60 years ago — May 4, 1959
Following the address given by the retiring moderator, Philip F. Howerton, the 99th Presbyterian, U.S. General Assembly elected Ernest Trice Thompson, church history professor at Union Seminary in Virginia and co-editor of the Outlook, as the new moderator. … In a brief induction service, Dr. Howerton presented Dr. Thompson the gavel and a Celtic cross – one of three presented in 1949 by Harrison Ray Anderson of Chicago to the U.S., U.P and USA Assembly moderators with the expressed hope that the three crosses might some day be made into one. Two of them were welded together in Pittsburgh last year when the U.P and USA Assemblies united. …. [Thompson] said he comes from a family of ministers. His grandfather and his father were ministers and his son is a minister. … He called the assembly to a spirit of devotion and commitment, seeking the mind of Christ for the difficult assignments before it.
From “Assembly names seminary professor moderator” by Aubrey N. Brown
