Report of the Committee on Women in Church Office

The Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s committee on women in church office, erected by the 51st General Assembly in 1984, submitted this report to the 55th General Assembly in 1988. Working from the regulative principle, the majority (Ivan Davis, Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Robert D. Knudsen, and chairman Gregory E. Reynolds) concludes that ordination to the diaconate confers authority in the church, so 1 Timothy 2:12 closes the office to women, while sessions should still make greater use of women’s gifts, even recognizing some women as unordained assistants to the diaconate.

Along the way the report surveys deaconesses from Pliny’s letter and the Didascalia through Calvin’s Geneva to the Synod of Middelburg.

Robert Strimple’s minority report reaches the opposite conclusion, arguing that the deacon exercises delegated authority under the elders, and an appendix locates the whole debate in these rival conceptions of diaconal authority. The Assembly sent the report to sessions for study; like all OPC study reports, it carries no constitutional force.