History

Notes from the Historical Committee of the Presbytery of Seattle
(The following are brief essays on Seattle Presbytery’s history from the monthly newsletter and NOT directly from the book by Bob Welsh)

January, 1998

Number 1 - The first churches and the organization of the Presbytery 1854 to 1863

Number 2 - The early Puget Sound Presbytery 1865 to 1877

Number 3 - 1877 to 1890

Number 4 - 1889 to 1899

Number 5 1900 to 1907

Number 6 1907 to 1911

Number 7 1911 to 1924

Number 8 1924 to 1930

Number 9 1930 to 1936

Number 10 The end of the Mark Matthews “era” 1937 to 1946

Number 11 Women in leadership, GA in Seattle, executive presbyter named.

1946 to 1948

Number 12 1949 to 1956

Number 13 - Mergers, building and expansion of programs. 1957 to 1963

Number 14 -. Confession of 1967 and Women’s issues. 1964 to 1967

Number 15 -. Women’s ordination, Angela Davis, Inclusive language, Korean Church

1970 to 1979

Number 16 - Division and Church re-union 1980 to 1990

Number 17 - New churches, new missions 1990 to present

Number 18 - Early Presbyterians in Oregon Territory (OT)

Number 19- Early Presbyterians Ministers in Washington Territory (WT)

Number 20 - Whitworth the teacher, lawyer, minister, surveyor, farmer, businessman Number 21 - Rev. Mark A. Matthews - church builder!

Number 22 - Women elders in Seattle Presbytery

Number 23 - Women in ministry in Seattle presbytery

Number 24 – nearby American Presbyterian/Reformed Historic Sites

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE January 1998

Number 1 - The first churches and the organization of the Presbytery .

1854 to 1863 Puget Sound Presbytery “ ... their works do follow them.”

The Rev. George Whitworth held his first service, in Washington Territory, in Olympia on March 4, 1854, the same month as the meeting of the first legislature. He had brought his family over the Oregon Trail to Portland the prior year, where he had assisted in starting the First Presbyterian Church in Portland. The First Presbyterian Church of Olympia was organized November 12, 1854 in the cooper shop of Mr. James R. Woods with seven members, including three from his family; his wife, niece and mother-in-law. His text was "For who hath despised the day of small things?" (Zechariah 4:10) In 1857 Mr. William C. Kincaid was elected the first elder and the next year Rev. Whitworth officiated at the wedding of Territorial Governor Lafayette McMullen (1810-1880) and Mary Wood in Olympia.

The next churches organized were at Chehalis, Chamber's Prairie, Grand Mound and Steilacoom. In 1858 the first Presbyterian church building in the territory was constructed at Chamber's Prairie and it only survived a few years. In 1860 Rev. Richard J. Evans arrived and began to work at Chamber’s Prairie. Rev. Whitworth later commented about this church that “The nearest members live fifteen miles distant and the sparsely settled community is made up of spiritualists, indifferentists and Campbellites (Disciples of Christ) who manifest too little interest to assemble to hear the gospel.”

Following the death of the Rev. Jotham W. Goodell of Grand Mound only two of the pioneer Presbyterian ministers remained in Washington Territory, the Revs. George W. Sloan and Whitworth, until the arrival of Rev. Evans the following year. Rev. Goodell had preceded Whitworth in 1853 and did the pioneer work in Chehalis and Grand Mound.

The first Presbytery meeting in Washington Territory was the organizational meeting of the Presbytery of Puget Sound , Synod of the Pacific, in Olympia on September 27, 1858, and which included all of Washington Territory. The presbytery was never fully recognized because of the inadequate numbers of ministers. (later 5 and preferably 10 ministers were the minimum number of pastors required in a frontier presbytery) The Rev. Sloan came to Steilacoom in 1858 and in 1860 the presbytery minutes reported “Brother Sloan is in destitute circumstances and has no way to support his family without engaging in secular business.”

Rev. Whitworth resigned from the Olympia Church June 1860, " due to the inadequacy of support. The entire amount received from both the board and the church here does not furnish the one half of what is absolutely requisite to feed, clothe and educate my family, nor is it in the power of the church to do any more than what it is doing." His support from the Missions Board had been reduced from $500 to $300 per year.

