GA History: Photos from the 202nd General Assembly

This year, the PC(USA) General Assembly gathering is making its way west — the destination? Salt Lake City. This isn’t the first time the denominational meeting has crowded the streets of Salt Lake, though. Back in 1990, swaths of denim-clad congregants swarmed the beautiful, mountain-rimmed city, and, thanks to the photographs of Ronald B. Rice, whose personal papers are housed in the PHS archives, we can take a trip back in time to walk alongside the attendees of that conference 34 years ago.

A 12-minute-long video of highlights from the 202nd GA meeting offers additional insights into the 1990 meeting. “Here Am I, Lord: Send Me” was the theme of the conference. One of the first matters at hand was the release of a new hymnal for the denomination, followed by singing and an interpretive dance performance that called worshipers to the opening communion service. Some 85 missionaries were commissioned, the largest group in more than a decade to be sent out from the U.S., and the newly elected moderator set fire to the mortgage papers for the Presbyterian Center in Louisville.

The outgoing moderator of the 202nd GA, the Rev. Joan Salmon Campbell, announced her successor: Price Gwynn, a World War II veteran and elder at Steele Creek Presbyterian Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. Campbell has since passed away (2019), as has Gwynn (2022), though their memories and legacies live on through these moments frozen in time. 

View more images from the 202nd General Assembly in Salt Lake City on the GA News.