(Tim) Along with several others, Ruling Elder Brian Eschen of
Northern California (NorCal) Presbytery submitted a complaint which was one of two filed against the
recent action of his presbytery approving unordained male deacons serving alongside female deacons, without
sexual distinction.
The proposal adopted by NorCal Presbytery is the same proposal recently adopted by Metro NY and Metro Atlanta (Perimeter) Presbyteries.
In response to another complaint filed against Metro NY Presbytery, last week the presbytery rescinded the proposal, but granted only one of five amends. It may be further amends will be granted as time passes, but the well-established practice within the presbytery's bounds of non-conformity to Scripture and the PCA's Constitution leave some doubtful any further amends will be granted without formal discipline applied from the national level of the denomination.
After voting down an overture on woman deacons that would have put the presbytery on record as submitting to the PCA's Constitution and Scripture, two other proposals were voted on, with the pro-woman deacon proposal adopted by NCal and Metro NY getting 19 votes and another proposal presented to the presbytery by Steve Smallman and Phil Ryken that supports Tenth's current practice of women deaconesses getting 23.
The Ryken/Smallman proposal was acted on with the understanding that Steve and Phil would come back to the Presbytery's May stated meeting with their proposal perfected for final action. Then, the matter was tabled.
So New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and San Francisco continue to be the geographical centers of egalitarian feminist practices and initiatives within the PCA related to the removal of sexual distinctions in the office of deacon. Men from these presbyteries worked together toward the adoption of the same document (although there were some regional differences in their approach).
Although some would cavil at this, the rejection of the Book of Church Order at the heart of this proposal and the presbyteries' recent actions seems self-evident and would appear only to be remediable by changes to the BCO. It's also clear that, at the present time, the main thrust of these co-belligerents is not seeking redress at the national level. Rather, for the time being they appear to be turning aside from changing the Book of Church Order nationally or denominationally.
Their proposal and work seem to be moving toward a local option strategy similar to the strategy adopted by the pro-sodomy lobby of the PC(USA)...
For decades, attempts of every variety were made to get the PC(USA) General Assembly to approve changes to the PC(USA) Book of Church Order to the end that the ordination of sodomites to church office would be legal, nationally. Realizing the sympathy for congregational and presbytery autonomy within our cultural ethos here in America, after decades of failure to legitimate the practice on the national level, the sodomy lobby changed their tack and began pushing the PC(USA) General Assembly to adopt policies returning the question to the presbyteries for their individual decisions.
Since then, each presbytery has done that which is right in its own eyes. This new agreement within the PC(USA) is referred to as "the local option."
The PCA faces a similar quandary as pressures mount over the removal of sexual distinctions from the office of Deacon. Shall the denomination face down San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York, and prestigious churches within their bounds? Or shall we allow for the sort of different-strokes-for-different-folks brand of Presbyterian polity--a sort of states' rights sensibility, if you will--to determine how to handle woman deacons on the local level, not pushing for any accountability, nationally?
Some might argue for a local option strategy in the PCA concerning woman deacons as follows:
As the Stated Clerk of the PCA, Roy Taylor, has pointed out the PCA is a non-hierarchical brand of Presbyterian polity compared to the hierarchical polity of the PC(USA), So if the local option of presbytery autononomy has worked well in resolving the debate over sodomy in hierarchical Presbyterianism, it would seem wise for us to consider following the same path within the PCA. After all, our southern denomination was founded with a commitment to reject hierarchical Presbyterianism.
Let San Francisico, Philadelphia, Atlanta, and New York do as they wish. It's no business of ours. If that's what works in their modern, urban, egalitarian context, leave them be. At the present, none of them seem to be pushing for woman pastors and elders, and the ones who were have left. These folks still with us haven't gone over to the dark side of radical feminism. They've been doing this for a long time, so leave them be. (Well, actually, they've only recently stopped ordaining their male deacons, but other than that, they've been doing this for a long time.)
If the Standing Judicial Commission of General Assembly, or General Assembly itself, pushes them too hard, they'll bolt--just like Knoxville's Cedar Springs. Who wants that? Who wants Randy Pope leaving the PCA? Or Phil Ryken? Or Tim Keller?
The positions represented by these men's churches are not uniform, and it would be surprising if they all departed the PCA were the Standing Judicial Commission and General Assembly to force their hand in the matter. Still, anyone watching knows this is brinkmanship and it's time for Mom or Dad to step in and bring order back to the home. Either that, or cede local rule, autonomy to San Francisco, Philadelphia, Atlanta, New York, and their environs.
Having served in the PC(USA) until 1992 and seen there the constant counsel of appeasement pushed by tall-steeple evangelical churches and their high-profile pastors, my own conviction is that the price of keeping these churches and the presbyteries they influence in the denomination is way too steep if local option or autonomy is the end result within our polity.
Consider how simple it would be for these pastors, churches, and presbyteries to submit to Scripture and the Book of Order they've vowed to uphold. Under Scripture and our Book of Church Order, they're already freely permitted to have women serving in the diaconate. All they need do is:
1. Not ordain the women serving in a diaconal function, but ordain their male deacons.
2. Never refer to the men and women serving in a diaconal function without distinguishing the men who are officers from the women who are not.
3. Regularly clarify the relationship between the men who are officers and the women who are not by showing that the women serving in a diaconal function are subordinate to those officers ordained as Deacons.
4. Regularly teach and preach and write in such a way as to make clear that we in the PCA are uniquely qualified to bring the Gospel to our modern urban egalitarian culture because we conscientiously witness against egalitarian feminism as opportunities present themselves.
5. Finally, feature prominently on their web sites and in their brochures and on the platform during worship and during assimilation sessions and congregational meetings and neighborhood cell groups and WIC meetings and pastoral counselling sessions and officer training workshops and banners and bulletin boards in the hallways--everywhere possible--teaching that the women of Redeemer, Tenth, and Perimeter do not teach or exercise authority over men, but are silent, because Adam was created first, then Eve. And make clear this is their joyful obedience to the Lord.
Really, it's so simple when the universality of the Creation Order is embraced by men and women of faith--men and women of apostolic, Biblical, Christian faith, that is.
Polity is clarified and embraced. Marriages are healed. Husbands and wives exist in harmony. Children grow to maturity in the fertile black soil of their parents' love. General Assemblies have less work to do. Bloggers get a good night's sleep. The Word of God is not dishonored. And day by day, people are being saved who know their sin, but more the repentance from that sin given them by the Holy Spirit as they are called to flee the wickedness of egalitarian feminism, as they're taught not to use gender-neutered Bibles, as it's explained to them why the symbolism of men who are officers serving the Lord's Supper is so precious to men and women of biblical faith.
But even if none of these reasons meant anything to us, we could choose to do it all simply "because of the angels."
