January 15 Today in OPC History

On January 15, 1952, the Presbytery of New Jersey voted not to give letters of dismission to ministers leaving to enter the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). According to the Presbyterian Guardian, the Presbytery “took the position that the present constitution of that Church prohibits the Scriptural exercise of discipline.”

While the action may have confirmed for some observers the image of the OPC as narrow-minded and unecumenical toward a seemingly conservative Presbyterian denomination, the Presbytery proved prophetic in its concern. Six years later in 1958, the UPCNA united with the northern mainline Presbyterian church (from which the OPC was formed in 1936) to form the United Presbyterian Church in the USA.

Ministerial members of the Presbytery at that time included John Hills (Ft. Lauderdale), Ralph Clough (Bridgeton), Al Edwards (Crescent Park), Charles Ellis (East Orange), LeRoy Oliver (Fair Lawn), Raymond Zorn (Pittsgrove), W. Lee Benson (Ringoes), Everett DeVelde (Vineland), Edward Kellogg (West Collingswood), Leslie Dunn (Westfield), Theodore Georgian (White Horse), W. Harllee Bordeaux, Edmund Clowney, Richard Gray, Lewis Grotenhuis, Meredith Kline, and James Price.

Homepage Picture: Edmund Clowney

Picture: Top left to right clockwise, Les and Margie Dunn; Meredith Kline, John Hills, Al Edwards and Wilson Albright, Roy Oliver, Ted Georgian, Ed Kellogg, Ev DeVelde, and Ed Clowney.