively recognizes such imaginary offices within our polity.

In the Summer of 1864, Jubal Early led the Second Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia in a bold and daring attack on Washington, D.C. The attack on the city was not because the Southern Armies had repelled the Invaders from their homes, but precisely the opposite. It was an attempt to relieve pressure on the beleaguered South – on the farms in the Shenandoah Valley and the Army at Petersburg – by making a raid where it was least expected.

Early’s raid on Washington came not from a position of strength, but was a last gasp of a nation whose ability to wage war was rapidly being exhausted. There were hopes Early could capture supplies, liberate prisoners to replenish the Army, and even attack the White House. It was hoped a successful raid would bring European support.

Early’s raid did meet with initial tactical victories at Lynchburg and Monocacy. Panic spread in Washington as the Southerners approached. But Early was decisively halted at the Battle of Fort Stevens. The Southern force would never come closer than three miles to their objective.

Early’s raid was an attempt to project strength. Despite initially creating a mild panic, it quickly became apparent the South lacked the resources to effect its designs.

Attempts to Reshape the PCA

At least since 2010, there have been attempts by the progressive wing of the PCA to narrow the PCA’s complementarian and confessional principles. I’ve outlined some of these efforts as related to the 2010 Strategic Plan. The goals included things like leadership positions for women, safe spaces for discussion of innovative theology, and loosening of ties with confessionally Reformed communions.

Recently, some voices outside the PCA have raised awareness regarding the practice of a small number of rather large PCA churches to have women serving as deacons, deaconesses, and “shepherdesses.”

Despite some implementation of the Strategic Plan and the presence of deaconesses and shepherdesses at local congregations, since 2019 the General Assembly has been reversing the goals of the Strategic Plan and strengthening the communion’s commitment to historic Presbyterian theology and polity (as noted here).

The high-water mark of the Strategic Plan came in 2018, when Tennessee Valley Presbytery submitted an overture to place women and unordained men on the committees and boards of the PCA General Assembly.

Holding Firm as Confessional Presbyterians

Submitting an overture is not an indication of the health or trajectory of the denomination as a whole. The 2018 Assembly decisively rejected Tennessee Valley Presbytery’s misguided overture.

Since that time, the PCA General Assembly has only increased her commitment to historic Presbyterianism and the role of the Assembly as a deliberative, reviewing Church Court rather than simply rubber stamping permanent committee work.

Here is a sampling:

• 2019 the Assembly commended the Nashville Statement
• 2021 the Assembly required MTW to change its policy to restrict positions of “line authority” to ordained elders
• 2021 the Assembly affirmed the right of a Presbytery to prohibit the teaching of deviant theological views
• 2022 the Assembly withdrew from the National Association of Evangelicals
• 2023 the Assembly rejected RUF’s proposed affiliation agreement
• 2023 the Assembly required Covenant Seminary to provide student data
• 2023 the Assembly strengthened the requirement for church officers to demonstrate chastity in their character, convictions, an conduct, mirroring the language of the Larger Catechism
• 2024 the Assembly prohibited awarding the titles Pastor, Elder, and Deacon to unordained persons; this was despite the pleas of a couple pastors who wanted to continue to have women deacons in the congregations they serve.
• 2025 the Assembly adopted all recommendations from the Review of Presbytery Records Committee, requiring Presbyteries to give account for a number of potential constitutional violations (see the 2025 preview for a breakdown)

A Final Attempt of Progressive Feminism in the PCA?

Since receiving the RPCES in 1982, the PCA has had a more prominent New School streak, which brought with it a looser approach to confessional subscription. Despite that, the RPCES consistently rejected women as deacons (ordained or not). But as Jared Nelson notes, “The RPCES General Synod acknowledged and affirmed that local RPCES congregations could have unordained deaconesses.”

But when the RPCES was absorbed by the PCA, there was no provision made for official recognition of deaconesses. In the 45 years, since the RPCES joined the PCA, a relatively small number of congregations have continued to have deaconesses and an even smaller number have tried to create women deacons.

Women deacons have never been permitted in the PCA, which the 2024 Assembly made abundantly clear.

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