The Presbyterian Church in America

Presbyterians have a long history in America pre-dating the founding of our country.

The oldest Presbyterian Church in the USA was organized in 1640 at Southampton, Long Island, New York. In 1683, Reverend Francis Mackemie (the father of American Presbyterianism) arrived from Ireland. In 1706 he helped organize the first American Presbytery at Philadelphia.

Presbyterian Ministers, Jonathan Edwards and Gilbert Tennent were prominent Preachers in the "Great Awakening", a revivalist movement in the early 18th century. Princeton University began in a log cabin as a Presbyterian seminary by Reverend William Tennent.

Reverend David Brainerd (1718 - 1747) is considered "The" pioneer in missions through his evangelical efforts with Native Americans. He traveled over 15,000 miles on horseback witnessing to tribes in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and New York before dying of tuberculosis at age 29.

During the American Revolution, Presbyterians were prominent in the Patriot cause because of their strong feelings against the Crown, strengthened by what has been called the "Presbyterian Ethic". The "Presbyterian Ethic" explained David Caldwell in 1775 was, ".... God would not produce a timely miracle just to rescue people from their bondage. Instead the Creator had long ago implanted into man's nature a capacity for civic responsibility. God had taught men to consider themselves His stewards, had given them talents and opportunities, and expected them to make the most of those endowments."

Reverend John Witherspoon of New Jersey was a signer of the Declaration of Independence (the only minister signer) as was other fellow New Jersey Presbyterians - Abraham Clark, John Hart, and Richard Stockton.

Other prominent New Jersey Presbyterians active in the Patriot cause include William Livingston, Reverend James Caldwell, William Paterson, John Bayard (who became Mayor of New Brunswick), Elias Boudinot (who became Director of the US Mint), and General Elias Dayton. Presbyterians, General Arthur St Clair and General John Armstrong of George Washington's Staff commanded Continental troops. Reverend George Duffield of the Third Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia was Chaplain to the Continental Congress.

George Bancroft, the great religious historian of the late 19th century once claimed, ". . . the first voice publicly raised in America to dissolve the connection with Great Britain came, not from the Puritans of New England, nor the Dutch of New York, nor the planters of Virginia, but from the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians." In fact, at the time of the Revolution about 25% of the colonists were of the Reformed faith.

In the summer of 1799 major revivals that eventually reached into almost every corner of the US began at opposite ends of the country: the Second Great Awakening in New England and the Great Revival in Kentucky.

The Great Revival began at the Red River (KY) Presbyterian Church where the Reverend James McGready was preaching. This meeting was held from Friday until Monday morning, as was then the custom. Reverends John Rankin, William Hodge and William McGee, Presbyterian preachers, and John McGee, brother of William, a Methodist preacher, were present. The McGees were on a mission to Ohio, and stopped in their journey to be present at the meeting.

At this meeting nothing remarkable occurred until Monday during Reverend Hodge's preaching when a woman sitting near the rear of the Church made her feelings known in loud cries and shouts. When dismissed, the congregation showed no sign of leaving with many of them silently weeping in every part of the Church. "Reverend William McGee soon felt such a power come over him that he, not seeming to know what he did, left his seat and sat down on the floor, while John sat trembling under a consciousness of the power of God" (Bangs).

Reverend John McGee felt an irresistible urge to preach and the people were eager to hear him. He began and again the woman shouted and would not be silent. Robert Davidson (a famous church historian) describes the scene: "Too much agitated to preach, he expressed his belief that there was a greater than he preaching and exhorted the people to let the Lord God Omnipotent reign in their hearts, and to submit to him, and their soul should live. Upon this, many broke silence and the renewed vociferations of the female before mentioned, were tremendous. The Methodist preacher, whose feelings were now wrought up to the highest pitch after a brief debate in his own mind, came to the conclusion that it was his duty to disregard the usual orderly habits of the denomination, and passed along the aisle shouting and exhorting vehemently. The clamor and confusion were increased tenfold: the flame was blown to its height: screams for mercy were mingled with shouts of ecstasy, and a universal agitation pervaded the whole multitude, who were bowed before it as a field of grain waves before the wind."

