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Holy Week resources and reflections

Looking back: 25th reunion recollections

I was born into the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA), went to one of its six colleges, and was ordained after graduating from its only seminary, Pittsburgh-Xenia. In a sense, the uniting of the Presbyterian family in the United States became one of the hallmarks of my 50 years in the ministry. 

In May 1950, our stated clerk received from the Presbyterian Church U.S. (PCUS) and the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA)  "an invitation to unite with them in their program of acquaintance and cooperation and in the plan of union which they were jointly developing."

I was born into the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA), went to one of its six colleges, and was ordained after graduating from its only seminary, Pittsburgh-Xenia. In a sense, the uniting of the Presbyterian family in the United States became one of the hallmarks of my 50 years in the ministry. 

In May 1950, our stated clerk received from the Presbyterian Church U.S. (PCUS) and the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA)  “an invitation to unite with them in their program of acquaintance and cooperation and in the plan of union which they were jointly developing.” The General Assembly of that year adopted a motion, “that the committee on church relations be authorized … to join in the program of acquaintance and cooperation between the Presbyterian and Reformed Churches looking forward to their possible union.” 

My involvement in the subsequent “acquaintance and cooperation” movement began in the summer of 1953 when I was serving as chair of the National Committee of Youth of our denomination. I was invited to attend a meeting of the Assembly’s Youth Council of the Presbyterian Church US in Montreat, N.C., which was chaired by Charles Williams, a student at Davidson College. Our counterpart from the Presbyterian Church USA, Clara Jo Minark, also participated. In my report, published in the Christian Union Herald, I said, “It was a real joy to hear my fellow young people speak so enthusiastically about prospects of the Presbyterian family re-uniting.”   

That fall, in response to a memo we sent officially to the staff after the Montreat meeting, the staff responsible for the youth work of the three denominations, Franklin Gillespie (PCUSA), John Spragens (PCUS), and Robert Kempes (UPCNA), invited the officers of the youth councils to discuss possible patterns of youth work in the event of union. We met at Western Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh on a chilly November day in 1953, “to share how our youth programs were organized and discuss common problems.” But the more we talked, the more we realized how absurd it was that we were separated. So we began to outline our ideas, and by the time we adjourned we had written a “Statement of Conviction.”  In it we said, “We bear testimony to the fact that we are one in Christ, but have broken this union. We are one in common faith and heritage, but have failed to grasp the total teaching and mission of the church. … We have discovered that we need one another to enable us to make a more positive contribution to the role of the church in its world mission, and to give stronger voice in the solving of current social, economic, and moral problems.” It concluded, “Therefore, recognizing the scriptural teaching of the unity of the church, we, the young people who will be living directly under the union, see this union as an essential step toward the re-establishment of the oneness of Christ’s Church.” 

In due time the plan to unite the three denominations came to a vote.  Unfortunately only the United Presbyterian Church of North America and the Presbyterian Church USA passed it.  A revised plan was sent to the General Assemblies of the two denominations in 1956, and approved by the presbyteries the following year. In 1958 the official act of uniting to form the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (UPCUSA) took place in Pittsburgh at the same site where, exactly 100 years before, the Reformed Presbyterian Church and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church united to form the United Presbyterian Church of North America. 

There continued to be deep concern among many in both South and North that the family was still not organically one even though we were doing much together. At the 1969 General Assemblies of both denominations, both agreed to form a Joint Committee on Presbyterian Union. The Assembly asked the Joint Committee to “seek a plan for the re-union of the two churches.”  

Moderator George Sweazy appointed me to that Joint Committee and I was a member of it for its full fourteen years of existence. It was a marvelous learning time for me. I discovered that I had not known the “southern” church at all, even though I had had that experience as a member of the Youth Task Force years before. 

The Joint Committee was chaired by  J. Randolph Taylor from the PCUS, and  Robert C. Lamar of the UPCUSA. These two pastors set a tone for the whole committee, a tone of listening and being sensitive to all points of view. 

We began by asking the venerable Presbyterian historian, Ernest Trice Thompson, to meet with us and set the context for our work. His survey was both hopeful and sobering. Among other things, he told us that this was the thirteenth effort toward reunion and the fifth serious negotiation. After 150 years of being one church, slavery and the Civil War had divided Presbyterians South from North. Wartime rhetoric and resolutions continually widened the gap and set attitudes that could not easily be addressed, much less overcome.

