The issue arose because Greg Johnson, the Presbyterian pastor of Memorial Presbyterian in St. Louis who says he is homosexual but celibate, 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.”

A storm is brewing in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) and a “meaningful group of churches” are considering other options, according to Pastor Nate Atwood, the pastor of St. Giles Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, N.C.
Atwood has been involved in the EPC since 1988 and held several leadership roles, including serving as moderator of the General Assembly. He says there is a “crisis of confidence in the current stated clerk, moderator, and leadership team” after an overture concerning same-sex-attracted pastors never made it to the floor of the General Assembly this summer.
Now an issue involving a Pittsburgh church—Beverly Heights Presbyterian Church—is raising more questions about whether the denomination is going to follow its original vision. Beverly Heights is trying to leave the EPC following the stated process, but has clashed repeatedly with the Presbytery, culminating in a civil suit.
According to Atwood, the original vision of the EPC when it was founded in 1981 was to be a Biblical, evangelical, constitutional, and Reformed denomination.
Recent events have raised questions about several of those commitments, Atwood explained, including whether denominational leaders will follow processes outlined in the EPC Book of Order.
An overture presented unanimously by the New River Presbytery—composed of 39 churches—proposed an amendment to the denomination’s Book of Government. “Men and women who identify as homosexual, even those who identify as homosexual and claim to practice celibacy in that self-identification, are disqualified from holding office in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church.”
The issue arose because Greg Johnson, the Presbyterian pastor of Memorial Presbyterian in St. Louis who says he is homosexual but celibate, 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.
Normally, when an overture is presented, it goes to the permanent judicial commission (PJC) for examination to ensure it is clear and fits with the church’s constitution and its confession (the Westminster Confession of Faith.) If there is an issue with the overture, the PJC explains the issue and goes back to the presenters with a suggested cure, Atwood said.
In this instance, by a vote of 5 to 4, the PJC claimed the overture was not valid and offered no explanation or cure. Atwood called their action “high-handed and imperious” and a “catastrophic failure of their constitutional duties.”
Instead, the New River leaders, realizing their overture would not be allowed on the floor of the General Assembly for discussion and a vote, agreed to a two-year study of the issue.
Meanwhile, attention toward Beverly Heights’ departure crisis is growing. Observers, like Atwood, are wondering if the presbytery leadership will use strong arm tactics or will follow the proper constitutional protections afforded to churches in the EPC.
According to Beverly Heights Pastor Dr. Nate Devlin, the church that has been part of the EPC since 2007 began the separation process from the denomination in October 2023. An open letter explains the church’s view of events since the separation process began.
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I need to be reminded afresh of a gentle, tender Lord who wants to heal our wounds and deal with our hurts. And because he has shed his own tears as the perfect God-Man, he is well placed to wipe our tears as well. Our God specialises in mending the brokenhearted and restoring the prodigal.

We are all broken people. We are all wounded. We are all hurting. We are all messed up. While this is true for all of us, many will try to deny it, or cover it up, or put on a brave face, or lash out to protect themselves. There are so many wrong ways that we seek to deal with our brokenness and hurt.
Some folks will pretend they are fully independent and have it all together and do not need the help of others. They are just kidding themselves. I know people like this. All their life they lived as someone who could solve their own problems, get along without the help of others, and be seemingly altogether independent.
But old age or something else will catch up with them and they lose much of their independence and they will start to really have to depend on others for their care and well-being. That can be a real shock to the system. They finally come to realise that they are not all that self-sufficient and they do not have it all together.
Others however know full well what a basketcase they are. They do not hide their brokenness and rejection and pain. They know they are miserable and feeling unwanted and unloved. Again, many can respond wrongly to this: alcoholism, or drug or porn addictions, or anger and hatred of self and others, and so on.
We all have these hurts and feelings of rejection. How we deal with them is crucial. With all this in mind, let me share something someone had put on the social media. I assume it is basically accurate. It is a moving piece, and we of course can get so many spiritual lessons from it. It goes like this:
Every once in a while, a ewe will give birth to a lamb and reject it. There are lots of reasons she may do this. If the shepherd tries to return the lamb, the mother might even kick the baby away. Once a ewe rejects one of her lambs, she will never change her mind.
These little lambs will hang their heads so low that it looks like something is wrong with their little necks. Their spirits are broken. These lambs are called “bummer lambs.” Unless the shepherd intervenes, that little lamb will die – rejected and alone.
Do you know what the shepherd usually does? The shepherd will take that rejected little lamb into their home, hand-feed it and keep it warm. They will wrap it up with blankets and hold it to their chest so the little lamb can hear their heartbeat. Once the lamb is strong enough, the shepherd will place it back in the field with the rest of the flock.
That sheep never forgets the shepherd’s love and care when their mother rejected them. When the shepherd calls for the flock, guess which sheep runs first? That sheep knows the shepherd’s voice.
The bummer lamb isn’t loved more, it just knows intimately the one who loves it.
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Written by Carl R. Trueman |
Friday, August 16, 2024
The account provided on the Church of England’s website indicates that the discussion was infused with the usual pious jargon. The archbishop of Canterbury captures the sentiment nicely: “I cannot imagine the Church of England without any particular group within it, and without her reaching effectively to anyone outside it through inclusion and justice, lived in holy imitation of Christ.” A church without boundaries is, of course, no church at all. So the statement about “any particular group” surely needs qualification. 

It’s that time of year again when the Anglican General Synod makes further moves toward dissolving the difference between Christianity and the acceptable tastes of the surrounding world. This, of course, is always to the detriment of the former. For the Church of England, this is nothing new. Writing for The Spectator, Theo Hobson points out that the church has in practice denied its theology of sex for many years now. That simply indicates how deep the problem is. But rather than take steps to check the problem, the C of E seems set to move to regularize it.
The issues of the moment involve giving more formal status to “Prayers of Love and Faith” that are already in use in some churches for the blessing of same-sex couples and plotting a way forward for the recognition of civil marriage. The prayers themselves are on the whole masterpieces of studied ambiguity, more significant for what they suggest but do not spell out.
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