As we read these accounts, we are reminded of the stories contained in the Book of Acts and in the Apostle Paul's Epistles where worshippers were filled with the Holy Spirit.

One of the religious innovations produced by the Kentucky revivals was the camp meeting. The revivals were organized by Presbyterian ministers, who modeled them after the extended outdoor "communion seasons" used by the Presbyterian Church in Scotland, at these camp meetings emotional, demonstrative displays of religious conviction were common.

Frontier families and their provisions were loaded into their wagons and drove to the Presbyterian meetings, where they pitched tents and settled in for several days. When assembled in a field or at the edge of a forest for a prolonged religious meeting, the participants transformed the site into a camp meeting.

Presbyterian Andrew Jackson was elected President in 1828. Our long involvement in international missions began in 1833 when James Pinney began service in Liberia. In 1842, the Troy (NY) Presbytery ordained Henry Highland Garnet who was a freed slave. Editor, preacher and abolitionist, Garnet eventually preaches before Congress and becomes the US ambassador to Liberia.

In 1844, James Polk was elected President. His wife Sarah was such a devout Presbyterian that she banned dancing, card-playing and alcoholic beverages in the White House. The last President elected before the Civil War was Presbyterian James Buchanan in 1856.

Sadly, our Church was also not immune to the division over slavery during the Civil War and split into northern and southern branches. This occurred even after as far back as the 1787 and 1788 synods which recommended that Presbyterians work to "procure, eventually, the final abolition of slavery in America." It took over a century for the reunion of both branches of the Church to occur.

During the Civil War Presbyterian Deacon Thomas Jonathan Jackson earned the nickname "Stonewall" through his conduct as a Lieutenant General in the Confederate Army. Before the conflict, he was the superintendent and a teacher of a Sabbath Day School for slave and free blacks at Lexington, Virginia in violation of state law.

Sheldon Jackson, missionary on the western frontier and founder of dozens of churches, became the first superintendent of public instruction for the Alaska Territory in 1884. Also in 1884, Grover Cleveland, born in the Caldwell (New Jersey) Presbyterian Manse is first elected President. In 1888, Cleveland was succeeded as President by Indiana Presbyterian Benjamin Harrison. In 1892, Grover Cleveland was again elected President.

In 1912, Woodrow Wilson, Presbyterian Elder, President of Princeton University (a Presbyterian Church affiliated college), and a son of a Presbyterian Minister, is elected President. He is still considered by some to be the most deliberately theological of US Presidents.

In 1952, Dwight D Eisenhower, World War II General and Presbyterian is elected President.

During 1954, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the US becomes the first church body to endorse the Supreme Court’s ruling against racial segregation. During civil rights leader Martin Luther King's 1963 march on Washington, Presbyterian Minister Eugene Carson Blake was one of the keynote speakers to the crowd of over 200,000.

In 1980, Ronald W Reagan, Hollywood Actor, former California Governor, and Presbyterian, is elected President. In 1993, Presbyterian, Christine Todd Whitman is elected Governor of New Jersey.

The highest ranking Presbyterians presently in federal service are Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Tennessee Senator Bill Frist, who serves as the US Senate Majority Leader.

In 1983, the Presbyterian Church (USA) was created reuniting the Presbyterian Church in the US (southern) and the United Presbyterian Church in the USA (northern).

Today's Church has a membership of 2,587,674 in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. There are 11,260 congregations, 20,940 ordained ministers, 1,255 candidates for ministry, and 108,532 elders.

The Church has 11 seminaries, including nearby Princeton Theological; 69 universities, including nearby Bloomfield College and Lafayette College; and 7 secondary schools, including nearby Blair Academy.