Within the major church denominations, egalitarian heresy is the most pervasive debate, affecting the SBC, PCA, ACNA, and even the OPC. While each of these denominations has its other issues, 2024 seems to be the year where this debate is the biggest within the church, despite being settled so clearly in Scripture.
Nevertheless, even the Orthodox Presbyterian Church has this issue. Aimee Byrd’s former church, New Hope OPC located in Frederick, MD, wrote a position paper regarding the ability of women to teach mixed-gender adult Sunday school classes, an issue that was complained about through the formal OPC channels, eventually making its way into their General Assembly business meeting.
While the OPC does not broadcast their General Assembly, they do post their minutes online. These are included in the Monday meeting minutes between the afternoon and evening sessions:
Complaint 4 next came before the Assembly. This is an appeal of a complaint by a member against his session regarding its position paper entitled “Can a Woman Teach a Mixed Sunday School Class?” that was sent to the congregation. This study paper set forth the session’s view on women, as part of the general office of believer, being biblically permitted to teach a mixed class of adult men and women in settings outside of divine worship (like Sunday School and other Christian educational opportunities). The paper sees prohibitions in 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2 relating to authoritative office.
The complainant and representatives of the session presented their positions and entertained questions from the floor. The complainant drew distinctions between peer teaching in a one-on-one context as opposed to authoritative teacher-group teaching.
The issue in question is one that is common, where churches might have women lead Sunday school classes for the general congregation that is not exclusive towards women, which could easily be construed as teaching, as prohibited in Scripture. The debate is not in reference to children.
The Assembly returned to the matter of Complaint 4. The advisory committee did not recommend that the General Assembly sustain the complaint on the following grounds: “The complaint did not convince a majority of the committee that [the session] is not entitled to hold its exegetical conclusions on this matter.”
The Committee recommended against sustaining the complaint by sheer inability to form a majority or was otherwise deadlocked.
The Assembly sustained Complaint 4.
The following amends were approved: “1. That the session retract this position paper. 2. That the session commit to allowing only men to teach mixed adult Bible studies or Sunday School classes that involve teaching Scripture. 3. That the session notify the congregation of the above actions.”
The General Assembly not only sustained the complaint, they amended the complaint to retract the paper and affirmed orthodoxy. The OPC General Assembly did its job in sustaining the complaint and sending a message to the liberals in the denomination. They succeeded where the platform failed.
As a side note, the General Assembly did deny Michael Spangler’s complaint, as supported by the platform. While this is the expected outcome, this year’s OPC General Assembly was not a complete loss.