A growing number of congregations are considering leaving the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC) following a June vote on human sexuality and ordination that critics say could open the door to the ordination of celibate individuals who experience same-sex attraction.
Several of those churches are now looking to form or join a new denomination, the Westminster Association of Churches, which describes itself as a “fellowship of confessional and complementarian churches formed as a safe haven for likeminded congregations leaving the EPC.”
The Westminster Association identifies five core values: the supremacy of Scripture, the historic Reformed faith, engaged Presbyterian polity, committed complementarianism, and an affirmation of biblical sexual ethics.
The organization describes sexual ethics as the “issue of our age.”
“We affirm God’s good design for humanity as male and female and uphold the biblical sexual ethic of chastity in singleness and fidelity in covenanted marriage between one man and one woman,” the organization states on its website. “We also affirm that unnatural sexual attractions, desires, and/or practices necessarily disqualify men from ordination.”
The question of whether celibate, same-sex-attracted men should be eligible for ordination has been a source of growing controversy within the EPC for at least a year.
The EPC has characterized its June action differently from its critics. In a news release, the denomination said the General Assembly had “reaffirm[ed] the EPC’s historic position on human sexuality and ordination.”
“The assembly approved statements that affirm the historic Reformed Doctrine of Concupiscence—the theological position that disordered desires, not only sinful acts, are themselves sinful—and that all disordered sexual desires, including those that arise from same-sex attraction, are in fact sinful,” the EPC stated.
“These sinful desires of thought, word and deed must be renounced, repented of and regularly mortified by all who seek to follow Christ, especially those potentially called to serve as leaders,” the denomination added.
The Presbyterian Plumb Line, an online journal written by EPC elders who say they seek “to lead [the] denomination toward a more biblical expression of our Presbyterian conviction,” has taken a more critical view of the action.
“While the letter did not endorse same-sex marriage or homosexual behavior, it opened the door to ordain those who struggle with same-sex attraction as long as they are celibate, repentant, and seeking to mortify their sin,” the publication stated.
According to an article published by the Presbyterian Plumb Line, more than 45 of the EPC’s more than 600 congregations have expressed interest in joining the Westminster Association of Churches. Four churches in the Pacific Northwest have already requested dismissal from the EPC and hope to join the new association by November 2026.
The EPC’s Book of Order requires a congregation seeking dismissal to hold at least two congregational meetings and obtain approval from two-thirds of its voting members.
“For many of us, the matter of celibate homosexual ordination is a matter of conscience,” Pastor Nate Atwood of St. Giles Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, told the Presbyterian Plumb Line. “A 43% vote at our recent General Assembly in Denver on the [committee’s] recommendations suggests there is a sizable group in the EPC who are distressed.”
“It’s clear that there’s a growing number of congregations who are now choosing their own course, exercising their constitutional right of dismissal,” Atwood added.
The EPC’s internal debate has also prompted some congregations to consider alternatives beyond the Westminster Association. Anchor Presbyterian Church, according to the Presbyterian Plumb Line, is planning to launch a new denomination that would permit the ordination of women.
“Churches choosing to leave the EPC … can no longer submit to the authority of a denomination that does not seem to understand the nature of God’s creation recorded throughout Scripture, a denomination that is willing to consider for ordination anyone who rejects His creation in thought, word, or deed, and in so doing, compromises the purity and holiness of the Bride of Christ,” ruling elder Yvonne Chapman, who is associated with Anchor, told the publication.
Other EPC congregations are considering joining established Presbyterian and Reformed denominations, including the Presbyterian Church in America.
Not all churches opposed to the June action are seeking to leave. Some remain committed to working for change from within the EPC, including through a possible constitutional amendment. Such an amendment would require approval from 12 of the denomination’s 16 presbyteries.
Oregon Pastor John Carpenter said he intends to remain in the EPC and work to influence its future.
“I believe that leaving the EPC at this moment carries the risk of stepping away from an important opportunity to shape its future,” Carpenter said. “Though many of us are weary from the struggle, I do not believe this is the time to lose heart or to step away from that calling.”
The dispute also extends beyond the continental United States. Three churches in Puerto Rico have told the Presbyterian Plumb Line that they intend to leave the EPC over the issue of homosexual ordination. The congregations joined the EPC about a decade ago after leaving the Presbyterian Church (USA) over similar theological disagreements.
The current controversy comes against the backdrop of the EPC’s own history. The denomination was formed in 1981 amid concerns about theological liberalism and resistance to change within mainline Presbyterian denominations.
According to the EPC’s history, its founders wanted to establish a church that took seriously “the Bible, the theology of the historic confessions of the faith, and the evangelical fervor of the founders of American Presbyterianism.”
More than four decades later, the denomination is facing a new test of those founding commitments, as congregations and leaders disagree over how biblical sexual ethics should be applied to ordination—and whether those disagreements can be resolved within the EPC or will ultimately lead to a significant realignment of Presbyterian churches.
