Chapell Meeks 3 F1 Church History History Of The Pca - Presbyterianism In The Usa

Front 1

How did Presbyterianism get to North America?

Back 1

Presbyterians came to North America in the great English Emigration of the Seventeenth century, settling all along the East Coast.

Front 2

Francis Makemie

Back 2

Francis Makemie, whose work in founding churches in the US earns him the title, "Father of American Presbyterianism," arrives from Ireland in 1683. Twenty three years later (1706) Makemie, with six other ministers, organized the first presbytery in the American colonies in Philadelphia.

Front 3

What was the first Presbyterian Synod in North America?

Back 3

In 1716, the Philadelphia presbytery decided to create a synod that would oversee three presbyteries (Philadelphia, New Castle, Long Island). Strangely enough the synod did not adopt a doctrinal standard at the time

Front 4

William Tennent

Back 4

William Tennent, minister and educator, arrives in Philadelphia in 1718. His began a cabin academy (dubbed the "Log College) in 1746 which evolved over several decades into the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) which would be established as the national seminary for minsters in 1812.

Front 5

Adopting Act of 1729

Back 5

The Adopting Act of 1729 established the Westminster Confession and its Larger and Shorter Catechisms, "in all the essential and necessary articles," as the confessional standard for the American church.

Front 6

Old Side / New Side

Back 6

In 1741 "Old Side" and "New Side" factions within the church, at odds over the excitements of the First Great Awakening, divide into separate synods. (New Side Leader was Gilbert Tennent).
The schism, the first in the American church, lasted for seventeen years

Front 7

John Witherspoon

Back 7

John Witherspoon, minister and educator, arrived in Princeton in 1768 to be president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton). He was a delegate to the Continental Congress, the only active minister to sign the Declaration of Independence, 1776.

Front 8

First General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA

Back 8

The first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the USA met in Philadelphia, May 21, 1789.

Front 9

Plan of Union

Back 9

The Presbyterian General Assembly and New England Congregationalists agreed to a Plan of Union in 1801 as a cooperative work to plant churches on the frontier. Not soon after at Cane Ridge, KY, frantic revival breaks out for six or seven days. Over time, waves of camp meeting revivals and the influence of Finney gave rise to issues of doctrine, polity, revivalism and social reform. These forces were leading to the Old School New School Division of 1837.

Front 10

Arbrogating Act of 1837

Back 10

After years of increasing theological and institutional tensions (1837), the "Old School" party of the General Assembly abrogated the Plan of Union (retroactively) and expelled four largely "New School" synods from the denomination.

Front 11

Birth of the PCUS

Back 11

In the midst of the United States Secession Crisis, the General Assembly (OS) pledges loyalty to the Federal government in 1861. Southern commissioners protested and withdrew. The Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States of America (renamed the PCUS in 1865) organized in Augusta that winter.

Front 12

Reunions in the PCUSA

Back 12

The 1869 Reunion of the Old and New School General Assemblies in Pittsburgh, ended what some refer to as the "Presbyterian Thirty Years War" (although note that some southern branches of Old and New School churches had already reunited in 1864 into the PCUS).

This reunion solidified the Northern Church (PCUSA). After some revisions to the WCF many churches from the Cumberland Presbyterian Church merged with the PCUS in 1906. (although there was a contingent or Cumberland Churches that split away and become their own church - Second Cumberland).

The momentum from the merger caused the PCUSA to attempt a merger with PCUS, but at the 1870 PCUS GA this was rejected (in most part due to R.L. Dabney’s speech against it).