In response to the host of overtures before the 44th General Assembly asking whether admitting gay minister Greg Johnson to the EPC is biblically defensible, the 44th General Assembly appointed an Ad Interim Committee to study Scripture and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms on related questions. The committee was charged to bring clarity to the EPC on the following issues:
- Theological anthropology, with respect to human sexuality as it pertains to contemporary usage of the sexual self-conception and how such language comports with Scripture and the Westminster standards;
- Progressive Sanctification and how it informs the Reformed understanding of the mortification of sin and the doctrine of repentance;
- Concupiscence as it relates to a Reformed conception of the Christian’s new nature in Christ and when homosexual temptation, like other temptations disqualifies one from ordained office;
- The Christian hope for those who experience and flee sexual temptation, especially homosexual temptation; and
- How the answers to these questions might inform standards for officers who have struggled in these areas but have mortified such temptation and desire.
The Committee was also asked to review EPC Position Papers, Pastoral Letters, and the Book of Order for any recommended potential changes to these sources. The General Assembly directed the committee to make an interim report to the 45th General Assembly, with a final report and recommendations to come before the 46th General Assembly.
Those registered for the 45th General Assembly will receive a copy of the preliminary report in the Commissioner’s Handbook available by the end of May. There will be a Network Lunch at General Assembly on Wednesday, June 18, hosted by the Ad Interim Committee on Same-Sex Attraction and Ordination where commissioners can hear an update on the committee’s work and its provisional recommendations. There will be a time for commissioners to give feedback and questions on the preliminary report.
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