March 1861 the members of the First Presbyterian Church of Olympia extended the first call in the territory to Rev. Richard J. Evans, who was serving nearby. His salary was to be $350. Worship continued in an upper room of the Olympian Building at Sixth and Franklin during which time the construction of the "little white church" began.

Rev. Evans died June 15, 1863, of consumption (tuberculosis) at the age of 28, leaving a widow and one child. According to his obituary in the Washington Standard newspaper of Olympia, " ... (he was) a native of Pennsylvania. ... completed his studies for the ministry at Allegheny Theological Seminary. ... Here and in the surrounding neighborhood (he) has spent the whole of his ministerial life. ... His funeral was numerously attended ... from the new church, now nearly completed by his labors. He was not spared to witness its completion and to occupy its pulpit, but from it he was borne to his last resting place on earth, and the first discourse preached therein was his funeral. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them."

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“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE February 1998

Number 2 - The early Puget Sound Presbytery .

1865 to 1877 “ … we are gaining, and that is encouraging.”

Rev. George Whitworth preached his first sermon in Seattle in the spring of 1865 on “American slavery not justified in the Bible.” In December 1869 the First Presbyterian Church of Seattle (SFPC) was organized with seven members. Until 1877 Rev. Whitworth and Rev. Daniel Bagley shared the pulpit and facilities of Bagley’s Methodist Protestant Church. That July the 40 members of SFPC worshipped in their partially completed first building on the southeast corner of Third and Madison.

The White Rive Presbyterian Church was the first church organized in our current presbytery. It was organized with six members on July 7, 1867 by Rev. George W. Sloan in the log school house at Langston Landing, on the Green River. It was supplied by Revs. Sloan and Whitworth for many years. With 14 members their first church building was finally constructed in 1890. The next major congregations organized were Port Townsend 1873, Snohomish and Spokane Falls (Indian) 1876, Sumner and Tacoma 1877, Chehalis 1878 and Nisqually (Indian) 1879.

In 1871 the four Presbyterian (PCUSA) ministers on Puget Sound were finally recognized as part of the Presbytery of Oregon , Synod of the Pacific, with their 68 communicant members. The ministers were the Revs. Thomas J. Weekes, John R. Thompson, George W. Sloan and George F. Whitworth; with their churches of San Juan (Friday Harbor), Olympia, Steilacoom and Seattle. Their congregations respectively had 20, 12, 29 and seven members.

Puget Sound Presbytery was officially re-organized by Rev. George Whitworth at Olympia on October 17, 1876 with 11 churches and 8 ministers. It encompassed all of Washington Territory. Only one church, Spokane Falls, was east of the Cascades.

The Synod of Columbia was organized, with the presbyteries of Oregon, South-Oregon and Puget Sound, two days later in Portland on October 19, 1876. The Synod of California then reported "This takes from our roll 32 churches, 25 ministers and 2,043 communicants ... we rejoice at this unmistakable sign of the progress of the Presbyterian Church on the Pacific Coast." They further stated " ... that this Centennial year of our national history would seem to be an auspicious time to fully occupy and equip the extreme Northwest ... ". Rev. George Whitworth was the oldest minister present and so constituted the synod meeting and was elected its first moderator.

In 1876 Rev. J. F. Ellis came to the Plymouth Congregational Church in Seattle and reported his findings, which undoubtedly echoed the Presbyterians. He reported to the American Home Missionary Association "Seattle is an intensely active little city, but the people are not church-goers. ... religious indifference paralyzes the mass of the population. So you see that progress must be slow. There is no such thing as spontaneous movement toward the Kingdom, but we are gaining, and that is encouraging. All agree that the moral conditions are becoming perceptibly better, and it is our purpose to put all our energy into this forward movement."

In 1877 Puget Sound Presbytery had nine ministers in 13 churches with 700 members. That year 72% of the membership of the presbytery were the Indians at Puyallup (152) and those at Spokane Falls (352). The largest “white” church in Washington Territory was Olympia with 50 members (in the Synod Portland First was the second largest with a membership of 250).

