Our First Date with the EPC

The session (governing board) of the congregation I serve invited a representative from the Evangelical Presbyterian Church to inform them about that denomination. They had in view the question of compatibility. Does the mission and vision of the congregation fit well with the mission and vision of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church? Is there any aspect of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church that is so utterly offensive to them that they could not abide by a relationship with that denomination? There were apparently only one or two policies of the EPC that might be a deal breaker for some of the members. (How many that would be in not yet clear.)

The first is the place of women in the life of the congregation. We learned that the question of whether or not to ordain women elders to serve on the local session is left to every congregation to decide. Many, if not most congregations, have decided to have women on the session. Out of the fifteen or so presbyteries only two presbyteries have a policy not to accept women ministers as members of the presbytery. The Presbytery of the Central South, which is the one this congregation would join, is one of the two presbyteries who do not allow women ministers. We learned two interesting facts. One is that the last time this policy was reconsidered the vote to change it failed by only one or two votes. Secondly, should an individual congregation desire to call a woman pastor, they have the option of switching presbyteries. In such a case, they would join the closest presbytery where women are permitted to serve as pastors.

The second issue turned on the matter of church discipline in general and divorce in particular. In all fairness, the questioner seemed to hold the unwarranted view that a session had no pastoral interests in the lives of married couples in their congregation. Speaking on the notion of discipline the EPC representative made it clear that discipline is wrongly thought of as punitive when it is clearly pastoral and nurturing. His response could not have been more gentle or kindhearted. Here is the pertinent wording of their policy. It appears as one of its opening set of statements. http://www.epc.org/mediafiles/epc-divorceremarriage-position-paper.pdf

While God intends the marriage covenant should never be broken, it is broken by the death of either partner, or in the case of adultery or such willful desertion as can no way be remedied by the Church or civil magistrates. Such marital unfaithfulness is the grounds for a biblical divorce. God's call is to love and to forgive.

Divorce is not necessitated in any event and Sessions should exhort couples to considering such a step to actively pursue reconciliation

To “actively pursue reconciliation” in most cases is wise counsel. The error of this statement is that it is unqualified and absent of any nuance.  Here are a couple redeeming paragraphs that follow these two poorly placed and poorly crafted statements. These appear in the next section of the statement.

. . . the weaknesses of one or both partners may lead to gross and persistent denial of the marriage vows; yet only in cases of extreme unfaithfulness (physical or spiritual), unfaithfulness for which there is no repentance and which is beyond remedy, should separation or divorce be considered. Such separation or divorce is accepted as permissible only because of the failure of one or both of the partners, and does not lessen in any way the divine intention for indissoluble union. The remarriage of divorced persons may be sanctioned by the Church in keeping with the redemptive gospel of Christ, when sufficient penitence for sin and failure is evident, and a firm purpose of and endeavor after Christian marriage is manifested.

In questioning some folks in the EPC I learned that the intention of the phrase “does not necessitate” is that a Christian wife, for example, is not required to divorce her unfaithful husband but is justified if she chooses to. The couple in most circumstances are morally obliged seek a resolution and reconcile.

Next is a representative from the PC(USA) who is given the task of persuading the congregation to remain members of that body.