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111-695: The Presbyterian Church in the United States grew out of regional and theological divisions within the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), the first national Presbyterian denomination in the U.S., founded in 1789. In 1838, the PCUSA divided along theological lines due to the Old School–New School Controversy . The New School faction advocated revivalism and a softening of traditional Calvinism , while

222-426: A "Northern church", it was once again a national denomination in its later years. Over time, traditional Calvinism played less of a role in shaping the church's doctrines and practices—it was influenced by Arminianism and revivalism early in the 19th century, liberal theology late in the 19th century, and neo-orthodoxy by the mid-20th century. The theological tensions within the denomination were played out in

333-547: A generation. After the war, the PCUS retained its "Old School" Presbyterian emphasis until the 20th century. The PCUS leaders began to emphasize that they needed to change in light of the changing South, which was undergoing urbanization and industrialization. A point of contention were talks of merger between the mainline "Northern Presbyterians", the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. and its successor denomination,

444-423: A liberal group desiring full endorsement of the movement's platform, a moderate faction desiring church-wide consensus before taking positive action, and a conservative/traditionalist group vigorously opposing what it believed was the meddling of the church in the civil and cultural traditions of its native region. Conservatives argued that church activity on behalf of racial desegregation and voting rights constituted

555-677: A proposed "Plan of Union" between the UPCUSA and the PCUS which reportedly had not included an escape clause for congregations that had no desire of being part of the planned denomination, delegates from 260 churches met in Birmingham, Alabama to form the National Presbyterian Church, which would later be renamed the Presbyterian Church in America in 1974. Following the departure of more conservative PCUS members into

666-552: A result, most of the local churches established by the organization were Presbyterian. Another major stimulus for growth was the Second Great Awakening (c. 1790 – 1840), which initially grew out of a 1787 student revival at Hampden–Sydney College , a Presbyterian institution in Virginia. From there, revivals spread to Presbyterian churches in Virginia and then to North Carolina and Kentucky. The Revival of 1800

777-551: A reunion of two long-separated branches of the larger Presbyterian family deriving from the British Isles . Between 1937 and 1955, both the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, and the United Presbyterian Church of North America had been looking to merge with Reformed Churches . The PCUSA had discussed a merger with the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), as well as with

888-780: A sermon at Grace Cathedral [Episcopal Church] in San Francisco, in which he laid down the plan for uniting UPCUSA, The Methodist Church (USA) , the Episcopal Church and the United Church of Christ . Following Blake's lead, the 1961 General Assembly sent invitations to the Presbyterian Church in the United States, the Methodists, the Episcopalians, and the United Church of Christ, beginning what

999-637: A student at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, informed his presbytery that, while he would be willing to work with female ministers, or not impede their ordination, he would not participate in their installation. While his ordination was narrowly approved, it was overturned by the Permanent Judicial Commission of the General Assembly the following year, with the commission stating that it was

1110-463: A violation of the doctrine of "the spirituality of the church", a principle developed by 19th-century Presbyterian theologian James Henley Thornwell . He had declared that social reform and political participation were duties or pursuits to be taken up by individuals, not church courts. The conservative group strongly defended that teaching, but the liberal critics believed the doctrine was a justification for maintaining racial segregation and preserving

1221-789: A work of God. In the early 1770s, American Presbyterians were initially reluctant to support American Independence, but in time many Presbyterians came to support the Revolutionary War . After the Battles of Lexington and Concord , the Synod of New York and Philadelphia published a letter in May 1775 urging Presbyterians to support the Second Continental Congress while remaining loyal to George III . In one sermon, John Witherspoon , president of Princeton, preached "that

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1332-751: The American upper class , Harvard University ; and the Episcopal and the Presbyterian Church. Old money in the United States was typically associated with White Anglo-Saxon Protestant ("WASP") status, particularly with the Episcopal and Presbyterian Church. Briggs' heresy trial was a setback to the movement for confessional revision, which wanted to soften the Westminster Confession's Calvinistic doctrines of predestination and election . Nevertheless, overtures continued to come before

1443-679: The Associate Reformed Church , to form the United Foreign Missionary Society. The United Society was particularly focused on work among Native Americans and inhabitants of Central and South America. These denominations also established a United Domestic Missionary Society to station missionaries within the United States. In 1826, the Congregationalists joined these united efforts. The Congregational mission societies were merged with

1554-695: The Bible , considered by conservatives as a touchstone dogma. Beginning in 1942, in response to liberal trends in the PCUS, conservative churchmen such as L. Nelson Bell , longtime medical missionary to China and father-in-law of evangelist Billy Graham , began establishing various periodicals and renewal parachurch organizations for conservative clergy and laymen alike. In 1966, conservatives founded Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi . Eventually, in December 1973, prompted both by liberalism, and

