Complaint
TE Mark Robinson, et. al. vs. Metropolitan New York Presbytery
(excerpts "Proposed reasoning and opinion" section, with emphasis added)
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The BCO, together with the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechism, form the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church in America. BCO Preface, III— The Constitution Defined. Part I of the BCO, under the heading “Form of Government,” recognizes and provides for, among other things, the offices of the church, and in particular the offices of elder and deacon. The importance of these offices is seen in that, according to the BCO, they are established by Scripture and all of the powers of the Church are administered through them. BCO 1-4 (“The officers of the Church, by whom all its powers are administered, are, according to the Scriptures, teaching and ruling elders and deacons.”).
The BCO does not explicitly state that each church is required to establish a diaconate. In fact, the BCO acknowledges that a church may be unable to constitute a diaconate and therefore provides that the duties of the diaconate devolve upon the ruling elders in such a case. BCO 5- 10; 9-2. However, far from supporting the view that the BCO permits an unordained diaconal body, this direction in the BCO makes clear that the duties incumbent on the office of deacon fall solely within the province of an ordained body. Significantly, the BCO does not make a concession in such cases for the service of the diaconate to devolve upon, for example, other unordained members of the church. Far from such hypotheticals is the present situation; the Presbytery is not suffering from churches without qualified men willing to serve as deacons. The BCO assumes that a church with members willing and qualified to serve on the diaconate will ordain such members to the diaconate. In the words of BCO 17-1, “[t]hose who have been called to office in the Church are to be inducted by the ordination of a court.” The BCO does not allow an unordained diaconate. A coherent and integrated system of diaconal organization is fully provided for in the BCO, with explicit provision made in BCO 9-7 for non-ordained persons to assist the diaconate in its work. The practices occurring within the Presbytery’s jurisdiction and authorized by the Presbytery’s March 13, 2009 resolution do not amount to permissible supplementing of the BCO, but rather a competing system of government.
A view holding that the diaconal provisions of the BCO may be supplemented to allow for the creation of a wholly unordained diaconate is only tenable if the BCO considers the diaconate outside the form of government established by the Constitution. Only in such a case could one argue that the BCO’s provisions regarding the diaconate are subject to substantial variation insofar as ancillary ministries of the church are not fully developed in the Constitution. However, the BCO is a constitutional document and it specifically identifies the office of deacon together with the office of elder as constituting the offices forming the PCA’s coordinated system of government. A primary purpose of a constitution is to set forth a system of government. In fact, the formation of government is the sine qua non of a constitution. Therefore, strict interpretation of the constitution is required in matters touching upon the offices comprising the government of the church. The explicit statements of the BCO further establish the importance of the PCA’s two-office system of government. In the chapter titled “Form of Government” the BCO states that “[t]he officers of the Church, by whom all its powers are administered, are, according to the Scriptures, teaching and ruling elders and deacons.” BCO 1-4. Separate chapters in the BCO are given to the offices of elder and deacon. BCO 8, 9. The office of deacon, not merely diaconal-related service, is ordinary and perpetual in the Church. BCO 9-1. For these reasons, failure to ordain qualified men as deacons, where such men are functionally serving as such in an unordained capacity, undermines the letter and spirit of the BCO.
A session’s authority over the diaconate in no way diminishes the office of deacon. That the BCO rightly places the diaconate under the authority of the elders is undisputed. BCO 9-2. However, deacons, though subject to the rule of elders, do not serve at the pleasure of elders. The primacy of the elders’ authority no more establishes that the office of deacon is unnecessary or subject to the prerogative of the elders than Christ’s plenary rule disestablishes his plenipotentiaries. The authority of office establishes those offices under its influence. Additionally, as stated in BCO 24-7, “[o]rdination to the offices of ruling elder or deacon is perpetual; nor can such offices be laid aside at pleasure; nor can any person be degraded from either office but by deposition after regular trial.” As one who holds the office of deacon holds a perpetual office, his office, though initially derived through a local church, has a distinct existence apart from any particular local church or the office of elder.
Creating within a church an unordained body of men and women given the titles “deacon” and “deaconess,” respectively, (or referring to both men and women as “deacons”) while ordaining no one to the office of deacon, is a de facto establishment of an unauthorized diaconate. Further, such a practice vests ecclesiastical power in a class of persons—women—not authorized to hold office or exercise ecclesiastical power. BCO 1-4 (“The officers of the Church, by whom all its powers are administered, are, according to the Scriptures, teaching and ruling elders and deacons.”); BCO 3-2 (“The officers exercise [ecclesiastical power] sometimes severally, as in preaching the Gospel, administering the Sacraments, reproving the erring, visiting the sick, and comforting the afflicted, which is the power of order . . . .”); BCO 7-2 (“In accord with Scripture, these offices [elder and deacon] are open to men only.”). Additionally, refusing the ordination of men to the office of deacon nullifies one of the two offices Christ generously gave His bride for the growth of His Kingdom. BCO 1-4; 3-5 (“The Church, with its ordinances, officers and courts, is the agency which Christ has ordained for the edification and government of His people, for the propagation of the faith, and for the evangelization of the world.”). Therefore, such practices functionally either abolish the office of deacon or seat women in the office of deacon. In either case, there is a substantial and continuing violation of the Constitution of the PCA.
The BCO, in diverse sections, unequivocally states that only men are qualified to hold the office/title of deacon. BCO 7-2 (“In accord with Scripture, these offices [elder and deacon] are open to men only”); BCO 9-3 (“To the office of deacon, which is spiritual in nature, shall be chosen men of spiritual character….”); BCO 24-1 (“[E]ach prospective officer should be an active male member who meets the qualifications set forth in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1”). The provisions of these sections, far from being advisory in nature, set forth a view of the diaconate that is based on Scripture. In BCO 7-2, the male-only restriction of the office of deacon is said to be “in accord with scripture” and BCO 24-1 states such restriction alongside those qualifications set forth in Scripture. As stated in BCO 29-1, the Constitution of the PCA, of which the BCO is a part, is “accepted by the PCA as the standard expositions of the teachings of Scripture in relation to both faith and practice.” Whatever binding authority the BCO may have on this issue solely by virtue of its constitutional nature is only further established by references to Scripture in the very texts that principally relate to the matter under consideration. Further, the BCO is based on a system of Biblical interpretation shared by the PCA’s ecclesiastical communion in connection with which each presbyter submits to his brothers in accord with his ordination vows. BCO 24-6. The merits of diaconal practice must be evaluated, therefore, in light of such vows and in accordance with the BCO’s clarity and scriptural emphases in the areas of women officers and diaconal authority.
