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News, events, updates, and tidbits from the Presbyterian Historical Society. Use tags to read related articles or sort by author for similar posts written by PHS staff members and volunteers.

January 10, 2023

“I cannot separate my confession of faith from my politics and have either faith or politics be meaningful. I cannot sit by comfortably and let my brothers starve whether they be low-paid laborers in this country or peasants in India.” The statement of faith written by a McCormick Seminary student in 1955 would guide the future moderator throughout his career.

The minister, theologian, and activist Howard Leland Rice was moderator of the 191st General Assembly of the UPCUSA. His personal records are now processed, in...

June 27, 2022

In 1972, Fred Eyster, pastor of the United Church of Christ in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, told his church why his family was leaving the church to work for the United Farm Workers in California. Fred and Sue would be the eighteenth couple to join the National Farm Workers Ministry, an act of accompaniment with farm laborers under the aegis of the National Council of Churches. They would teach free school for laborers' children, work in the fields, and help organize the workers, while living as they did -- paid a subsistence wage, giving up middle-class suburban life.

"On a...

June 15, 2022

--by William Lake Leonard

William Lake Leonard is a retired attorney and member of the First Presbyterian Church of Philadelphia. He was a member of PHS's Board of Directors from 2009 to 2017; he has served on PHS's Advisory Council from 2017 to the present.

One of the highlights of my life as a Presbyterian was serving as a Commissioner to a meeting of the church’s General Assembly. In June of 2002, the 214th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) met in Columbus, Ohio, and I served as an Elder Commissioner representing the...

May 20, 2022

On May 12, the Presbyterian Historical Society (PHS) looked back at previous General Assemblies that have impacted the direction of the church. This discussion was led by Lisa Jacobson, Senior Reference Archivist, and David Staniunas, Records Archivist. 

Preparations are currently underway for the PC(USA)’s historic first hybrid General Assembly. To learn more, visit the webpage for the 225th General Assembly

Click the video below to watch the session.

...

May 9, 2022
Marchers in a pro-abortion rally, November 22, 1971. From Religious News Service photographs, in Pearl

--by Nick Skaggs and David Staniunas

This story contains content that may be distressing to readers including accounts of abortion and violence. 

Under the specter of safe and legal abortion ending...

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