1665-583: The Confession of 1967 , it was heavily influenced by neo-orthodoxy . The commission also added several other confessional standards to what was called the Book of Confessions . Furthermore, the UPCUSA revised its ordination vows. Prior to 1967, the ordination vows required an affirmative to this question: "Do you sincerely receive and adopt the Confession of Faith and Catechisms of this Church as containing

1776-697: The Constitution and Federal Government of the United States . In response, representatives of Old School presbyteries in the South met in December at Augusta, Georgia, to form the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America . The Presbyterian Church in the CSA absorbed the smaller United Synod in 1864. After the Confederacy's defeat in 1865, it was renamed the Presbyterian Church in

1887-479: The Covenanter and Seceder traditions of Scottish Presbyterianism. These and other mergers added over 35,000 members and 490 local churches. In the 1880s, the PCUS endured a prolonged battle over Darwinian evolution . James Woodrow , professor at Columbia Theological Seminary , sparked controversy when he suggested that evolutionary thought did not contradict the biblical teachings on creation . In response,

1998-676: The Episcopal Church . Both denominations had also been in contact with the Reformed Church in America , as well as the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church . By the time of the merger, the PCUSA had churches in all 50 states, while the heaviest concentration of UPCNA congregations could be found in Western Pennsylvania and parts of Ohio . One institutional expression of the union was the consolidation of two nearby seminaries into

2109-594: The Evangelical Presbyterian Church . After the conservatives left the PCUS mainly for the PCA, but a minority for the EPC, it became easier for the remainder to work on union with the UPCUSA. Eventually, in 1983, the "Plan of Union" came up to a vote, with 53 PCUS presbyteries voting in favor of union, and 8 in opposition. On June 10, 1983, the reunion between the "northern" and "southern" Presbyterians

2220-794: The Fundamentalist–Modernist Controversy of the 1920s and 1930s, a conflict that led to the development of Christian fundamentalism and has historical importance to modern American evangelicalism . Conservatives dissatisfied with liberal trends left to form the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1936. The origins of the Presbyterian Church is the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The writings of French theologian and lawyer John Calvin (1509–64) solidified much of

2331-561: The Pentateuch was authored by Moses or that the book of Isaiah had a single author. In addition, he also denied that Biblical prophecy was a precise prediction of the future. In 1891, Briggs preached a sermon in which he claimed the Bible contained errors, a position many in the church considered contrary to the Westminster Confession's doctrines of verbal inspiration and Biblical inerrancy . In response, 63 presbyteries petitioned

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2442-446: The Presbyterian Church in America , which led to an exodus of conservatives from the PCUS, plans for union accelerated, and were also hastened, albeit less decisively, by the creation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church by conservatives leaving the UPCUSA in 1981. In 1983, the vote was finally held regarding the merger, with a unanimous 151 presbyteries in the UPCUSA affirming it, and the PCUS affirming it 53 to 8. On June 10, 1983,

2553-708: The Reformed thinking that came before him in the form of the sermons and writings of Huldrych Zwingli . John Knox , a former Catholic priest from Scotland who studied with Calvin in Geneva, Switzerland , took Calvin's teachings back to Scotland and led the Scottish Reformation of 1560. As a result, the Church of Scotland embraced Reformed theology and presbyterian polity . The Ulster Scots brought their Presbyterian faith with them to Ireland, where they laid

2664-552: The Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod . In 1976, the New York Presbytery petitioned the General Assembly asking for advice over what to do about a candidate who was a homosexual, yet who was otherwise qualified for ministry. A task force was assigned and came back with the proposal that the question should be up to the discretion of the presbyteries. However, after lobbying from

2775-633: The South Atlantic states after the Civil War). In 1946, with cooperation of three other denominations, it formed the United Andean Indian Mission , an agency that sent missionaries to Ecuador. Among some of the other liberalizing trends were the ordination of women in 1964, the ratification of a pro-choice position on abortion by the General Assembly, and the rejection by that assembly of the plenary verbal inspiration of

2886-616: The Synod of Ulster already required clergy to subscribe to the Westminster Confession . In 1729, the synod passed the Adopting Act , which required clergy to assent to the Westminster Confession and Larger and Shorter Catechisms . However, subscription was only required for those parts of the Confession deemed an "essential and necessary article of faith". Ministers could declare any scruples to their presbytery or

2997-715: The United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. A vote for merger had come up in 1954, and despite popular support among many, the vote to merge failed. The two denominations did collaborate on a joint hymnal. The PCUS also joined the Episcopalians , United Methodists , the United Church of Christ and the UPCUSA in the Consultation on Church Union in 1962, a group begun by UPCUSA stated clerk Eugene Carson Blake . Eventually, by 1968, union churches and presbyteries were formed (that is, members of both

3108-723: The anxious bench , and prayer groups . Albert Baldwin Dod accused Finney of preaching Pelagianism and urged him to leave the Presbyterian Church. Finney did just that in 1836 when he joined the Congregational church as pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle in New York City. The Old School faction was convinced that the Plan of Union with the Congregational churches had undermined Presbyterian doctrine and order. At

