Originally Posted by Contra_Mundum

Definitely, we are 3 in practice. We are 3 with a vengeance. Reason? Because we expend all that energy defending parity, and then more energy defending a TE's uniqueness. We have to do that, or we'll end up in either thoroughgoing congregationalism or clericalism. Meanwhile, the GA turns itself into a Convention, creates a Supreme Court and now a Senate, all the while developing a denominational bureauocracy that rivals anything the mainline ever created. And the OPC, with its open admission of 3 offices and delegated GA rolls along without rampant clericalism, and running their denomination out of a strip mall. And that has little to do with the fact it is 1/10 the size of the PCA, and much to do with the perception of power in the gathered church as exercised at all three levels.