I preached this sermon as part of our Bicentennial celebration. The history buffs probably enjoyed it; others might have found it a bit dry. Having others participate in the vignettes certainly helped the sermon.
The challenge in preparation was taking all the historical information provided and culling it down to a manageable amount. Also, to try and find the "gospel" in the historical data. I attempted to point out some recurring themes in our history that might speak to us today.
At the end of the sermon are an abundance of references if anyone wants to read more about these splits and reunions in the history of the Presbyterian denominations in the United States and in the particular case of First Presbyterian Church, Troy, OH.
As I worked with this sermon, I realized how much growing up in a Texas congregation that was a union congregation (both Northern and Southern branches) in a union Synod mattered. It also became clear when I moved to Troy that the Northern-Southern split that impacted church life in the South and Southwest (For different classes in seminary, I actually wrote a paper on why the churches did not reunite immediately following the Civil War and another paper on why some Northern Presbyterian churches were in the South and thrived, while others areas in the South either had no Northern churches or the churches did very poorly in the South). It became clear in FPC, Troy's history that the split had little impact on the church. Of course, the Old School/New School split that figured prominently in Troy's history meant little to the churches in Texas that were started after that split. A reminder that our context does impact our worldview.
“Five
in One” January 13, 2013; FPC, Troy Bicentennial Sunday; Genesis
49: 1-28; Galatians 3: 26-29
Introduction:
Almost
as soon as God creates, humans begin dividing themselves.
For
example, sin divides Cain and Abel.
but
there are some positives about division.
Israel
segregated from the rest of the world. We hear from Genesis how
Israel was divided into twelve tribes
a.
Give identity.
b.
Allow for specific tasks.
In
response to the coming of Christ, we are called to be one.
We
live in that tension – called to be one; continually being
separated.
We
look around the world and see divisions – nations; ethnicities;
self-selected groups.
We
see it within the Christian church; we see it within our own
Presbyterian denomination (look at the insert in the worship folder
to see how many times we have been divided and then united); as we
study our history during the Bicentennial, we see it in our own
church.
First
Presbyterian Church, Troy, OH has been part of five different
denominations.
Move
1: Presbyterian Church, USA
when
those fifteen pioneering spirits met to organize First Presbyterian
Church, they had multiple options within the Christian tradition, and
within the Presbyterian tradition as well.
Let's
listen as Alexander Telford, one of the founding members and driving
force behind the creation of First Presbyterian Church, and an
unnamed townsperson discuss the formation of First Presbyterian
Church, Troy, OH
Random
Man: Mr. Telford, might
I ask a question of you. I heard at the store this morning that you
are going to be starting a church.
Alex
Telford: Yes we are.
God has called us to start a Presbyterian church here. In fact,
yesterday, on Sept. 13, 1813, Rev. John Thompson moderated a meeting
at which we formed First Presbyterian Church of Miami Presbytery of
the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America.
Random:
A Presbyterian Church?
Why I didn't think you were Presbyterian. Or that Rev. Thompson was
Presbyterian anymore. I thought you worshipped with those New Light
churches that Rev. Thompson started a few years ago.
Alex
Telford: Do you know
Rev. John Thompson?
Random:
I've never met him, but
I've heard him preach a time or two over in Springfield. The Spirit
really moves him, and I mean moves!
Alex:
I find little humor in
a man being filled with the Spirit while preaching.
Random:
I heard the
Presbyterians kicked him out of their church.
Alex:
And I find little humor with those spiritless ministers at the Synod
of Kentucky who could not see beyond their Calvinist doctrine of
predestination to see how the Spirit can move people to have faith
when they hear the Word preached.
Random:
You sound like one of those
camp revivalists.
Alex:
Not quite, but I do believe
that the Presbyterian Church does not give enough credence to the New
Light movement. I agree with the Calvinists that about
predestination, but I also think we need to consider the role of free
will. To some of those Calvinists, that makes me sound like an
Arminian. But if you have been to a camp-meeting revival, you know
that the Spirit does work on people when God's Word is preached.
Random:
So why did you start a
Presbyterian Church?
Alex:
Well, I do think a church
needs some structure; I do believe that the Calvinist theology
provides a strong foundation; and I believe that having elders lead
the church is important. Not to mention, my family heritage in
Scotland was with the Presbyterian Church.
Random:
Maybe I'll come out to worship
with you one Sunday.
Alex:
We'd love to have you join us.
Thus,
we begin our journey as a congregation as part of the Presbyterian
Church, USA
Move
2: Old School/New school
that
would not last very long, roughly 25 years. By 1838, there was
dissension in the pews. The groups were labeled Old School and New
School.
Did
they divide over theology? Yes, at stake was what it meant to be the
church and who could serve as the church's pastor.
But,
it was more than just theology.
New
School group generally had people who had been in the United States
longer.
Old
School group generally had people who were more recent immigrants.
Telford would be an example – just a generation removed from
Scotland and the strong Presbyterian influence there.
From
a socio-economic perspective, New School had more of the business
people, who catered to the transients traveling through this area,
and thus were more secularized.