Rev. John Rea, of Port Townsend, became our first commissioner to the General Assembly in Chicago, in 1877. That year the General Assembly dealt with the problem of the expenses incurred by the delegates and voted the per capita tax, seven cents per communicant, to support the delegates. No longer was the local church responsible directly for their expenses for this meeting. This assured that all presbyteries would be represented annually at General Assembly. The following year Rev. Whitworth and our first elder commissioner, Ruben L. Doyle, went to General Assembly. Mr. Doyle was a charter member at Olympia and was married to Rev. Whitworth’s niece. In 1877 Rev. Sheldon Jackson began his Alaskan mission work.
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“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE March 1998

Number 3 - “The world has scarcely ever witnessed such an overflow of people into the great open spaces ‘beyond’ ... “

1877 to 1890

Puget Sound Presbytery had 13 churches, nine ministers and 700 communicants in 1877. That year the Presbyterian Churches in Sumner and Tacoma were organized. Elsewhere in our Synod in 1878 the Nez Perce Indian Mission ordained the first native minister, Robert Williams, in Idaho Presbytery. A Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized in Walla Walla several years prior and soon the first Chinese work began in Seattle with the Methodists. 1885 the first United Presbyterian Church (UPCNA) church in Washington Territory was organized in Waitsburg. In 1891 the UPCNA had their first church in Seattle (Seattle First United - the later Laurelhurst Presbyterian Church).

In 1880 the largest congregation in the Presbytery was the Puyallup (Indian) Presbyterian Church with 231 members. At that time Olympia First had 66 members and Seattle First 54. From the 1881 Presbytery narrative "Our Brother (Matthew) Mann is still laboring with success amongst the Indians. The entire number of Indian membership is 215, nearly one-half (45%) of our entire membership. They have built within the past years two houses of worship, very much of the expense having been met by their own contributions."

The Board of Home Missions reported in 1881, "The world has scarcely ever witnessed such an overflow of people into the great open spaces 'beyond' as during the last year along our Western frontier. The great territories, taken as a whole, have much more than doubled in population during the past decade. ... " In 1873 Tacoma was linked to Portland by rail but it would be 1884 before the rails reached to California. The Northern Pacific Railroad reached Tacoma in 1888 and the Great Northern Railroad connected Seattle to the East in 1893. The population movement due to improved rail transportation was dramatic.

The Presbytery presented its first overture to the 1885 General Assembly. "Overture No. 7. An Overture from the Presbytery of Puget Sound, requesting the appointment of a Standing Committee of the Assembly, whose duty it shall be "to encourage and promote organic union among all branches of the Presbyterian Church" and "all other kindred bodies of our Lord's disciples". It is enough in the judgment of the Committee to respond that the Assembly in frequent and emphatic past utterances has declared the desire of our Church for organic union, ... but that the actions proposed in this Overture is inexpedient. Adopted. "

1889 was an important year in the state and Presbytery. The state’s population had grown from 75,000 to 357,000 in the past decade. Seattle now had a few electric lights, ten miles of trolley lines and a population of 25,000. The "Great Seattle Fire" occurred on June 6, 1889. On November 11, 1889 Washington became the 42nd state. Seattle First Presbyterian Church became the largest of the 49 congregations in the Presbytery with 274 of our 1,912 members that year.

The first major change of our Presbytery boundaries occurred when the new Presbytery of Olympia was organized on October 4, 1889 with the 29 churches in the ten southwestern counties of Washington state. Puget Sound Presbytery then had 32 churches and 1,242 members.

Calvin has not allowed organ music and only sanctioned inspired psalms as material suitable for congregational singing. Even singing in parts was not allowed at this time. In 1884 the General Assembly had stated that it favored each session deciding such a “delicate and important matter”, i.e. how to arrange and conduct the musical portion of the service. With great pride the Port Townsend Presbyterian Church installed the first “Presbyterian” pipe organ in our Presbytery in May 1890. rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE April 1998

Number 4 - “ ... we have cause to rejoice that the Lord has blessed us and is ready to bless us more abundantly.”

