Greenville Seminary President Joseph Pipa Jr. lodged a formal protest in June against the decision of the Presbyterian Church in America to appoint a committee to study the role of women in church ministries.
The study committee was approved by the 44th General Assembly of the PCA in Mobile, Ala., against the recommendation of an oversight Committee of Commissioners which reviewed a proposal from the denomination's Cooperative Ministries Committee. The Committee of Commissioners, voting 31-7 against the CMC proposal, argued that the issue had already been thoroughly studied and that the proposal should have come to the Assembly by different means. It also objected to some of the areas the proposal calls on the new committee to study.
The Pipa protest reads as follows:
We, the undersigned, humbly protest the establishment of a committee to study the issue of woman serving in the ministry of the church based on the following grounds:
• The committee having women as well as men [is] contrary to 1 Tim. 2:12-13.
• The committee is to reflect the diversity of opinion in the denomination with no apparent respect to Scriptural or Confessional parameters.
• It appears, with the suggestion of a pastoral letter, that there is a goal already in mind prior to the study committee being formed.
• Hebrews 6:1-2 states that the laying on of hands (ordination) has been established and further study hinders the progress of the gospel.
Visit Dr. Pipa's web site for more on the protest.
