The church is currently conducting a deacon training for one of our members. God willing this dear brother would be ordained as deacon in the opening month of 2026.

The main resource of our training is the book, The Deacon: Biblical Foundations for Today’s Ministry of Mercy, written by Cornelius Van Dam. We also use other reading materials to supplement the discussion. One of the areas of study is the possibility of women serving as deacons. For the record, GCEC affirms the traditional teaching that only qualified men can serve as deacons (same as elders).

The last statement does not deny that in the general landscape of Christianity, there are churches who allow women to serve as deacons, arguing either that it is biblical teaching or proof that their congregations are not anti-feminists. Further, affirming only qualified men can serve as deacons does not mean in any way that GCEC does not recognize the service of godly women in the church, in various capacities.

On a related matter, the Puritan Board had a survey a few years ago, and the results are shown below.

The traditional men-only view seems to still be having the upper hand.

A good resource for further reading can be found here and here. For a dialogue on whether women can be deacons, go here.