Comparing PCA with other Presbyterian Churches

The Presbyterian Church in America is more theologically conservative than the larger Presbyterian Church (USA). Like the PC(USA), however, the PCA accommodates different views of creation and strives for racial reconciliation.

The PCA is generally less theologically conservative than the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) but more conservative than the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, though the differences can vary from presbytery to presbytery and even congregation to congregation. The PCA, as mentioned above, does not allow women to be ordained as ministers, elders or deacons; the EPC considers this issue a "non-essential" matter left to the individual ordaining body. While the OPC only allows women to teach women and children in Sunday school, some churches in the PCA allow women to do anything a non-ordained man can do. Also, PCA churches hold worship services in various styles (e.g., traditional Presbyterian, liturgical, contemporary), while most in the OPC hold to the traditional Scottish/Scots-Irish practice of singing only psalms and older hymns. The OPC also generally has stricter requirements overall on its officers' subscription to their standards of doctrine. Nonetheless, the two denominations enjoy fraternal relations and cooperate in a number of ways, such as sharing control of a publication company, Great Commission Publications, which produces Sunday school curricula for both denominations.