This week in Christian history: English pope elected, PCA holds first General Assembly, OVU closes down

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, December 03, 2023

Presbyterian Church in America holds first General Assembly – Dec. 4, 1973

The first General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, held in Birmingham, Alabama, in December 1973. | Courtesy PCA

This week marks the anniversary of when the Presbyterian Church in America, a theologically conservative denomination that broke away from the mainline Presbyterian Church in the United States (Southern), held its first General Assembly.

The three-day gathering was held at Briarwood Presbyterian Church of Birmingham, Alabama, with a reported 338 commissioners in attendance for the opening day’s proceedings.

Initially going by the name “Continuing Presbyterian Church,” the body elected Ruling Elder W. Jack Williamson as its first Moderator and Teaching Elder Morton H. Smith as its first Stated Clerk.

“The decision to separate has come only after long years of struggle and heartache on the part of many of us to return the Church to purity of faith and practice. Principle and conviction have entered into that decision, which was reached only after much soul searching and earnest prayer,” stated the General Assembly in a statement addressed to the broader Christian community.

“We have reluctantly accepted the necessity of separation, deeming loyalty to Christ to take precedence over the relationship we sustain to any earthly institution, even to a visible branch of the Church of Christ.”