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presbyterian heritage sunday
Over 14,000 Presbyterians gathered at the World Congress Center in Atlanta the evening of June 10, 1983, to hear the Declaration of Reunion and celebrate communion. After 122 years of separation, the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) and United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) came together again in 1983 to form the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).
Soon after Congress passed the 13th Amendment in 1865, officially ending slavery in the United States, the chaplain of Congress asked the Rev. Henry Highland Garnet to preach before the House of Representatives on Capitol Hill.
In many ways, Garnet was a logical choice for the Sunday worship service. The 50-year-old pastor of Washington, D.C.’s Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church had escaped slavery as a child and grown up to become a leading abolitionist and orator. And yet Garnet was also an ardent and dedicated political activist who did not hold back when speaking out against injustice — no matter the audience.
Isabella Marshall Graham (1742–1814) was an educator and philanthropist who worked tirelessly to educate and support women and orphans.