3219-535: The free will teaching of Arminianism , thereby rejecting the Calvinist doctrines of predestination . Facing charges of heresy for their Arminian beliefs, Presbyterian ministers Richard McNemar and John Thompson, along with Barton W. Stone and two other ministers, chose to withdraw from the Kentucky Synod and form the independent Springfield Presbytery in 1803. These ministers would later dissolve

3330-514: The "New Side", and their conservative opponents, known as the "Old Side". While the Old Side and New Side disagreed over the possibility of immediate assurance of salvation , the controversy was not primarily theological. Both sides believed in justification by faith , predestination , and that regeneration occurred in stages. In 1738, the synod moved to restrict itinerant preaching and to tighten educational requirements for ministers, actions

3441-650: The 1837 General Assembly, the Old School majority successfully passed resolutions removing all judicatories found under the Plan from the Presbyterian Church. In total, three synods in New York and one synod in Ohio along with 28 presbyteries, 509 ministers, and 60 thousand church members (one-fifth of the PCUSA's membership) were excluded from the church. New School leaders reacted by meeting in Auburn, New York, and issuing

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3552-403: The 1983 merger, as the Confession of 1967 was retained in the new denomination's Book of Confessions . Presbyterian Church in the United States of America The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ( PCUSA ) was a Presbyterian denomination existing from 1789 to 1958. In that year, the PCUSA merged with the United Presbyterian Church of North America . The new church

3663-554: The Auburn Declaration, a 16-point defense of their Calvinist orthodoxy. When the General Assembly met in May 1838 at Philadelphia, the New School commissioners attempted to be seated but were forced to leave and convene their own General Assembly elsewhere in the city. The Old School and New School factions had finally split into two separate churches that were about equal in size. Both churches, however, claimed to be

3774-629: The Bible resulted in the Northern and Southern sections of the Old School Presbyterian Church staying united longer than their New School counterparts. The latter split over slavery in 1858. New School synods and presbyteries in the South established the pro-slavery United Synod of the South. Old School Presbyterians remained united until after the start of hostilities in the American Civil War . In May 1861,

3885-411: The Bible. At the forefront of the controversy in the PCUSA was Charles A. Briggs , a professor at PCUSA's Union Theological Seminary in New York. While Briggs held to traditional Christian teaching in many areas, such as his belief in the virgin birth of Jesus , conservatives were alarmed by his assertion that doctrines were historical constructs that had to change over time. He did not believe that

3996-514: The Carolinas. Compared to the Church of Scotland, the plan gave presbyteries more power and autonomy. Synods and the General Assembly were to be "agencies for unifying the life of the Church, considering appeals, and promoting the general welfare of the Church as a whole." The plan included provisions from the Church of Scotland's Barrier Act of 1697, which required the General Assembly to receive

4107-552: The Eastern Seaboard to settle further inland. One of the results was that the PCUSA signed a Plan of Union with the Congregationalists of New England in 1801, which formalized cooperation between the two bodies and attempted to provide adequate visitation and preaching for frontier congregations, along with eliminating rivalry between the two denominations. The large growth rate of the Presbyterian Church in

4218-567: The First Great Awakening, Presbyterian ministers were divided over their assessment of the fruits of the new wave of revivals. Many pointed to "excesses" displayed by some participants as signs that the revivals were theologically compromised, such as groans, laughter, convulsions and "jerks" (see religious ecstasy , holy laughter and slain in the Spirit ). There was also concern over the tendency of revivalist ministers to advocate

4329-410: The General Assembly to take action against Briggs. The 1891 General Assembly vetoed his appointment to Union Theological Seminary's chair of Biblical studies , and two years later Briggs was found guilty of heresy and suspended from the ministry. Ultimately, Union Theological Seminary refused to remove Briggs from his position and severed its ties to the Presbyterian Church. In 1892, conservatives in

4440-573: The General Assembly were successful in adopting the Portland Deliverance, a statement named for the assembly's meeting place, Portland, Oregon. The Deliverance reasserted the church's belief in biblical inerrancy and required any minister who could not affirm the Bible as "the only infallible rule of faith and practice" to withdraw from the Presbyterian ministry. The Portland Deliverance would be used to convict Briggs of heresy. In

4551-410: The General Assembly's attempt to promote peace and unity, two distinct factions, the Old School and the New School, developed through the 1820s over the issues of confessional subscription , revivalism, and the spread of New England theology. The New School faction advocated revivalism and New England theology, while the Old School was opposed to the extremes of revivalism and desired strict conformity to

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4662-442: The General Assembly. In 1903, two chapters on "The Holy Spirit " and "The Love of God and Missions" were added to the Confession and a reference to the pope being the anti-christ was deleted. Most objectionable to conservatives, a new " Declaratory Statement " was added to clarify the church's doctrine of election. Conservatives criticized the "Declaratory Statement" and claimed that it promoted Arminianism. The 1903 revision of

