United Presbyterian Church Formed
The United Presbyterian Church in the United States was formed through the unification of two previously distinct denominations: the Presbyterian Church in the United States and the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA). This significant merger was the culmination of years of discussions and is rooted in a history of church unions for both bodies. The Presbyterian Church in the United States has a legacy of earlier mergers, including notable unions in 1758, 1801, and 1870, as well as collaborations with the Cumberland Presbyterians and the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. Similarly, the UPCNA's history includes the merger of Reformed and Associate Presbyterians in 1782, among others. The formal process for the united church involved the distribution of Concurrent Declarations, which facilitated the election of a joint General Assembly. The culmination of this effort took place in May 1958, when delegates from both churches convened in Pittsburgh, marking the official establishment of the United Presbyterian Church. This event was celebrated with a symbolic gesture of unity between leaders of both denominations, heralding a new chapter in their shared history.
United Presbyterian Church Formed
United Presbyterian Church Formed
The way was paved for the creation of the new United Presbyterian Church in the United States when two previously separate bodies, namely the Presbyterian Church in the United States and the United Presbyterian Church of North America (UPCNA), agreed after years of discussion to unite. In doing so, they followed a venerable tradition, for each church had behind it a long history of other mergers. The former Presbyterian Church in the United States can point to important unions in its history in 1758, 1801, and 1870, and to the 1906 union with the Cumberland Presbyterians and the 1920 union with the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Church. In the case of the former UPCNA, the history of mergers goes back to 1782, when the Reformed Presbyterians and the Associate Presbyterians joined in one of the earliest church unions in America. The resulting body went into the UPCNA union in 1858.
The merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States with the UPCNA came about after Concurrent Declarations were distributed throughout both churches as part of a plan of union. The declarations “convenanted and agreed” that each of the uniting bodies would elect, according to its own form of government, “a General Assembly to meet on the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh day of May, 1958, at Pittsburgh.” After each of the general assemblies met separately, commissioners of the two groups were to meet together on May 28, 1958, to “be constituted as one body.” A description of this joint meeting, which served as the opening session of the general assembly of the new united church, appeared in The General Assembly News published the next day. “USA Presbyterians and United Presbyterians have joined hands,” said the account, and “a new chapter in church history has been written. With the…symbolic clasp of hands [of moderators Harold R. Martin of the USA Presbyterians and Robert N. Montgomery of the United Presbyterians] a new Church yesterday came into being.”