1889 to 1899

In 1889 our first ethnic ministry was begun with the organization of the “Welsh Chapel” (Saint David’s Presbyterian Church). The Welsh language services and the local annual Welsh Song Festival, “Gymanfa Ganu”, occurred here until the church closed in 1956.

The Synod of Washington was formed with the four Presbyteries of Puget Sound, Idaho, Olympia and Alaska. The first Synod meeting was held at the First Presbyterian Church of Tacoma on October 9, 1890. The Presbytery of Puget Sound narrative stated “... There has been no marked spiritual awakening in any of our churches. ... The hindrances to our church work are such as are common to all new and rapidly increasing and fluctuating population, but we have cause to rejoice that the Lord has blessed us and is ready to bless us more abundantly. Rev. Thomas J. Weekes. “

In the 1890 Presbytery of Puget Sound there were 32 churches, 22 ministers and 2,162 members living in areas from Sumner to Bellingham Bay and Yakima to Port Angeles. Seattle had just become the largest city in Washington with a population of 42,837. Six new churches were organized that year; Kent and Ballard (Northminster) in the current Seattle Presbytery and Sedro, Anacortes, Spring Lake Valley and Cedar Grove (Acme) in the current North Puget Sound Presbytery.

That year we also had a Canadian congregation outside our bounds, the Zion Presbyterian Church of Vancouver, BC. The minister and members had relocated from the Charlottetown Presbyterian Church of Prince Edward Island in 1889 and were refused recognition in the new city of Vancouver, BC because they wanted to locate near Vancouver’s First Presbyterian Church. The Presbytery suggested a more remote location south of False Creek which they declined. They remained in our Presbytery for only one year until they were recognized by the Presbytery of Westminster.

In 1890 the “Seattle Presbyterian Society”, presumably for elders, had its first meeting. This continued until the 1940s. In 1947 the “Elders Association” met at each Presbytery meeting for fellowship and education.

Whitworth College had been started in 1883 as the Sumner Academy at the First Presbyterian Church of Sumner. In 1891 it had 64 students and completed its first classroom and dormitory building. A new site in North Tacoma was purchased in 1899. The Sumner Presbyterian Church did not transfer to Olympia Presbytery in 1899, but remained in Seattle Presbytery until 1910.

May 1892 the 104th General Assembly (GA) met at the First Presbyterian Church of Portland, OR. This was the first time the GA had been held west of the Rocky Mountains. “Now the assembly was to show its interest in the furthest West by a willingness to endure the fatigue of a long journey and the Church was to show its interest by a readiness to bear the expenses of such a meeting (first year funded through the per capita tax).” The next GA to meet in the Pacific NW was the 160th GA in Seattle in 1948.

By 1894 the national depression was hurting the mission churches of Washington. Of 103 churches only three churches were self-supporting. Twenty were without minister.

At the October 1899 Presbytery meeting Elder U. K. Loose, of the Snohomish First Presbyterian Church, was the first elder to be elected moderator of the Presbytery of Puget Sound. He was a banker in Snohomish and trustee of both Whitworth College and the Puget Sound Academy (Congregational) in Snohomish. Rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE May 1998

Number 5 - “Whatever the hardship there may be is cheerfully borne in Christ’s sake.”

1900 to 1907

By 1900 the Puget Sound Presbytery had 40 ministers with 36 churches and 2,516 members in an area from Sumner to Bellingham and Quilcene to Yakima. Only eight churches were larger than 100 members. Seattle and Ballard now had eight ministers. In the city of Seattle; Seattle First 431, Westminster 267 and Seattle Second (Bethany) had 200 members. No church yet had an associate minister, but six ministers were serving 2-3 churches. In this decade following the Klondike gold discovery Seattle had doubled in population and the Presbytery had its largest growth in membership to 7,267, a 288 percent increase.

That year, 1900, the Synod of Washington home mission reported about its 68 missionaries: "We send up no cry of distress, neither pitiful tale of hardships borne by our missionaries. Whatever the hardship there may be is cheerfully borne for Christ's sake. But we point to the communities without Gospel privileges and ask for the men and the means to give them the Gospel message." The next year it was reported that 29 of the 34 churches in Puget Sound Presbytery were receiving mission board support!