4773-639: The Native Americans. New Side Presbyterians were responsible for founding Princeton University (originally the College of New Jersey) primarily to train ministers in 1746. By 1758, both sides were ready for reconciliation. Over the years, New Side revivalism had become less radical. At the same time, Old Side Presbyterians were experiencing numerical decline and were eager to share in the New Side's vitality and growth. The two synods merged to become

4884-428: The New School Presbyterian Church. In 1858, Southern synods and presbyteries belonging to the New School withdrew and established the pro-slavery United Synod of the Presbyterian Church. Old School Presbyterians followed in 1861 after the start of hostilities in the American Civil War . In May, the Old School General Assembly passed the controversial Gardiner Spring Resolutions , which called for Presbyterians to support

4995-479: The New School dominated General Assembly of 1831 dismissed the charges. Lyman Beecher , famous revivalist, moral reformer and president of the newly established Lane Theological Seminary , was charged with heresy in 1835 but was also acquitted. The most radical figure in the New School faction was prominent evangelist Charles Grandison Finney . Finney's revivals were characterized by his "New Measures", which included protracted meetings , extemporaneous preaching ,

5106-430: The New Side resented. Tensions between the two sides continued to escalate until the Synod of May 1741, which ended with a definite split between the two factions. The Old Side retained control of the Synod of Philadelphia, and it immediately required unconditional subscription to the Westminster Confession with no option to state scruples. The New Side founded the Synod of New York . The new Synod required subscription to

5217-433: The North and a majority of their presbyteries approved the reunion in 1869 of the PCUSA. In the decades after the reunion of 1869, conservatives expressed fear over the threat of " broad churchism " and modernist theology . Such fears were prompted in part by heresy trials (such as the 1874 acquittal of popular Chicago preacher David Swing ) and a growing movement to revise the Westminster Confession. This liberal movement

5328-431: The Northeast was accompanied by the creation of moral reform organizations, such as Sunday schools , temperance associations, tract and Bible societies , and orphanages. The proliferation of voluntary organizations was encouraged by postmillennialism , the belief that the Second Coming of Christ would occur at the end of an era of peace and prosperity fostered by human effort . The 1815 General Assembly recommended

5439-500: The Northeast was also accompanied by revivalism. While calmer and more reserved than those in the South, the revivals of the Second Great Awakening transformed religion in the Northeast, and they were often led by Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The Plan of Union led to the spread of New England theology (also known as the New Divinity and New Haven theology ), originally conceived by Congregationalists. The New England theology modified and softened traditional Calvinism, rejecting

5550-498: The Northeast was in part due to the adoption of Congregationalist settlers along the western frontier. Not unlike the circuit riders in the Episcopal and Methodist traditions, the presbyteries often sent out licentiates to minister in multiple congregations that were spread out over a wide area. To meet the need for educated clergy, Princeton Theological Seminary and Union Presbyterian Seminary were founded in 1812, followed by Auburn Theological Seminary in 1821. Growth in

5661-419: The Old School General Assembly passed the controversial Gardiner Spring Resolutions that called on Presbyterians to support the Federal Government of the United States as a religious duty. Southerners, with support from a minority of Northerners, protested that this action violated the spirituality of the church and required Southerners to commit treason against their home states in order to remain members of

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5772-489: The Old School was opposed to the extremes of revivalism and desired strict conformity to the Westminster Confession , the Presbyterian Church's doctrinal standard. Many New School Presbyterians were also supportive of moral reform movements, such as abolitionism . As a result, after 1838 most Southern Presbyterians aligned with the Old School Presbyterian Church. The reluctance of the Old School General Assembly to rule on moral and political questions not explicitly addressed in

5883-423: The Old School's repudiation of its teaching against involving the church in political affairs. A majority of Old School leaders in the North were convinced of the orthodoxy of the New School. Some within the Old School, chiefly Princeton theologian Charles Hodge, claimed that there were still ministers within the New School who adhered to New Haven theology. Nevertheless, the Old and New School General Assemblies in

5994-457: The PCA, the PCUS drafted a "Declaration of Faith", which paralleled the social concerns expressed in the UPCUSA's Confession of 1967 . While it was approved by the General Assembly of 1976, it failed to receive a requisite supermajority of the presbyteries (largely due to opposition states where loyalist conservatives remained), and the 1977 General Assembly instead approved it for study purposes, without binding authority. That issue became moot upon

6105-438: The Presbyterian Church in the USA. The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decided that the Old School body was the legal successor of the undivided PCUSA. The Synod of Philadelphia and New York had expressed moderate abolitionist sentiments in 1787 when it recommended that all its members "use the most prudent measures consistent with the interests and state of civil society, in the countries where they live, to procure eventually

6216-400: The Presbyterians United for Biblical Concerns, the majority report was rejected by the General Assembly, which voted overwhelmingly to affirm instead that “unrepentant homosexual practice does not accord with the requirements of ordination as set forth in the Book of Church Order ." Another controversy rocked the UPCUSA when the National Capital Union presbytery voted to receive a minister by

