Pilgrim
Puritanboard Commissioner
Nice wrap up, Chris, particularly for one outside the PCA and Presbyterianism. I took the liberty of tweaking one of your dates.
Thanks. I was too lazy to look up the dates on the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (not today's EPC) and the RPCES. I learned that history when I was in Presbyterian circles a few years ago. It was mainly gleaned from a couple of longtime pastors (both of which have served in a relatively large number of Pres/Ref denoms,) John Muether and others. I've occasionally delved into the PCA Historical sites as well, which are very helpful.
I have a B.A. in history so I seem to continue to gravitate toward history. Maybe I have "missed my calling" and should have gone into church history? Well, I suppose it's never too late.
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Both OPC and PCA are committed to God's Word and the blessed gospel of Grace. On the local level, go where you hear the gospel for your life the clearest. On the denom level, hard for a small church to be comfortable in a much bigger one. The RPCES gave its Covenant seminary to the PCA and its Francis Schaeffer outlook. For me the bigger story right now are the 140 congregations finally leaving the PCUSA and not feeling at home in either, but only in the EPC. How can we send a welcome to women without ordaining them? DCD
This is a bit of a bunny trail, but I know that a good many complementarians in the EPC feel some angst about this large influx of egalitarians and female officers into their denomination, although most of them are thankful for the number of churches that have left the PCUSA.
Of course the EPC has always allowed for latitude on the issue, but in many respects it's been on paper only. My understanding is that prior the establishment of the New Wineskins Presbytery for the former PCUSA churches, there have only ever been a small number of female TE's and a great many churches had a policy against female RE's as well. I believe at least two Presbyterys forbid women elders altogether, if not all women officers. If and when the transitional New Wineskins Presbytery is dissolved and the former PCUSA churches become normalized (for lack of a better word) and become members of the various regional presbyteries if that is what they want to do (assuming they are approved) if the envelope starts getting pushed with female elders, I think we'll likely see a number of more conservative EPC congregations looking to move elsewhere. Maybe to the PCA or ARP. Some of them are at least mildly charismatic so I don't know how that would play in those denominations.