Guide to the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. Presbytery of New York Committee of Ministerial Oversight: Case of Stuart Hamilton Merriam Records

Presbyteries of the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. are charged with overseeing the churches within their bounds. When Broadway Presbyterian Church in New York City was at odds with its new minister, Stuart Merriam, the Presbytery of New York appointed an Administrative Commission to investigate and and prosecute the matter.

Stuart Hamilton Merriam was born in Schenectady, NY, on March 15, 1924. He earned an AB degree at Union College in that city and went on to study at Princeton Theological Seminary for two years. He spent his senior year at Knox College, Toronto, and earned his PhD in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1956. In 1957 he became pastor of First Presbyterian Church, Portsmouth, VA, and in 1961 he accepted a call from the Broadway Presbyterian Church of New York City. Barely a year later the New York Presbytery dismissed him from this church. Merriam travelled to New Guinea as a missionary, returning to the United States in 1965 and thereupon resigning from the Presbyterian Church.