6327-404: The South. Between 1867 and 1874, the church welcomed the Patapsco Presbytery of Maryland, the Kentucky Synod , and the Missouri Synod after those jurisdictions withdrew from the Old School PCUSA in protest over political actions taken by that denomination. Between 1867 and 1870, the church absorbed the Alabama and Kentucky Presbyteries of the Associate Reformed Church , a denomination with roots in

6438-424: The Springfield Presbytery and become the founders of the American Restoration Movement , from which the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Churches of Christ denominations originate. Meanwhile, the Cumberland Presbytery , also within the Kentucky Synod, faced a shortage of ministers and decided to license clergy candidates who were less educated than was typical and who could not subscribe completely to

6549-415: The Synod of New York and Philadelphia. The united Synod was founded on New Side terms: subscription according to the terms of the Adopting Act; presbyteries were responsible for examining and licensing ordination candidates; candidates were to be examined for learning, orthodoxy and their "experimental acquaintance with religion" (i.e. their personal conversion experiences); and revivals were acknowledged as

6660-411: The Synod of South Carolina, in which the seminary was located, prohibited the teaching of evolution in 1884. Similar actions were taken by the synods of Georgia, South Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. Columbia's board of directors was reorganized, and it voted to fire Woodrow. He refused to vacate his position and appealed to Augusta Presbytery, which exonerated him of any heresy in August 1886. This decision

6771-572: The U.S.A. began to modify Calvinism, and experiment with confessional revision, in the later part of the 19th and into the early 20th centuries, the PCUS prided itself in being the bastion of "Old School" Presbyterianism, stoutly resisting calls for change to accommodate liberalizing sensibilities. However, in the immediate years after World War II , many ministers and churches, especially in larger cities, began to embrace, or at least tolerate, modernist and neo-orthodox understandings of doctrine and church life. One important product of this liberalization

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6882-421: The UPCUSA and the PCUS), and in 1970, a "Plan of Union" was drawn up. Union did not take place for another thirteen years. Another important event occurred in 1965, when Rachel Henderlite became the first woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church in the United States; she was ordained by the Hanover Presbytery in Virginia. The response to the civil rights movement in effect split the PCUS into three factions:

6993-411: The UPCUSA continued its more liberal shift, talks had begun regarding a merger between the UPCUSA and the Presbyterian Church in the United States , who had split from the main Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1861 due to the Civil War. Initially committed to “Old School” Presbyterianism, the PCUS had been beginning a shift towards liberalism in the 1950s and 1960s, including allowing

7104-414: The UPCUSA, which would lead to the exodus of several well-known congregations and members. In keeping with the practice of the PC-USA (which the PC-USA had begun in 1956) the UPCUSA continued the ordination of women. When the union between the UPCNA and the PC-USA occurred in 1958, it was understood that the new denomination would permit, but not require female ministers However, in 1974, Walter W. Kenyon,

7215-419: The United Domestic Missionary Society to become the American Home Missionary Society . The Congregational American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) became the recognized missions agency of the General Assembly, and the United Foreign Missionary Society's operations were merged with the American Board. By 1831, the majority of board members and missionaries of the ABCFM were Presbyterians. As

7326-421: The United States (PCUS) and was commonly nicknamed the "Southern Presbyterian Church" throughout its history, while the PCUSA was known as the "Northern Presbyterian Church". By the 1850s, New School Presbyterians in the North had moved to more moderate positions and reasserted a stronger Presbyterian identity. This was helped in 1852 when the Plan of Union between the New School Church and the Congregationalists

7437-507: The Westminster Confession eventually led a large number of congregations from the Arminian–leaning Cumberland Presbyterian Church to reunite with the PCUSA in 1906. While overwhelmingly approved, the reunion caused controversy within the PCUSA due to concerns over doctrinal compatibility and racial segregation in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Warfield was a strong critic of the merger on doctrinal grounds. Northern Presbyterians, such as Francis James Grimké and Herrick Johnson , objected to

7548-407: The Westminster Confession in accordance with the Adopting Act, but no college degrees were required for ordination. While the controversy raged, American Presbyterians were also concerned with expanding their influence. In 1740, a New York Board of the Society in Scotland for the Propagation of Christian Knowledge was established. Four years later, David Brainerd was assigned as a missionary to

7659-479: The Westminster Confession. In 1805, the synod suspended many of these ministers, even bringing heresy charges against a number of them, and by 1806 the synod had dissolved the presbytery. In 1810, ministers dissatisfied with the actions of the synod formed the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC). The CPC subscribed to a modified form of the Westminster Confession that rejected the Calvinist doctrines of double predestination and limited atonement . Church growth in

