| 1640 |
The Southampton,
Long Island, congregation, generally reckoned to be the oldest Presbyterian
church in the USA, organizes. |
| 1647 |
The "Humble
Advice of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster," now known
as the Westminster Confession of Faith, published. Intended as a consensus
confession for all of the United Kingdom, the Confession, with its
catechisms, becomes the confessional standard for Presbyterian churches
in Scotland (1648). |
| 1683 |
Francis Makemie,
whose work in founding churches in the US earns him the title, "Father
of American Presbyterianism," arrives from Ireland. |
| 1706 |
Makemie, with
six other ministers, organizes the first presbytery in the American
colonies in Philadelphia. |
| 1718 |
William Tennent,
minister and educator, arrives in Philadelphia. His cabin academy,
dubbed the "Log College," (1746) evolves over several
decades into the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University). |
| 1729 |
The Adopting
Act establishes the Westminster Confession and its Larger and Shorter
Catechisms, "in all the essential and necessary articles,"
as the confessional standard for the American church. |
| 1741 |
"Old
Side" and "New Side" factions within the church,
at odds over the excitements of the First Great Awakening, divide
into separate synods. The schism, the first in the American church,
lasts for seventeen years. |
| 1749 |
Jonathan Edwards,
foremost of American Reformed theologians, publishes The Life
of David Brainerd, missionary to the Indians. The Life
becomes one of the most popular religious biographies of the century. |
| 1755 |
Samuel Davies,
evangelist and educator, helps organize the Presbytery of Hanover
(VA) and prepares the way for substantial Presbyterian church growth
in the Upper South. |
| 1768 |
John Witherspoon,
minister and educator, arrives in Princeton to be president of the
College of New Jersey. A delegate to the Continental Congress, he
becomes the only active minister to sign the Declaration of Independence,
1776. |
| 1789 |
The first
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA meets in
Philadelphia, May 21. |
| 1801 |
The Presbyterian
General Assembly and New England congregationalists agree to a Plan
of Union, a spectacularly successful cooperative work to plant churches
on the frontier. In the West, Barton StoneÌs "sacramental meeting"
at Cane Ridge, KY, breaks out into six or seven days of frantic
revival. Waves of camp meeting revivals spread throughout the South
and Midwest giving rise to the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (1810)
and other denominations. |
| 1807 |
First
African Presbyterian Church organized in Philadelphia, the first
African-American Presbyterian church in the U.S. |
| 1812 |
The
Theological Seminary at Princeton established by the General Assembly
as its first national school for ministers. |
| 1816 |
Isabella
Graham and Joanna Bethune, pioneers in female and childhood education,
found the Female Society for the Promotion of Sabbath Schools. The
Bellevue Church, Caledonia, MO, the first Presbyterian church west
of the Mississippi, is organized. |
| 1817 |
A
local adult Sunday school union, founded by Alexander Henry, a Presbyterian
layman (1816), becomes the American Sunday School Union. The ASSU
will become one of the largest of private benevolent agencies in
the nation. |
| 1818 |
The
General Assembly pronounces against slavery and calls for gradual
emancipation, but George Bourne, an immigrant Scottish cleric, whose
tract The Book and Slavery Irreconcilable (1816) infuriates
the South is deposed from the ministry. |
| 1822 |
Charles
Hodge begins his long (1822-1878) and distinguished teaching career
at Princeton Seminary. He eventually trains over two thousand students. |
| 1831 |
The
Synod of Pittsburgh organizes the Western Foreign Missionary Society,
the precursor to the Board of Foreign Missions. |
| 1833 |
John
B. Pinney, first foreign missionary of the PCUSA, sails for Liberia. |
| 1834 |
Albert
Barnes, minister of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia
and popular Bible commentator, publishes his Notes on Romans,
and is tried for heresy (1835). His acquittal in 1836 was a leading
cause in the Old School/New School division. |
| 1837 |
After
a decade of increasing theological and institutional tensions, the
"Old School" party of the General Assembly abrogates the
1801 Plan of Union and expels four largely "New School"
synods from the denomination, precipitating a bitter 30 year national
division of the Church. Board of Foreign Missions established. Elijah
Lovejoy, minister and abolitionist publisher, dies while defending
his printing press against a pro-slavery mob in Alton, IL.
|
| 1838 |
First
Presbyterian church in the Pacific Northwest organized, Waiilatpu,
WA. |
| 1840 |
Daniel
Baker, the "apostle of Presbyterianism in Texas," and
eventual founder of Austin College, lands at Galveston to begin
a career as missionary and church builder. |
| 1842 |
Henry
Highland Garnet, a freed slave, is ordained by the Troy (NY) Presbytery.