Old
School had more landowners, who were insulated from the secular
world.
Let's
listen as two women, Isabella Yuart and Mary Ann Telford Orbison
discuss the split in the church. Isabella was a founding member and
in this split sided with the Old School group. Mary Ann, despite
being the daughter of founding member Alexander Telford sided with
the Old School, Mary Ann joined the New School side of things. A
family split in their church loyalty.
Isabella Yuart:
Mary, I can't believe the church is splitting.
Mary
Ann Telford Orbison: I don't
know. It sorta seems like churches do. I remember when I was
younger when my father and Rev. Thompson got in trouble with the
Presbyterian Church and they were part of the New Light church for
awhile.
Isabella
Yuart: I suppose, but it
saddens me to think that our local church is parting ways. Look at
you, your father, a founding member like me, is going with the Old
School congregation and you, his daughter are going with the New
School congregation.
Mary:
Not all of the founding members
are joining with you and my father in the Old School. Some of them
coming with the New school.
Isabella:
yes, it seems to have divided
us in lots of different ways.
Mary:
I suppose one good thing is
that the Session recognized the importance of having the women
involved in the discussion.
Isabella:
They knew better than to make
that decision with just the men elders on the Session deciding
without hearing from all the members of the church, including the
women.
Mary:
I know. Ever since they
announced the meeting six months ago and made such a big deal that
the women should be invited, I figured they recognized that the women
needed to be part of this decision.
Mary:
I just wish the General
Assembly had not reacted so drastically to expel those Synods and
churches.
Isabella:
Maybe when you are older you
will see the wisdom of their actions. It is important to uphold the
standards for the clergy and how churches are to be organized. If
not, no telling what kind of churches would claim to be Presbyterian.
Mary:
all I know is that when my
father was a young man, he rebelled against the church authorities
and thought it was okay for churches to try something new. Now, he's
against any change.
Isabella:
As I said, maybe when you get
to be your father's and my age you'll understand this better. I just
wish the church did not have to divide over this issue.
Mary:
I guess they are serious about
dividing as well. I mean we voted to sell the church so the the Old
School and New School groups could start their own churches.
Isabella:
That's true. But I was not
that surprised. When the committee that was supposed to find a
better site for the church returned without a recommendation, I
figured it meant that members were worried about the future of the
church. There has been a lot of grumbling going on in the church
pews the last few years.
Mary:
There sure has, particularly
since every does not agree on the standards the church should have.
Isabella:
It's kind of ironic, though,
that everyone seems to be able to work together to separate us.
Mary:
I did like how we worked
together to create a fair plan. When the building is sold, each
group gets the percentage of the money based on the percentage of
their members who are in their group.
Isabella:
They even included people who
come regularly and give, but are not members. We seem to get along
better as we divide ourselves than we did when we were trying to be
one church.
Mary:
Maybe one day we'll be back
together as one church.
Isabella:
I wouldn't count on it. We'll
probably have more splits in the future, not less.
Mary:
That's not very hopeful.
Isabella:
I guess I shouldn't be so
pessimistic, but this I'm just feeling bad about things. This year
we should be celebrating the 25th
anniversary of First Presbyterian Church in Troy. Instead, we're
spending our time figuring out the best way to divide First
Presbyterian Church.
First
Presbyterian becomes both Old School, PCUSA and New School, PCUSA,
with the Old School congregation eventually residing in a church on
Main St. across from the Court House (where our offices were during
the building of our new building) and the New School congregation
purchasing the plot of lot on which our sanctuary sits and building
it.
Move
3: PCUSA Reunited
The
Old School/New school split lasted only last thirty-two years, which
is not very long as splits go.
In
1870 the Old School and New School factions came together.
Description
of the reunion in 1870 "a total surrender of all the great
testimonies of the Church for the fundamental doctrines of grace."
The
pendulum swung away from theological correctness toward gracious
unity.
Although
it did not impact this congregation, we might also note that the
Presbyterian Church of the Confederate States broke of from the PCUSA
during the Civil War, and after the Civil War no reunion took place,
so nationally, there was the PCUSA (northern branch) and the PCUS
(Southern branch), not to mention a variety of smaller Presbyterian
denominations.
Move
4: UPCUSA
As
the Presbyterian Church moved through the 20th
century, there were small reunions. The PCUSA absorbed most of the
Cumberland Presbyterian churches in 1906 and then in 1920 it absorbed
the Welsh Calvinist Methodist Church. Neither of those mergers
changed the name of the denomination.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyterian_Church_(U.S.A.)
But
in 1958, a merger took place with the United Presbyterian Church of
North America. It
began as a mostly ethnic Scottish
denomination,
but after some years it grew somewhat more and more ethnically
diverse, although universally English-speaking, and was
geographically centered in Western
Pennsylvania and
eastern Ohio,
areas of heavy Scottish and Scotch-Irish settlement on the American
frontier. Within that territory, a large part of its adherents lived
in rural areas, which amplified the denomination's already highly
traditionalist worldview.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Presbyterian_Church_of_North_America
Of
interest to us locally, the cornerstone seminary of the UPNA was
Pittsburgh-Xenia seminary, which grew had roots in Xenia, OH.