7770-578: The Westminster Confession. The ideological center of Old School Presbyterianism was Princeton Theological Seminary, which under the leadership of Archibald Alexander and Charles Hodge became associated with a brand of Reformed scholasticism known as Princeton Theology . Heresy trials of prominent New School leaders further deepened the division within the denomination. Both the Presbytery and Synod of Philadelphia found Albert Barnes , pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, guilty of heresy. Old School Presbyterians, however, were outraged when

7881-495: The approval of a majority of presbyteries before making major changes to the church's constitution and doctrine. The constitution included the Westminster Confession of Faith, together with the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, as the church's subordinate standard (i.e. subordinate to the Bible ) in addition to the (substantially altered) Westminster Directory . The Westminster Confession was modified to bring its teaching on civil government in line with American practices. In 1787,

7992-479: The cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature". Witherspoon and 11 other Presbyterians were signatories to the Declaration of Independence . Even before the war, many Presbyterian felt that the single synod system was no longer adequate to meet the needs of a numerically and geographically expanding church. All clergy were supposed to attend annual meetings of

8103-464: The church. After the May meeting of the General Assembly, some presbyteries in the South immediately renounced the jurisdiction of the General Assembly. On August 15, a convention in Atlanta, Georgia, representing 17 presbyteries, encouraged all presbyteries who had not done so to renounce the General Assembly's jurisdiction. It also recommended that the constitution of the church remain unchanged, with

8214-470: The convention and elected Benjamin M. Palmer its first moderator . After the Confederacy's defeat, the church renamed itself as the "Presbyterian Church in the United States". The denomination grew during its early years in part due to the absorption of a number of smaller Presbyterian groups. In 1864, the church re-united with Southern New School Presbyterians when it merged with the United Synod of

8325-574: The creation of racially segregated presbyteries in the South, a concession demanded by the Cumberland Presbyterians as the price for reunion. Despite these objections, the merger was overwhelmingly approved. United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ( UPCUSA ) was the largest branch of Presbyterianism in the United States from May 28, 1958, to 1983. It

8436-675: The creation of societies to promote morality. Organizations such as the American Bible Society , the American Sunday School Union , and the American Colonization Society , while theoretically interdenominational, were dominated by Presbyterians and considered unofficial agencies of the Presbyterian Church. The support of missionary work was also a priority in the 19th century. The first General Assembly requested that each of

8547-423: The deity of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy and authority of Scripture" on the part of PCUS leaders. Some evangelicals, however, remained in the PCUS in order to contend for their beliefs; this group was more willing to perceive common cause with UPCUSA conservatives. By the 2000s, some churches from both lines began to depart from the post-merger denomination over similar concerns and moral disputes, namely in favor of

8658-412: The denomination's perceived focus on social action that the Confession of 1967 in particular appeared to endorse, nine-tenths of the presbyteries approved the new documents. Generally speaking, the UPCUSA, especially its leadership, was a strong supporter of progressive causes, such as civil rights and feminism . Eugene Carson Blake , who served as the stated clerk of the UPCUSA from 1954 until 1966,

8769-601: The denomination's responsibility to refuse ordination to those who did not theologically accept the ordination of women, as the General Assembly had no power to grant the presbytery an exception to an already explicit constitutional provision. Furthermore, in 1979, the General Assembly ruled that all congregations must elect both men and women to the office of ruling elder. The ruling resulted in an exodus of approximately forty congregations, including Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, which would eventually realign with

8880-499: The doctrine of imputation of Adam's sin , adopting the governmental theory of atonement , and embracing a greater emphasis on free will. It was essentially an attempt to construct a Calvinism conducive to revivalism. While the Synod of Philadelphia condemned the New Divinity as heretical in 1816, the General Assembly disagreed, concluding that New England theology did not conflict with the Westminster Confession. Notwithstanding

8991-618: The exception of replacing the phrase "Presbyterian Church in the United States of America" with the name "Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America". A general assembly was scheduled to meet in Augusta, Georgia, on December 4, and by that time 47 presbyteries and 10 synods had severed ties to PCUSA. The first General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church accepted the recommendations of

9102-409: The final abolition of slavery in America". At the same time, Presbyterians in the South were content to reinforce the status quo in their religious teaching, such as in "The Negro Catechism" written by North Carolina Presbyterian minister Henry Pattillo. In Pattillo's catechism , slaves were taught that their roles in life had been ordained by God. In 1795, the General Assembly ruled that slaveholding

9213-784: The first presbytery in North America, the Presbytery of Philadelphia . The presbytery was primarily created to promote fellowship and discipline among its members and only gradually developed into a governing body. Initially, member congregations were located in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland. Further growth led to the creation of the Synod of Philadelphia (known as the "General Synod") in 1717. The synod's membership consisted of all ministers and one lay elder from every congregation. The synod still had no official confessional statement. The Church of Scotland and

