PCA answers dissent that sought approval of female deacons

The Presbyterian Church in America on Wednesday released a formal answer to several PCA pastors’ dissent over the issue of female deacons. The dissent came after the majority of delegates to the denomination’s General Assembly this summer voted against a proposal that would have allowed women to hold the office. An official PCA committee had urged delegates to vote against the proposal.

The PCA allows women to be appointed to assist deacons in their duties, but it exclusively ordains men to the office. Despite the denomination’s official position, many of its churches list female deaconesses on their websites, according to pastor Sean McGowan. A 2025 independent review by PCA member Paul Biegler found that at least 88 churches did so.

How did the denomination respond? A group of five PCA pastors, most of whom are presidents of Reformed theological seminaries, authored the denomination’s response to the dissent. The pastors argued that the dissenters wrongly interpreted some words and phrases in the Scriptures they cited. For instance, they stated that the Greek word diakonos, used in Romans 16 to refer to a woman named Phoebe, means simply “servant” in the majority of times it appears in the New Testament. Thus, the text doesn’t necessarily imply she was a deacon.

The pastors also said that the PCA relied on positive Biblical commands regarding church offices, rather than the lack of a Biblical prohibition.

What was the position of the dissenters? Four PCA pastors argued for their belief that the proper interpretation of Biblical passages in Romans 16 and 1 Timothy 3 left room for the ordination of female deacons. Some regions of the church have had female deacons for centuries, and many conservative Reformed teachers also have agreed that female deacons were a possibility, the pastors wrote. The Westminster Confession and accompanying expressions of foundational Presbyterian doctrine were also silent on the sex of deacons, they said.

The dissenters also mentioned that nine different presbyteries, or regional governing bodies, in the denomination submitted similar proposals to allow female deacons. The different proposals were consolidated into one voted on at the General Assembly. But the number of regional proposals showed that the issue wasn’t settled within the PCA, they said.

Dig deeper: Read my report on the PCA’s recent call for a day of fasting and prayer.