Again,
theological differences gave way to the desire to be unified.
Thus,
FPC, Troy became part of the newly named United Presbyterian Church,
USA.
Move
5:
Back
to PCUSA
One
major rift remained – the Northern and Southern branches of the
Presbyterian Church.
As
early as the turn of the century, some worked for reunion.
But,
as the 20th
century dragged on, there seemed to be no consensus for reunion.
Were
the differences theological – yes. Both branches could point to
theological differences such as biblical interpretation and how the
church leadership operated.
But
it might also be noted that the issue of race relations and states
rights vs. the role of the federal government also impacted calls for
reunion.
As
reunion appeared to be on the horizon, splits took place across the
denomination and both the Presbyterian Church of America and the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church were created.
In
1983, reunion finally took place.
Frances
Miles commissioner to the 1983 General Assembly where the two
denominations joined together.
Listen
to what she might have written in her diary.
Frances
Miles: When I was elected to be a commissioner to the General
Assembly in 1983, I knew it was the General Assembly when the
Southern Presbyterian Church and the Northern Presbyterian Church
would be reunited for the first time since the Civil War, but I had
no idea how significant a moment that was in the life of the church.
In
my church in Troy and in Miami Presbytery, we haven't talked much
about the split between the Northern and Southern branches of the
Presbyterian Church. I quickly learned, however, that reunion meant
a lot to many people.
And
it upset lots of others. I was very surprised when someone told me
that in Mississippi alone, 126 Presbyterian churches left the Southern
Presbyterian Church because they were against reunion. Wow!
But
when we did the vote for reunion, it became very emotional After the
commissioners from our General Assembly and the General Assembly of
the Southern Presbyterian Church voted simultaneously in our
different meetings to reunite, we stopped the meeting and went out
into the streets of Atlanta and marched together, all the
commissioners from both General Assemblies, through downtown Atlanta
to City Hall. People marched with arm in arm to show our unity;
banners were displayed announcing we were reunited; tears flowed as
we marched and sang. At City Hall, the Mayor of Atlanta spoke to us
as we celebrated our reunion. I will never forget that day.
As
part of our vote to reunite, we also established a committee that was
commissioned to write a new confession. It will be really neat one
day to have a new confession for the Presbyterian Church and know
that I was there when we reunited and asked for a new confession to
be written.
I
know that the church is still divided in lots of ways around our
world, but a few more Presbyterian churches now are showing what it
means to be united in Christ.
Back
to PCUSA
Move
6: Five
denominations. Lots of other Presbyterian groups in the United
States.
Division
and union.
Theology
and the secular shaping the options.
To
a large degree, the changes reflect where we fall on the continuum of
theological correctness or the desire to be united?
On
the one hand, the challenge to the church to stand up for the Truth;
On the other hand, who knows the truth completely.
In
1875, five years after the Northern Branch reunited, the southern
Branch tried again to gain momentum for uniting with Northern Church.
At their General assembly, a minister argued: "If, after all
the great sacrifices of confessors and martyrs of past ages, we alone
constitute the true church; if this only is the result of the
stupendous sacrifice on Calvary and the struggles of apostles and
missionaries and reformers in all generations; then may God have
mercy on the world and his church." (“Division
& Reunion in the Presbyterian Church, U.S.,” R. Milton Winter,
the Journal of presbyterian
History,
http://www.history.pcusa.org/resources/jph/2000/spring/DivisionAndReunionPCUS.html)
An
argument for unity over maintaining the true church.
In
our time, we find churches leaving our presbytery and other
presbyteries over theology, ordination issues, primarily.
Interestingly
enough, the churches that have left our Presbytery have joined with
the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which came into being in 1981
as conservative churches from both the Northern and Southern branches
joined together in response to what they believed was the liberal
bent of both the Northern and Southern churches.
History
repeats itself.
Conclusion:
Our
history here at FPC reflects the Presbyterian Church's history in the
United States, which reflects the humanity f God's creation.
Divide
and unite. Never quite satisfied. Never quite living fully into the
image of God.
Five
denominations; one Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who calls us to be
one.
Resources
for sermon: The background for this sermon was researched by Teri
Okrutny from the following sources.
Books:
Acts
and Proceedings of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in
the United States of America in the Year 1801
Plan
of Union begins on PDF page 7
Minutes
of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America, 1832-1836
1832
begins on PDF page 8
1833
begins on PDF page 160
1834
begins on PDF page 312
1835
begins on PDF page 490
1836
begins on PDF page 534
Minutes
of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America, 1837 – State of the Church information begins on
PDF page 24 (document page 430).
Presbyterianism
North of the Ohio – book page 9 (PDF page 14) has New Lights info –
This is a short book (about 10 pages) with a lot of information about
the early 19th
century.
Scroll
a little over halfway down the page to the paragraph that begins with
“A matter which is entirely germane to
the subject of this chapter-the settlement of the Miami valley-is the
Great Kentucky revival, and its subsequent camp-meetings…”
