The PCA-to-EPC Pipeline
(Actually more like a dripping little tube)
The minutes from last year’s PCA General Assembly reveal that this sentence, written a year ago, still holds up:
“The data suggests that when PCA ministers leave, they go left.”
Well, mostly to more egalitarian/less doctrinally strict denominations, to be fair. The EPC remains a popular destination for PCA ministers seeking greener denominational pastures:
It should be noted that very few of the PCA’s approximately 5,300 ministers transfer to other denominations; but, when they do, and why they do, it’s interesting to consider. For 2023, ten “lateral” moves to like-minded NAPARC denominations (ARP, OPC, KAPC, RCUS) were reported.1 Fifteen transfers were to mainline or “midline” denominations, including the PCUSA(!), CRC, ECO, and the EPC. All are at least more egalitarian (having female officers) than the PCA, although some EPC churches may hold nearly identical doctrinal convictions to the PCA.
Egalitarianism (of some type or degree) remains a live issue in the PCA, and it won’t go away anytime soon due to the cultural contexts in which many PCA churches exist and to the differing convictions regarding women and the office of deacon, which were on display at last year’s assembly. More than 100 commissioners requested their “no” votes on the ratification of an amendment regarding titles of ordained office, and more than 200 signed a protest related to the passage of the same amendment.
This was the offending amendment, now part of the BCO and binding church law:
SIDE QUESTION: Should presbyteries dismiss ministers who want to join denominations like the PCUSA or CREC? BCO 38-3b suggests that they should not:
When a member or minister of the Presbyterian Church in America shall attempt to withdraw from the communion of this branch of the visible Church by affiliating with a body judged by the court of original jurisdiction as failing to maintain the Word and Sacraments in their fundamental integrity (BCO 2-2), that member or minister shall be warned of his danger, and if he persists, his name shall be erased from the roll, thereby, so far as the Presbyterian Church in America is concerned, he is deemed no longer to be a member in any body which rightly maintains the Word and Sacraments in their fundamental integrity, and if an officer, thereby withdrawing from him all authority to exercise his office as derived from this Church. When so acting the court shall make full record of the matter and shall notify the offender of its action.
Dismissal to a given denomination is a sort of commendation that body’s doctrine and practice—a commendation that certain churches do not deserve.
Here is last year’s article on ministerial transfer trends:
Leaking to the left
When PCA ministers leave for other denominations, where do they go? Our friend Zack Groff has tracked this and takes a slightly different approach in his analysis than do we. He uses more peaceful/less peaceful to describe the receiving denominations. We will use the flawed
It should be said that the reporting of ministerial transfers is often lagging and incomplete.
Thanks for the article. Two thoughts. My presbytery lost three ministers (and their churches) to the ACNA over the last few years. Shortly after their departure, the bishop "reassigned" two of the previous PCA ministers to non-pastoral positions. So, the grass is not always greener, especially if it's an Anglican lawn. Changing subjects, I've never signed a protest at GA, but as long as GA Commissioners who sign a protest "submit to their brethren" on the matter against which they protested, perhaps they should be commended for upholding that promise, rather than disparaged. Men often "protest" for different reasons.