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September 28 Today in OPC History

Calvin Busch

 

On September 28, 1938, the Presbytery of the Dakotas, meeting in Bridgewater, ND, received Calvin Busch as a licentiate from the Presbytery of Philadelphia, and it ordained and installed him as pastor of Aurora Presbyterian Church in Aurora, Nebraska. A graduate of Wheaton College and Westminster Seminary, Busch served five years in Nebraska after which he pastored Euzoa Congregational Church in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for another five years. From 1948 to 1957 he served Second Parish OPC in Portland, Maine, before a 20-year tenure at Emmanuel OPC in Whippany, New Jersey, which ended at his retirement in 1977. Two years later he came out of retirement to answer the call of Franklin Square OPC in Long Island, making an hour-long commute from New Jersey every week to fill the pulpit for over a year. As a history of the Franklin Square church noted, "his faithful labors, joyous spirit, and personal warmth formed a perfect bridge between the ministry that had passed and that which was to come." On March 11, 1990, he passed away at the age of 78.

Perhaps the most enduring memory of Calvin Busch was that he loved to sing. But as Ivan Davis reflected in New Horizons on a hymn that Busch composed, he observed: "More than poet and singer came together in Hymn 353 of our Trinity Hymnal [and 414 of the revised Trinity Hymnal]; so did the great Reformed themes of God's sovereign grace (which he loved to preach) and the believer's 'all of life redeemed' servanthood (which he humbly commended)."

Picture: Calvin Busch with shovel at the ground-breaking for the church building in Whippany, New Jersey.

 

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