Jason Cunningham

The 36th overture for consideration by the 53rd #PCAGA has been received. The overture comes from Catawba Valley Presbytery and proposes to "Add BCO 8-11 and 9-8 Regarding the Exercise of the Duties and Authority of Elder and Deacon." pcaga.org/wp-content/upl…

1/ Turns out that the #SavethePCA cause was ahead of the curve.... Here is the first of many overtures that the progressives in the PCA are working on to move forward their Function Female Officers goals... This overture, which just passed Metro Atlanta Presbytery of the PCA by roughly a 70–30 margin, is framed as a call for “flexibility” on the diaconate because, they claim, Scripture gives us “very little data” about the office. On paper, it insists it is not revisiting ordination or church office. In practice, it rewrites the BCO to allow Sessions to label women “deacons,” place them in the diaconate, and normalize a mixed-sex diaconate across the PCA. The argument is built on three claims: (1) the Bible is unclear about deacons, (2) the Westminster Standards don’t define the office, and (3) Christian liberty therefore requires institutional diversity. That framing directly contradicts the assumptions and practice of the Westminster divines, who treated the diaconate as a real church office tied to qualified men, even if not as heavily elaborated as the eldership. What it recommends It amends the BCO so that Sessions may choose between: • only ordained male deacons, • male deacons plus women called “deacons,” or • a fully unordained diaconate of men and women called “deacons.” Once adopted, the PCA constitutionally enshrines women in a titled diaconal office, even while verbally denying they are “officers.” This is not a neutral “local option” clean-up. It is a strategic redefinition of the diaconate that embeds women into an office category the church has historically reserved for men. Whatever the stated assurances, this is exactly how male-only offices get eroded: start with deacons, normalize the language, shift expectations, then move upstream. This is about female ordination.