9324-552: The foundation of what would become the Presbyterian Church of Ireland . By the second half of the 17th century, Presbyterians were immigrating to British North America . Scottish and Scotch-Irish immigrants contributed to a strong Presbyterian presence in the Middle Colonies , particularly Philadelphia . Before 1706, however, Presbyterian congregations were not yet organized into presbyteries or synods . In 1706, seven ministers led by Francis Makemie established

9435-834: The four synods appoint and support two missionaries. Presbyterians took leading roles in creating early local and independent mission societies, including the New York Missionary Society (1796), the Northern Berkshire and Columbia Missionary Societies (1797), the Missionary Society of Connecticut (1798), the Massachusetts Missionary Society (1799), and the Boston Female Society for Missionary Purposes (1800). The first denominational missions agency

9546-449: The name of Mansfield Kaseman, a move that was upheld by the 1981 General Assembly. Ordained in the United Church of Christ , Kaseman declined to affirm straightforwardly the deity of Christ, His sinless nature and the bodily resurrection. This case resulted in a further wave of departures from the UPCUSA, including those who founded the Evangelical Presbyterian Church , along with longtime Pittsburgh Seminary professor John Gerstner . As

9657-431: The necessity of a conscious conversion experience and the need for higher moral standards among the clergy. Other Presbyterians were concerned that revivalism presented a threat to church order. In particular, the practice of itinerant preaching across presbytery boundaries and the tendency of revivalists to doubt the conversion experiences of other ministers caused controversy between supporters of revivalism, known as

9768-425: The new Pittsburgh Theological Seminary . As had been customary for centuries, the UPCUSA originally held solely to the Westminster Confession of Faith and catechisms. But, one of the details of the 1958 merger was to revise the Westminster Confession. Realizing that the task of revising the Westminster Confession was too much of a burden and potentially divisive, the commission developed a new confession. Known as

9879-574: The new nation. In 1861, Presbyterians in the Southern United States split from the denomination because of disputes over slavery, politics, and theology precipitated by the American Civil War . They established the Presbyterian Church in the United States , often called the "Southern Presbyterian Church". The PCUSA, in turn, was described as the Northern Presbyterian Church . Despite the PCUSA's designation as

9990-511: The ordination of women in 1964. While there had been a failed attempt to merge the UPCUSA and the PCUS in 1954, there had been increased cooperation between the two denominations, including joint foreign mission boards, a new hymnal in 1955, union presbyteries in 1968, and in 1970, the so-called “Plan of Union” was drafted. With the December 1973 creation of the National Presbyterian Church , which would soon be renamed

10101-415: The plan was sent to the presbyteries for ratification. The synod held its last meeting in May 1788. The first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America met in Philadelphia in May 1789. At that time, the church had four synods, 16 presbyteries, 177 ministers, 419 congregations and an estimated membership of 18,000. The late 18th and early 19th centuries saw Americans leaving

10212-716: The progressive views of many members, a scandal erupted in 1970 and 1971 when the denomination gave $ 25,000 to defend the Black Panthers and $ 10,000 to the Angela Davis Defense Fund. Katie Cannon was ordained on April 24, 1974, in Shelby, North Carolina , by the Catawba Presbytery, in the Synod of Catawba, becoming the first African-American woman to be ordained in the UPCUSA. In December 1960, UPCUSA stated clerk, Eugene Blake, preached

10323-629: The social standing of historic upper-class white elites within Southern society, a fair percentage of whom were PCUS members. Having been eventually defeated numerous times in the General Assembly by a coalition of the liberals and moderates from the 1960s onward, some PCUS conservatives, primarily from non-metropolitan parts of the Deep South , founded what today is the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) in late 1973. They cited its rationale as "[a] long-developing theological liberalism which denied

10434-402: The synod, but some years attendance was less than thirty percent. In 1785, a proposal for the creation of a General Assembly went before the synod, and a special committee was formed to draw up a plan of government. Under the plan, the old synod was divided into four new synods all under the authority of the General Assembly. The synods were New York and New Jersey, Philadelphia, Virginia, and

10545-665: The synod, which would then decide if the minister's views were acceptable. While crafted as a compromise, the Adopting Act was opposed by those who favored strict adherence to the Confession. Christianity • Protestantism During the 1730s and 1740s, the Presbyterian Church was divided over the impact of the First Great Awakening . Drawing from the Scotch-Irish revivalist tradition, evangelical ministers such as William and Gilbert Tennent emphasized

10656-627: The system of doctrine taught in Holy Scripture?" After 1967, the ordination vows read: "Do you sincerely receive and adopt the essential tenets of the Reformed Faith as expressed in the confession of our church as authentic and reliable expositions of what Scripture leads us to believe and do, and will you be instructed and led by those confessions as you lead the people of God?" Despite strong opposition from conservative evangelicals , much of which dovetailed with their hostility toward

10767-436: The twentieth century, Presbyterian and Episcopalians tended to be wealthier and more educated (having more graduate and postgraduate degrees per capita) than most other religious groups in the United States, and were disproportionately represented in the upper reaches of American business , law, and politics. The Boston Brahmins , who were regarded as the nation's social and cultural elites, were often associated with

