April 29 Today in OPC History

On April 29, 1937, the Court of Common Pleas, no. 5, heard arguments of the Civil Suit of the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. versus the officers and members of the Presbyterian Church of America. The PCUSA as the plaintiff church argued that it was the largest Presbyterian Church in American and that this new body would gain church members though the similarity of the name. The Presbyterian Church of America, represented by the Philadelphia law firm of Saul, Ewing, Remick and Saul, argued that the PCUSA did not have the sole right to the name "Presbyterian" and that the Constitution of the United States guaranteed every church in America the right to proselytize. Mr. Arthur Machen, member of the law firm of Armstrong, Machen and Allen, Baltimore, Maryland, acted in an advisory capacity. A little over a year later, the judge ruled in favor of the plaintiff and ruled that the name must be changed. On February 9, 1939, the Fifth General Assembly chose the new name, The Orthodox Presbyterian Church.