A General Assembly (GA) committee was appointed to revise the Westminster Confession of 1647. From this the "Brief Statement of the Reformed Faith" was reported and accepted by the GA in 1902. This was included in the Hymnal until the 1938 revision.

In 1901 the new Presbytery of Central Washington (Cle Elum, Ellensburg, Yakima etc.) was created removing five churches from the Presbytery of Puget Sound.

The oriental work in Seattle began with the Chinese in 1903 and in 1907 the Japanese Branch of Seattle First Presbyterian (SFPC) was formed. Rev. Orio Inouye (1863-1937) was the pastor of the Japanese Branch from 1907 until 1922. The SFPC membership grew to 1,506, it had more than tripled in just four years.

In 1902 the first associate pastor, Rev. Owen Jones (1842-1914), was hired by at SFPC. He came to SFPC after serving at the Welsh Chapel. He resigned in 1905 to become the Presbytery Sabbath School Missionary, after his daughter married Rev. Mark Matthews in 1904. In 1907 he reported organizing 14 Sabbath Schools, with 750 students.

In October 1905 the next Presbytery, Bellingham (later North Puget Sound), was created from Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and a portion of Chelan County (Wenatchee and Cashmere). The Presbytery of Puget Sound lost fourteen churches with 577 members.

May 23, 1906 the General Assembly approved The Book of Common Worship. This was the first approved service/prayer book for the denomination giving official recognition to the value and appropriateness of using such material to order worship. It was "to keep the golden mean between unprofitable laxity and an oppressive uniformity in common worship".

Rev. George F. Whitworth died in Seattle October 6, 1907, at the age of 91. From the Synod obituary "As a pioneer Dr. Whitworth accomplished a great work in laying the foundations of Presbyterianism and higher education on this Northwest Coast, and his long life has been indissolubly (sic) interwoven into the warp and woof of our beloved church".

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“IN THE BEGINNING ... ” NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE June 1998

Number 6 - "Some Presbyteries report marked spiritual awakening, others report no particular or special awakening other than a desire for civic righteousness ..."

1907 to 1911

Two months after Rev. George F. Whitworth died Seattle First Presbyterian Church (SFPC) dedicated their third sanctuary at Seventh and Spring on Dec. 15, 1907, with a membership of 2,550. The new oval-shaped auditorium seated 3,000. SFPC had organized two churches (Georgetown and Interbay), supervised nine other “churches” and had thirteen branch Sunday Schools with 1,623 students. Between 1902-1907 SFPC had grown from 443 members under the leadership of Rev. Mark Matthews and his five assistant pastors.

In 1907 with 100 or more churches in Seattle an ordinance was passed against ringing the church bells. Temperance was a national issue; 50 towns in Washington State were "dry". Presbyterians in the USA numbered 1 million in 10,000 churches.

Most Cumberland Presbyterian churches rejoined the PCUSA in October, 1907. Locally the Cherry Street Cumberland Presbyterian Church (now Madrona) joined with 120 members. The Cumberland Presbyterians had been separate since 1837 over the issues of ministerial education, predestination and election, as stated in the Westminster Confession. Nationally, about one half of their ministers and one-third of the members merged with the PCUSA.

In 1908 our name was changed to the Presbytery of Seattle, as there were now three presbyteries on Puget Sound (Olympia, Bellingham and Seattle). There were 6,533 members in the 24 churches of the four counties of our presbytery (King, Kitsap, Jefferson, Clallam). The four Snohomish county churches transferred into Bellingham Presbytery, which had been created in 1905. The following year the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific (AYP) Exposition opened in Seattle with further temperance and morality concerns raised by the churches. The WCTU issued a warning stating "women should not to visit the 'Pay Streak' (carnival area) of the AYP without male escort" because of the semi-nudity of the natives from the Philippines and other concerns.

May 2, 1909, Rev. Sheldon Jackson (1834-1909) died after 51 years of ministry. In 1897 he had been the first moderator of General Assembly (GA) from the Pacific NW. The 400th anniversary of John Calvin's birth was celebrated in Seattle Presbytery July 8-11.

