For years now, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has debated the question of whether Christian educators should be ordained — with some contending that the work of teaching is significant enough in the church and important enough in cultivating disciples that it should be considered as an ordained office.
But the assembly has repeatedly declined to do so, and this year is no exception.
On June 19, the assembly referred two overtures on ordaining educators to the PC(USA)’s Office for Theology and Worship for more study — one that would have created an office of “educating elder” and a second to establish a “minister of Christian education.”
Those will now be considered as part of an ongoing study on the relationship between baptism and the ministry of all church members, whether they are ordained or not.
