Red Flag and Red Line in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Critics say new draft report opens the door to ordination of people with same-sex attraction.
A group of leaders within the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) are concerned about the direction of the denomination, specifically regarding homosexuality and ordination.
Red flag photo by Girl with red hat / Unsplash
At the 44th General Assembly in June 2024, the moderator appointed an Ad Interim Committee on Same-Sex Attraction and Ordination Standards.
“This committee was *not* formed to study the permissibility of homosexuality or to reassess the EPC’s position on the topic,” the website for the committee states. “Rather, the committee was formed to address how the EPC should consider the expectations for penitence and sanctification of someone who experiences ongoing same-sex attraction but remains committed to the historic and orthodox biblical sexual ethic, and then to address in what circumstances such a person would be qualified for ordained office in the EPC.”
Members of the Presbyterian Plumb Line, a group of leaders within the EPC that “seek to lead [the] denomination toward a more biblical expression of our Presbyterian conviction,” are concerned about the direction the committee’s work has taken with regard to ordination.
They have held two zoom calls for those interested in “What’s at Stake in the EPC,” explaining their concerns and suggesting actions for church elder boards and presbyteries to take.
The Plumb Line editors describe the committee’s draft report as “cloudy” and leaving “wiggle room” for presbyteries to ordain a person who describes themselves as same-sex attracted but celibate.
The report has not been adopted and could still be revised before the General Assembly in 2026.
Specifically, the Plumb Line and its supporters cite the committee’s pastoral letter giving guidance to sessions and presbyteries about the ordination of persons who describe themselves as same-sex attracted.
“If candidates for office have disclosed that they experience SSA, the examining elders must first confirm that the candidates have a long record of living chaste sexual lives in their identity, behavior, desires, and attitudes,” the letter advises. It then offers a series of questions for the candidate about his or her identity in Christ as a new creation and about how he or she would counsel those who may struggle with same-sex attraction.
The Plumb Line and other critics say the present tense form of experiencing SSA in the pastoral letter raises a red flag because it acknowledges that someone who is currently struggling with homosexual temptation could be a candidate for ordination.
The critics have authored a “Red Line Statement” that has garnered over a hundred signatures.
“[N]either a person who self-identifies as a ‘gay Christian,’ nor one who continues to experience ongoing same-sex attraction—regardless of how they label it—should be considered a qualified candidate for ordination in the EPC,” reads the Red Line Statement.
Long-time EPC Pastor Nate Atwood told MinistryWatch he is “heartsick” over the way it appears the committee’s decision is going.
He believes the present-tense form of experiencing same-sex attraction “opens the door to ordination” and is “foreign to an orthodox, faithful reading of scripture.”
“If someone is sexually confused, that’s a problem for ordination,” Atwood said.
He is also concerned that, while the pastoral letter is guidance and not constitutional, it will create division within the denomination and set up “infighting.”
Jeffrey Jeremiah, who was the stated clerk of the EPC from 2006 to 2021, sent a letter to sessions throughout the denomination, asking them to join the movement against adoption of the committee’s report as it presently stands.
“We who serve Jesus Christ in the EPC find ourselves in a defining moment. Now is the time to stand up and be counted,” Jeremiah wrote, asking that church elders sign the Red Line Statement, pray for the Lord’s protection of the EPC, and pass a constitutional amendment to be presented at next year’s General Assembly that clearly states that a person who identifies as same-sex attracted is disqualified from office in the EPC.
The Office of the General Assembly apparently has sent correspondence out to EPC mailing lists in reaction to Jeremiah’s letter and emphasizing that the committee’s report is still subject to revision and “won’t be submitted until spring 2026.”
The Plumb Line wrote an article in response to the Office of the General Assembly, pointing out that if elders and presbyteries wait until spring to take action, it will be too late to submit overtures for consideration at the General Assembly meeting in June 2026.
“The truth is that every elder in the EPC has the right to speak on the serious issues facing our denomination, including Jeff Jeremiah,” the Plumbline’s article concludes.
According to the Plumb Line, Greg Johnson, the Presbyterian pastor of Memorial Presbyterian in St. Louis who says he is homosexual but celibate, is the source of the controversy. He left the Presbyterian Church in America in 2022.
Now his church wants to join the EPC. “That has stirred up all kinds of controversy because we’ve got some in the EPC that appear to be very open to bringing him into the EPC, and we’ve got other groups that are absolutely opposed to him coming into the EPC,” Donald Fortson, professor of church history and pastoral theology emeritus at Reformed Theological Seminary and long-time EPC member, told Christianity Today.
Corrected to say Plumb Line is a group of leaders within the EPC, not the PCA.
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