AD-INTERIM COMMITTEE ON SAME-SEX ATTRACTION AND ORDINATION STANDARDS

SUMMARY OF WORK

The AIC on Same-Sex Attraction and Ordination Standards met several times throughout the past year. We are not presenting any actionable items to the General Assembly in 2025, but are providing a report on our progress, which includes preliminary recommendations to amend the Book of Government, Position Paper on Human Sexuality, and the Same-Sex Attraction section within the Pastoral Letter on Human Sexuality. These recommendations reflect our execution of the GA’s mandate to study the Scriptures, the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms, and Reformed tradition in order to clarify, strengthen, and align the EPC’s witness on this topic.

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RECOMMENDATIONS

The Ad-Interim Committee on Same-Sex Attraction and Ordination Standards has no recommendations for the 45th General Assembly.

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WORK OF THE COMMITTEE

The 44th General Assembly of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church voted to create a moderator-appointed, Ad-Interim Committee on Same-Sex Attraction and Ordination Standards. The 44th General Assembly charged the committee to study the Scriptures, the Westminster Confession of Faith, and Catechisms to bring clarity to our witness regarding:

1) 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;
2) Progressive Sanctification and how it informs the Reformed understanding of the mortification of sin and the doctrine of repentance;
3) 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;
4) The Christian hope for those who experience and flee sexual temptation, especially homosexual temptation; and
5) 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 is further charged to review our Position Papers, Pastoral Letters, and the Book of Order and to recommend potential changes that will clarify, align, and strengthen our witness to the larger world.

The Committee shall make an interim report to the 45th General Assembly, and a final report and recommendations to the 46th General Assembly.

The committee understands that our charge is to clarify, align, and strengthen the EPC’s witness in light of our doctrinal standards, not to alter those standards or witness. This committee was *not* formed to study the permissibility of homosexuality or to reassess the EPC’s position on the topic. 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.

Our committee met in person at the General Assembly Office on September 18-19, 2024, and then held several additional meetings (either as a whole committee or in smaller working groups) both by video conference and then again in Orlando on February 12-13, 2025. Our approach was to review the EPC’s Position Papers, Pastoral Letters, and the Book of Order, identify the sections that we believed needed to be revised or expanded in conformity to and by the terms of our mandate, and then draft edits to those documents that reflect a clarified and strengthened witness in light of our doctrinal standards.

This report is the interim report prior to our final report and recommendations to next year’s 46th General Assembly. We have included as part of our report the first public draft of potential recommendations to the Book of Government, Position Paper on Human Sexuality, and the section ‘Same-Sex Attraction’ in the Pastoral Letter on Human Sexuality. For these latter two documents, we have included two versions: a ‘clean’ document with all the proposed edits without notation for ease of reading, and a document that compares and contrasts the current version of the documents with the proposed edits.

During the 45th General Assembly we will be holding a workshop where we will report our process and reasoning more fully and receive feedback from the commissioners. We encourage individual presbyteries to discuss these documents during their Fall 2025 or early Winter 2026 meetings; if any presbytery would like to invite a member of our committee to join them to answer questions and receive feedback, please email us at: Ad-Interim.SSA@epc.org. Any additional feedback can be provided by completing the FeedbackSSA form.

Our committee is still evaluating potential revisions to the recommended reading list in the Pastoral Letter and welcomes suggestions. We also welcome additional feedback on all of these documents. Our plan is to revise our work in consideration of feedback received during the 45th General Assembly workshop, emails from presbyters, and our conversations with presbyteries over the coming months, and to produce a final set of recommendations for the 46th General Assembly sometime in the February-April, 2026 range.

Please keep our committee in your prayers. Already God has blessed us and heard your prayers — our committee members have worked well together and have been delighted to discover that we were all much closer together on this topic than might be expected at first glance. Our prayer is that our work will be helpful for building up the body of Christ and maintaining the unity of the Spirit in the bond peace in obedient faithfulness to God’s word.

Book of Government Recommendations
Position Paper on Human Sexuality
Position Paper on Human Sexuality Comparison
Pastoral Letter “Same-Sex Attraction” Section
Pastoral Letter “Same-Sex Attraction” Section Comparison

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RECOMMENDATIONS (DETAILED)

The Ad-Interim Committee on Same-Sex Attraction and Ordination Standards has no recommendations for the 45th General Assembly.

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COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Cameron Shaffer (Co-Chairman)
TE, Presbytery of the East

Tom Wener
RE, Presbytery of the Mid-America

John Dorr
TE, Presbytery of the East

Aaron White
TE, Presbytery of the Midwest

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MEETING DATES

September 18-19, 2024: Office of the General Assembly (Orlando, FL)
October 23, 2024: Video Conference
December 10, 2024: Video Conferenece
February 12-13, 2025: Office of the General Assembly (Orlando, FL)
April 9, 2025: Video Conference 

Cameron Shaffer, Co-Chairman
June 2025

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