Friday June 19, 2026
Evangelical Presbyterian Church Strengthens Biblical Stance on Human Sexuality and Ordination
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church, at it’s 46th General Assembly in Denver Colorado this week, vigorously but gracefully debated multiple measures on the issue of Same Sex Attraction and Ordination. After two years of study, and an assembled week of deliberation and prayer, the EPC’s GA approved recommendations coming from an Ad-Interim Committee that built a firm foundation on the Scriptures and the Westminster Confession of Faith.
The assembly’s action reaffirmed the EPC’s historic position on human sexuality and ordination and added language that would help ensure those standards. “The commissioners came ready and prepared as they engaged the committee’s recommendations,” stated Ad-Interim Committee Co-Chair TE Cameron Shaffer, “and they voted to reaffirm our confessional heritage.”
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church again declared that the only persons qualified to serve in the offices of Teaching Elder, Ruling Elder and Deacons are those who live faithfully in the covenant of marriage between one man and one woman; and that those who are single must remain sexually chaste. The assembly approved statements that affirm the historic Reformed Doctrine of Concupiscence; that all disordered sexual desires, including those that arise from same sex attraction, are in fact sinful. 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, seek by the grace of God to live into these Biblical Standards.
“We live in challenging times,” said, long time EPC Pastor Bob Stauffer, “ but the EPC again has stood firm on the inerrant Word of God in a graceful way – we have not, nor will not declare good, what God has declared sinful.”