Minority Reports (or, Church Polity)

I'm back from the great state of Texas for the PCA General Assembly. Wow, what an experience!

The "hot topic" last year was Federal Vision theology. This year's was women deacons. Sort of. I've recapped the women/deacon issue for my church leadership team, and reproduced this below. This is just what I understood, after asking about a million questions.

From what I gathered, this was far more about church government than it was about the actual issue of women as deacons. A couple of presbyteries asked the Overtures Committee (the OC... not sure what they actually do, except to review motions that come up through them) if we could have a "study group on the role of women in deaconal ministry." The presbyteries stance was that the Book of Church Order (BCO) was unclear. The BCO says deacons can only be men. (The BCO - all 346 pages of it.)

The presbyteries argued that this didn't clarify how women could participate in deaconal ministries. So, there are presbyteries (like Tim Keller's in New York) that do have women as deaconesses, and some that just don't ordain the position at all, whether male or female, because they see it as a service office and not an authoritative office.

So, the OC was asked to decided whether or not there should be a study commissioned. The OC is comprised of elders from all over, and their vote was split, with the Majority saying "No" to the study and that the BCO was clear that women cannot be deacons. But, when there is a close Minority, the Minority are allowed to issue a report and present it as a substitute to the General Assembly. The Minority Report represented elders on both sides of the issue who felt that the BCO was not clear, as evidenced by the varied practices in the PCA, and that a study group was warranted.

I have to say, I was quite persuaded by the Minority Report, until I realized how little it had to do with the issue, and how much it had to do with church governance and proper protocol. The Minority Report failed in the General Assembly by what looked to me like a very, very slim margin. You can watch the video here. Once the Minority Report failed, the GA also had to vote on the Majority recommendation (to Not have a study group). This passed (also by what looked like a slim margin).

After asking about every elder I knew what the heck happened, someone finally explained to me that everyone knows this will come up again, but the OC Minority Report actually has no authority to change the BCO. Essentially, for the BCO to change, the issue has to be brought up through the discipline of a presbytery to the Standing Judicial Commission. (I think. There might be one other legitimate way to do this... wasn't quite clear on that!) The SJC is the only one who has the authority to change the BCO. So, this will likely come back at next year's GA but through the proper path, and that is why it was voted down this year. Whew.

Somewhat humorous was that when the vote on this issue came up, it was supposed to be "Women's Hour" in the exhibit hall but everyone was in the General Assembly.

Other highlights:

I spent much of the week chatting with "my elders." (I had to stop myself from calling them "the old men" all the time.) They really aren't my elders; they are elders from all over my presbytery. But they are awesome. We ate BBQ at a one-stop-shop gas station. Only with my elders could that be considered cool. The following evening we stepped it up a notch (or 5) and ate at Dakota's steakhouse. I joked that it was the nicest date I'd ever been on. (It was, by far, the best Key Lime pie I've ever had.) They even invited me to the end-of-Assembly traditional Scotch celebration. After working three 16-hour days, unfortunately I had to decline. Next year, I'll save up some energy for that!