11
March 1883. SCOTUS Justice William Strong and 11 elders of
New York Avenue Presybyerian Church meet in the Justice’s home to plant another
church in Washington, D.C. Early attenders were President Harrison and
Alexander Graham Bell. In later history, it became the home church of
President Dwight David Eisenhower, when he was elected to this high position.
March 11: The Two “National
Presbyterian” Churches
A Supreme Court Justice Plants a Church
When
forty thousand Christians on December 4, 1973 started a new Presbyterian
Church, they were understandably excited beyond measure for the fruition of
plans to begin a Bible-believing, Gospel-preaching church true to the
Scriptures, the Reformed Faith, and the Great Commission.
Though they essentially had left the Southern Presbyterian church (PCUS), they
had a vision of impacting the whole nation. So they named their
denomination the National Presbyterian Church. They immediately however
encountered a road block to the choice of that name. There
already was a congregation by that name, the National Presbyterian Church,
located in Washington, D.C., and this local church had a national mission
to all the states and even beyond, primarily as an endorsing authority for
military chaplains. So in the second year of its existence, the new
denomination changed its name to the Presbyterian Church in America.
National
Presbyterian Church [the congregation] had its beginnings in two PCUSA
congregations located in the nation’s capitol. The First Presbyterian Church,
which began in the last decade of the seventeen hundreds in our nation’s
capitol, was the home of countless presidents. Chief executives like
Jackson, Polk, Pierce, Buchanan, Cleveland made this their Washington home
church.
The
other congregation which joined to make National Presbyterian what it is today
was Covenant Presbyterian Church. It was begun when eleven ruling elders
of New York Avenue Presbyterian Church met in the home of Supreme Court
Justice William Strong on March
11, 1883 to plant another Presbyterian church in the
capitol. Its first service was in 1889 and it was dedicated in
1901. Early attenders were President Harrison and Alexander Graham
Bell. It became the home church of President Dwight David Eisenhower,
when he was elected to this high position.
Both
churches united and were designated as the National Presbyterian Church as an
action of the Presbyterian Church USA in 1946. Thus, they did not
wish any confusion as to what would be considered the National Presbyterian
Church.
In
hindsight, the decision to change the denominational name rather than contest
the matter, while gracious, was also providential. For so the churches,
sessions, and elders who came out of the PCUS church in 1973 were then enabled
to choose what their real calling was to be, namely, the
Presbyterian Church in America.
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