Also at that first meeting we took two actions to prevent, as much as possible, being parochial and elitist. First we invited observers from all the other Reformed bodies in the United States to meet with us.

Our second action was to begin a process of listening. For three days in Alexandria, Va., we listened to various groups within both denominations. We tried to unearth every category and lobby that we could find. We heard from women’s groups, African-American Presbyterians, from conservatives and church renewalists, and from youth. We even found a group we titled “non-church young adults.” A few months later we met in Louisville, Ky., and listened to each of the general secretaries of the various boards and agencies of both denominations. Finally, we held 12 area consultations in the southeast. During 1970, in Charlotte, we sponsored a consultation calling together African-American Presbyterians from both denominations. We asked them to come together and consider what this union might mean to them. 

We learned early on that, while the 113 years of separation had produced some stylistic changes, it had not made us into two different kinds of Presbyterians. In reality, we were not separated so much right to left, as up and down, both denominations having strong groups of advocates from both the liberal and conservative viewpoints. 

In 1971 the Committee succumbed to the temptation to “do a quick job of it.” The Form of Government of both denominations was, literally, cut apart and pasted back together. We sent this out to the presbyteries for comment and the response was immediate: “Forget it.” But this was an important lesson, for we realized that the denominations were not interested in two old Presbyterian denominations coming together to form a new-old Presbyterian Church. They were interested in something new and creative. We came to agree that what we were about could not be seen as a mere act of repentance for the past division, but an act of creativity as well. 

In 1974 we issued another draft for comment. It literally set the shape for the rest of our negotiations. Three things come to my mind about that draft. We said that we wanted to “J.B. Phillips-ize” the language, clear out archaic language and technical terms wherever possible to enable laypersons as well as clergy to have full participation in the church. We wanted the document to have integrity and to clearly identify and outline authority, accountability, and responsibility. Finally, we had to take into account that we now had nine union presbyteries; close to a quarter-million persons were already members of each other’s denomination. 

But the massive response from sessions, presbyteries, synods, and General Assembly agencies indicated not everyone in either church shared the excitement of the Committee.

By 1980 the Committee was working on its final draft. It felt confident that its assertive approach to some of the “tough issues” would still bring a sufficiently positive vote. But at that time the conservative constituency of the PCUS, fully backed and encouraged by the similar constituency of the UPCUSA, presented us with “Thirteen Guidelines for Consideration.” 

The first of these asked for a “biblical and reformed confessional statement to be approved prior to union.” A task force of four theologians from each denomination was put together and after an initial four-day discussion, decided unanimously that developing such a statement was unwise. It was acknowledged, however, that the UPCUSA church really was theologically grounded! That point, circulated throughout the South, was a major force in the future positive vote on the reunion question.

Finally we had a plan that took seriously the matters of confessions, our mission, and our ecumenical stance. These three foundation stones were used to construct an integrated structure calling each of the four governing bodies to be accountable to those basic statements. As far as we could discover, this was the first Form of Government to do this.

When we sent out the fifth draft of a proposed plan for reunion, we urged the presbyteries to vote in the affirmative as an act of faith, of reconciliation, of witness, and of stewardship. In the Foreword we stated that we hoped they would commit themselves to reunion because: “it witnesses to the reconciling love of God … by a living example of reconciliation; … it demonstrates the lively work of the Holy Spirit. … It heals a breach that has divided our Presbyterian family for more than a century; it manifests repentance for our past separation resulting from historical events nurtured by sectional traditions; … it declares to our nation and to the world that God does have the power to effect change and to heal long-standing differences; … it opens us to new sensitivity to local, regional, national, and world needs and issues.” 

In 1982 both Assemblies approved the Plan for Reunion to be sent to the presbyteries for vote. All 17 union presbyteries approved it with overwhelming votes. Of the 61 presbyteries of the PCUS, 53 approved and 8 voted against it. In the UPCUSA the vote by the presbyteries was unanimous.

The Joint General Assemblies, meeting in Atlanta, Ga., in 1983, confirmed that the vote of the presbyteries of both denominations had secured the reunion of the Presbyterians in this country! It was a great time of celebration for the church, but especially for those of us who had labored all those years. 

 

Bill Phillippe has served as a pastor, interim pastor, seminary professor, presbytery executive, acting director of the General Assembly Council, and member of numerous Presbyterian and ecumenical committees. He is honorably retired, living in Alexandria, Va.

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