10878-528: Was ecumenism , expressed in merger talks with the "northern" Presbyterian Church, known as the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America after 1958 (despite the common reference as "northern", the UPCUSA had congregations in all 50 states by the 20th century, with most of its southern churches the result of a 1906 merger with most of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church or the affiliation of African-American churches in

10989-562: Was appealed to the General Assembly, which after five days of debate ordered Woodrow's removal from his professorship. Despite his removal, Woodrow continued to be considered a member in good standing of the PCUS and was elected moderator of the South Carolina Synod in 1901. Nevertheless, the overwhelming sentiment of the PCUS was that evolutionary theory was a threat to Christian orthodoxy. As a result, Southern Presbyterians would disengage from scientific developments for more than

11100-601: Was called the “Consultation on Church Union,” but would be eventually renamed the “ Churches of Christ Uniting ”. The UPCUSA was also part of both the National Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches, the latter of which Blake would become the General Secretary of in 1966. Despite being the largest Presbyterian body in the United States, controversies and schisms would soon shake

11211-671: Was celebrated in Atlanta with the new denomination taking the name of the "Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)". The PCUS was one of the more conservative bodies of Presbyterianism throughout most of its history, with a strong emphasis on subscription to the Westminster Confession and interest in Calvinist scholasticism, particularly as expressed in Common Sense Realism and later the Princeton Theology . In fact, as their northern counterparts in Presbyterian Church in

11322-634: Was discontinued. Northern Presbyterians of both the Old and New School participated in the Christian Commission that provided religious and social services to Union soldiers during the Civil War. Furthermore, both schools boldly proclaimed the righteousness of the Union cause and engaged in speculation about the role of a newly restored America in ushering in the millennium . This was, in effect,

11433-405: Was evident in its increasing identification with the abolitionist movement. The Old School, however, was convinced that the General Assembly and the larger church should not legislate on moral issues that were not explicitly addressed in the Bible. This effectively drove the majority of Southern Presbyterians to support the Old School faction. The first definitive split over slavery occurred within

11544-431: Was formed by the union of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America (PCUSA), often referred to as the "Northern" Presbyterian Church, with the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA), a smaller church of Covenanter - Seceder tradition at a conference in downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania , in May 1958. Vigorous ecumenical activity on the part of PCUSA leaders led to this merger, something of

11655-482: Was increasingly reluctant to address the issue, preferring to take a moderate stance in the debate, but by the 1830s, tensions over slavery were increasing at the same time the church was dividing over the Old School–New School Controversy. The conflict between Old School and New School factions merged with the slavery controversy. The New School's enthusiasm for moral reform and voluntary societies

11766-489: Was named the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America . It was a predecessor to the contemporary Presbyterian Church (USA) . The denomination originated in colonial times when members of the Church of Scotland and Presbyterians from Ireland first immigrated to America. After the American Revolution , the PCUSA was organized in Philadelphia to provide national leadership for Presbyterians in

11877-503: Was not grounds for excommunication but also expressed support for the eventual abolition of slavery. Later, the General Assembly called slavery "a gross violation of the most precious and sacred rights of human nature; as utterly inconsistent with the law of God". Nevertheless, in 1818, George Bourne , an abolitionist and Presbyterian minister serving in Virginia, was defrocked by his Southern presbytery in retaliation for his strong criticisms of Christian slaveholders. The General Assembly

11988-658: Was one such revival that first grew out of meetings led by Presbyterian minister James McGready . The most famous camp meeting of the Second Great Awakening, the Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky, occurred during a traditional Scottish communion season under the leadership of local Presbyterian minister Barton W. Stone . Over 10 thousand people came to Cane Ridge to hear sermons from Presbyterian as well as Methodist and Baptist preachers. Like

12099-544: Was opposed by Princeton theologians A. A. Hodge and B. B. Warfield . While Darwinian evolution never became an issue for northern Presbyterians as most accommodated themselves to some form of theistic evolution , the new discipline of biblical interpretation known as higher criticism would become highly controversial. Utilizing comparative linguistics, archaeology, and literary analysis, German proponents of high criticism, such as Julius Wellhausen and David Friedrich Strauss , began questioning long-held assumptions about

12210-549: Was particularly active in the civil rights movement, including partaking in the August 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom , with Martin Luther King Jr. The following year, the UPCUSA took an unprecedented step in electing Edler Garnet Hawkins (1908-1977), an African American, who had served as pastor of St. Augustine Presbyterian Church, as moderator, a position which he filled until 1970. However, despite

12321-711: Was the Standing Committee on Mission, which was created in 1802 to coordinate efforts with individual presbyteries and the European missionary societies. The work of the committee was expanded in 1816, becoming the Board of Missions. In 1817, the General Assembly joined with two other Reformed denominations, the American branch of the Dutch Reformed Church (now the Reformed Church in America ) and

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