OPC Creates New Study Committees During 2026 General Assembly
The Assembly’s most consequential actions centered on two new study efforts. One committee will focus on Christian Nationalism and the other racial prejudice and related matters.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s 92nd General Assembly, meeting June 3-9 at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, elected the Rev. Everett A. Henes of the Presbytery of Michigan and Ontario as moderator and conducted a full week of denominational business before adjourning at noon on June 9.
The Assembly’s most consequential actions centered on two new study efforts. It created a five-member special committee, with two alternates and a $10,000 budget, to study the church’s biblical and confessional understanding of church-state relations and ideas commonly called Christian nationalism; its report is due to the 94th General Assembly. Commissioners also adopted a public condemnation of teachings claiming racial or ethnic superiority and authorized a second study committee on racial prejudice and related matters, due to report to the 93rd Assembly.
The Assembly made several ecumenical decisions: it supported the Bible Presbyterian Church’s application for NAPARC membership, established corresponding relations with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Ukraine, and invited Nigeria’s Universal Reformed Church into corresponding relations. It also heard from fraternal delegates representing churches in North America, Europe, Africa, and New Zealand.
Mission and institutional work featured prominently. The report noted growth in OPC home missions, with mission works rising from 41 to 43, nine new works received or launched, and five organized as particular congregations. The Assembly honored retiring Foreign Missions General Secretary Douglas Clawson for more than 24 years of service and recognized longtime Christian Education leader Dr. James Gidley. It approved two Standing Rules amendments, including creation of a Ministerial Training Subcommittee within Christian Education.
Commissioners also devoted extensive closed-session time to appeals and complaints; the public report deliberately withholds identifying details. They reviewed presbytery and committee minutes, approved the General Assembly budget, received a continuing review of the Form of Government and Church Discipline, and set the 93rd General Assembly for June 9-15, 2027, at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina.