April 12 Today in OPC History

On this date in 1964, Faith Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Fawn Grove, Pennsylvania, was received into the Presbytery of Philadelphia with the Rev. Henry Fikkert serving as pastor. Twenty-eight years earlier, the Rev. Everett DeVelde, pastor of the nearby Centre Presbyterian Church, was suspended by the Presbyterian Church, USA, for his support of the Rev. J. Gresham Machen and stand for the gospel. Members of the Centre Church withdrew after Mr. DeVelde's suspension to form the new church. At the same time, Mr. DeVelde accepted a pastoral call to Cincinnati, Ohio.

Without a building or a pastor that summer, the group held worship services under a maple tree on the property of ruling elder Ralph Anderson. The next April Faith Independent Church was organized as an independent congregation that adhered to the Reformed faith.

in 1943 the congregation amended the name to Faith Presbyterian Church. In 1951, the congregation built a church building, and in 1958 it finished a church manse.

On October 9, 1970, Douglas Winward was ordained and installed as pastor of Faith Church. He would go on to have one of the longest continuous pastorates in the history of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church serving for the next forty-five years until his retirement in 2015.

Front Page Picture: Doug and Mary Lou Winward