presbyterian historical society Archives

Virtual campaign urges Presbyterians to exercise their right to vote

Posted October 5th, 2020

With the Nov. 3 presidential election just around the corner, the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has launched a campaign to increase voter turnout, particularly among people of color.

Minute for Mission: Reformation Sunday

Posted September 28th, 2020

Two hundred years ago, William Dunlop, a professor of church history at the University of Edinburgh, published two volumes of confessions that had enjoyed “public authority” in Scotland since the Reformation. While the Westminster Standards (1647–48) filled the first volume, more than 10 earlier confessional documents — including the Geneva Catechism (1542), the Scots Confession (1560) and the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) — filled the second. By placing Westminster in the broader tradition of Reformed (“Calvinist”) theology, Dunlop honored a distinctly Reformed custom: He compiled a book of confessions.

A call for reparations

Posted May 25th, 2020

On May 27, 1970, fasting commissioners at the 182nd General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., meeting in Chicago, assigned their meal money —$5,178.60 — to the newly-created Presbyterian Committee on the Self-Development of People.

Connecting Korea’s past and present for the future of mission

Posted May 12th, 2020

Bridging the division in Korea through reunification is a dream of many. Another dream has been to compile the history of mission workers of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and partner churches in Korea from 1884 to the present. This connection of past and present mission workers in Korea by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and partner churches in Korea has become reality in the publication of the first “Korean-English Dictionary of Presbyterian Missionaries in Korea 1884-2020,” published March 27 in Korean.

Minute for Mission: Presbyterian Heritage

Posted April 22nd, 2020

Americans celebrated the first Earth Day 50 years ago this spring, on April 22, 1970. That same year the United Presbyterian Council on Church and Society undertook a study on threats facing human survival on an increasingly crowded and polluted planet. The study culminated in the 1971 United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. General Assembly adopting the council’s report, Christian Responsibility for Environmental Renewal.

A Corp looks for new ways to help ministry flourish

Posted January 21st, 2020

A Corp is not new, though it may look a little different these days.

Theological education leader Joyce C. Tucker dies

Posted July 14th, 2019

The Rev. Dr. Joyce Cummings Tucker, a Presbyterian pastor, author, and prominent leader in theological education, died Friday, July 12, in New York City following a short illness. She lived in Princeton, N.J.

Eunice Poethig, a champion for women

Posted May 16th, 2019

The next U.S. presidential primary election will feature at least three viable women candidates — a development that would have no doubt thrilled Presbyterian minister and leader Eunice Poethig. The Presbyterian Historical Society recently completed the processing of Poethig’s papers, and they illuminate her advocacy work in expanding the numbers of women and people from other marginalized communities serving as leaders in ministry and civic life.

Minute for Mission: Presbyterian Heritage

Posted April 18th, 2019

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.

The March 1st Movement: 100 years later

Posted March 27th, 2019

Mansei! The shouts rang out in support of Korean independence on March 1, 1919. After nine years of Japanese colonial rule, 33 activists — including pastors of Korean Presbyterian churches and other leading Christians — gathered in Seoul to read aloud the newly drawn up Korean Declaration of Independence. That same afternoon, crowds filled the streets in locations around the country, waving Korean flags and shouting their support for independence.