Presbyterian Church says no women preachers

TAMPA, Fla. — The Presbyterian Church in America, meeting for its annual general assembly, has approved a policy permitting women to teach — but not preach.

The policy concerning women supersedes a 1997 decision by the conservative denomination declaring women could only conduct seminars where the intended audience was other women. The assembly determined that the prohibition in 1 Timothy 2 on women teaching or having authority over men applies to formal worship. That prohibition is “not that of the more informal seminar which is generally more subjective and based on personal experience than is the preaching of the Word in worship.”

The assembly affirmed that women should not preach in public worship, said Dominic Aquila, the denomination’s news officer. The Presbyterian Church in America, which has about 300,000 members in North America, was founded in 1973. It formed after splitting with a precursor of the more liberal Presbyterian Church (USA).