The PCA’s 38th General Assembly answered Overture 7, in the affirmative today. Overture 7 was submitted by Evangel Presbytery to “amend (BCO) 9-7 to specify that persons who assist deacons may not be ordained.”

By answering this overture in the affirmative, the General Assembly added the following language to the Book of Church Order (BCO) 9-7: “These assistants to the deacons are not officers of the church (BCO 7-2), and, as such, are not subjects for ordination (BCO 17).” This language refers to an existing passage in BCO 9-7 that “allows sessions to appoint godly women to assist the male diaconate in mercy ministry.”

In the grounds for its decision, the Overtures Committee wrote: “There was general consensus on the Overtures Committee that we are committed to two ordained offices, elder and deacon, to be held by men only. … The opinion was generally expressed that we should neither create new terminology nor forbid terminology presently in use in many churches, such as ‘deacon’s assistant,’ ‘deaconess,’ or ‘kownsa’ (in use in the Korean churches), as long as it is made explicit that none of these terms should be interpreted as corresponding to a church office in the sense of BCO 7-2.”

The vote passed by a wide margin.

Examining Women’s Roles

In both 2008 and 2009, the PCA’s General Assembly voted in the negative against overtures requesting that a study committee be formed to study the biblical evidence concerning the role of women in mercy ministries/diaconal ministry.

Seven of the 28 overtures submitted to this year’s General Assembly concerned women’s roles in diaconal ministry.  (Six of those were answered with respect to Overture 7.)

Clearly, the role of women in the church—and specifically the role of women in diaconal ministry—continues to be a topic of debate within the denomination, revealing a variety of opinion. But there are those who see encouraging signs within the dialogue surrounding this issue.

“The fact that there was no minority report [coming out of the Overtures Committee] was significant,” said Richard Phillips, a member of the Overtures Committee who serves as senior pastor of Second Presbyterian Church of Greenville, S.C. “I saw people with different opinions working together to find language that would be acceptable while being biblically faithful.”

Though the overture did not provide a definitive statement on the overall issue of women’s roles in the church, Phillips said the debate on Overture 7 unfolded “amicably, with a step toward biblical compromise.” Further, he found it significant that “members of both camps voted together—that hasn’t happened in the past.”