Editor, preacher and abolitionist, Garnet eventually preaches before
Congress and becomes the U.S. ambassador to Liberia. |
| 1847 |
Marcus
and Narcissa Whitman, celebrated explorers and medical missionaries
in the Pacific Northwest are killed, blamed for a measles epidemic
that decimated the native population but left them untouched. |
| 1851 |
Stephen
Colwell, Philadelphia manufacturer, calls attention to the increasing
poverty of the Northern industrial cities in New Themes for the
Protestant Clergy. |
| 1853 |
First
Chinese Presbyterian church organized by William Speer in California. |
| 1854 |
Ashmun
Institute, later Lincoln University (Oxford, PA), founded by John
M. Dickey. The school becomes one of the major colleges for African-Americans
following the Civil War. |
| 1855 |
Charles
Baird re-introduces American congregations to their largely forgotten
liturgical past in Eutaxia: or the Presbyterian Liturgies. |
| 1858 |
Two
denominations which trace their roots back to 18th cent. Scottish
dissenters unite to form the United Presbyterian Church of North
America. |
| 1859 |
Anna
Warner, New York author of several popular but sentimental novels,
publishes Say and Seal, in which appears "Jesus Loves
Me," soon to become the anthem of the American Sunday school
movement. |
| 1861 |
In
the midst of the Secession Crisis, the General Assembly (OS) pledges
loyalty to the Federal government. Southern commissioners protest
and withdraw. The Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States
of America (renamed the PCUS in 1865) organizes in Augusta that
winter. |
| 1869 |
Reunion
of the Old and New School General Assemblies in Pittsburgh, ending
the "Presbyterian Thirty Years War." |
| 1870
|
Women's
Foreign Missionary Society, the oldest and largest of the womenÌs
boards dedicated to the cause of foreign missions, organized in Philadelphia. |
| 1877 |
The
First General Presbyterian Council meets in Edinburgh Scotland.
The ecumenical venture eventually results in the World Alliance
of Reformed Churches. |
| 1884 |
Sheldon
Jackson, tireless missionary on the western frontier and founder
of dozens of churches, becomes first superintendent of public instruction
for Alaska Territory. Alarmed by starvation among the Eskimos, Jackson
directs the introduction of Siberian reindeer into Alaska (1891). |
| 1889 |
Louisa
Woosley, first woman Presbyterian minister, ordained in the Cumberland
Presbyterian Church. The Cumberland General Assembly refuses to
recognize her ordination for two decades. |
| 1892 |
Charles
Briggs, brilliant and argumentative professor at Union Seminary,
NY, is embroiled one of the most publicized heresy trials in the
churchÌs history due to his "higher-critical" views of
Scripture. Reacting to the controversy, the General Assembly adopts
language defending the "inerrancy" of Scripture. |
| 1895 |
The
Hymnal, edited by Louis Benson, is published as an official
hymn book for the PCUSA. It becomes a model for subsequent church
hymn books. |
| 1896 |
William
Jennings Bryan, journalist, politician, crusader, and sometime Bible
commentator runs for President for the first time at age thirty-six.
He runs twice again before serving in Woodrow WilsonÌs cabinet (1912). |
| 1903 |
PCUSA
adds two new chapters and two Declaratory Statements to the Westminster
Confession-the first substantial changes to the confessional standards
since their adoption. |
| 1906
|
The
majority of Cumberland Presbyterian churches reunite with the Presbyterian
Church in the USA, ending a division of nearly 100 years. |
| 1908 |
The
Federal Council of Churches, parent body to the National Council
of Churches (1950) organized with heavy Presbyterian participation. |
| 1910 |
The
Fundamentals, an non-denominational tract series sponsored by
two Presbyterian elders, is distributed widely across the nation.
The series gives its name to the growing "Fundamentalist"
movement. |
| 1912 |
Woodrow
Wilson, Presbyterian elder, and a son of the manse, elected President.
He is still considered by some to be the most deliberately theological
of U.S. Presidents. |
| 1930 |
The
PCUSA's constitution is amended to allow women to be ordained elders. |
| 1936 |
J.
Gresham Machen, minister, scholar, and author of Christianity and
Liberalism (1923), leads a secession from the PCUSA which becomes
the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. |
| 1948 |
The
Faith and Life Curriculum, a highly ambitious and integrated educational
program launched by the PCUSA. PCUS adopts a broadly similar Covenant
Life Curriculum, 1963. |
| 1953 |
John
Mackay, President of Princeton Seminary and Moderator of the PCUSA
General Assembly decries the panic of McCarthyism in "A Letter
to Presbyterians." Justice William O. Douglas, a Presbyterian,
cites the "Letter" as a landmark statement against repression
(1954). |
| 1954 |
The
General Assembly of the PCUS becomes the first church body to endorse
the Supreme Court's ruling against racial segregation. |
| 1956 |
Margaret
Towner is ordained as the first woman minister in the PCUSA. Rachel
Henderlite becomes the first in the PCUS, 1965. |
| 1958 |
The
PCUSA and the United Presbyterian Church of North America unite
to form the UPCUSA, the largest Presbyterian denomination in the
country. |
| 1964 |
Edler
Hawkins elected first African-American moderator of the UPCUSA General
Assembly. Lawrence Bottoms elected first Black moderator of the
PCUS, 1974. |
| 1966 |
Eugene
Carson Blake, minister, ecumenist, and civil rights leader, becomes
general secretary of the World Council of Churches. An ardent advocate
of Christian unity, Blake gave early leadership to the Consultation
on Church Union. |
| 1967 |
UPCUSA
supplements the Westminster Confession with a Book of Confessions,
containing Christian confessions from the fourth century to the
twentieth, including the newly-drafted Confession of 1967. |
| 1972 |
Lois
Stair elected first woman moderator of the General Assembly, UPCUSA.
Sarah Moseley elected first woman moderator of the GA, PCUS, 1978. |
| 1983 |
The
UPCUSA and the PCUS, the largest American Presbyterian denominations,
reunite after 122 years. |
| 1986 |
Holly Haile
Smith is ordained as the first Native American woman in the PC(USA). |
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