In 1910 five "essential and necessary" doctrines were adopted by the GA. These doctrines included the inerrancy of the Bible, the Virgin Birth, His substitutionary atonement, Christ's bodily resurrection, and the authenticity of miracles. These "essentials" were reaffirmed in 1916 and 1923 and became the "famous five points" of contention in the 1920s.

The 1911 Synod of Washington narrative reports: "Some Presbyteries report a marked spiritual awakening, others report no particular or special awakening other than a desire for civic righteousness. In several communities during the year there has been a city house-cleaning and the weeding out or total overthrow in some cases of the saloon."

In 1911 the Church Extension Association was organized and incorporated to raise money for local church building. Seattle Presbytery could locally own and deal with real estate and property matters

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“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE August 1998

Number 7 - "God alone is Lord of the conscience. To deny the right of private judgment is to surrender the very citadel of Historic Presbyterianism and turn our backs upon the Protestant Reformation."

1911 to 1924

October, 1911, Dr. J. F. Carson, the current moderator of the General Assembly (GA), preached at Seattle First Presbyterian Church (SFPC). He had defeated Rev. Mark Matthews in the election for moderator of GA that year. This was only the first or second time that the current moderator of the GA had visited Seattle. The Rev. Mark Matthews, who was elected Moderator of the GA in 1912, was the fifth moderator to be elected from a church west of the Rocky Mountains.

From the 1914 Synod of Washington minutes: "Five vital and pressing subjects before the church and the nation - temperance, divorce, the social evil (sex or sexual disease?), the Bible in the public school and last but not least Sabbath Observance."

In 1918 the Rev. Orio Inouye (1863-1937), the Japanese born missionary pastor of the Japanese Branch of SFPC, was a commissioner to GA. He was the first minority minister to represent our Presbytery at GA. Deaconesses were first ordained in our presbytery that year.

That winter, 1918-1919, Seattle churches were closed for several weeks because of the "Spanish Flu". 2,000 died in Seattle, but worse yet the flu traveled from Seattle to Alaska where over 50% of the population died in some native villages. In 1919 the first city wide general strike in the nation occurred in Seattle, lead by an AFL leader from one of our congregations. The following year the Amendments concerning prohibition of alcohol and women's right to vote took effect.

The two San Juan Island churches (Friday Harbor and Emmanuel) returned to the Presbytery of Seattle in 1919 and remained with us until 1936 when they once again returned to Bellingham Presbytery. In 1921 the PCUSA stated that “man” in the Scriptures referred to both men and women!

In the early 1920s the Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick, the liberal Baptist pastor of First Presbyterian Church of New York City, and the conservative Princeton Professor J. Greshem Machen began a battle of words. Fundamentalists and Modernists struggled with the conservative and liberal interpretations of Bible doctrines. The climax came in the 1923 vote electing Rev. Charles F. Wishart, the President of Wooster College, moderator of the General Assembly defeating Elder William Jennings Bryan. Rev. Wishart had spoken to tolerance rather than liberalism. Bryan was a superb orator, extreme conservative and had been Secretary of State under President Wilson until 1915. The 1923 assembly then reaffirmed the five-point doctrinal statement of 1910, with a narrow conservative victory. A newspaper article in the Presbyterian Banner pointed to the church’s Constitution; “God alone is Lord of the conscience. To deny the right of private judgment is to surrender the very citadel of Historic Presbyterianism and turn our backs upon the Protestant Reformation."

In January, 1924, 150 clergy signed what became known as the "Auburn Affirmation" to counteract the conservative, fundamentalist takeover of the Presbyterian Church. It was republished in May 1924, this time with 1,274 signatures. It again ratified the declaration of 1910, "but also allowed that some within the denomination might have other, equally valid formulae for explaining these truths." They then urged tolerance as they did not feel the doctrines should be the tests of ministerial fellowship. The power continued to rest with the conservatives that did not sign the Auburn Affirmation.

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“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE September 1998

Number 8 - " There must be occasion and opportunity for those not in accord to try to work together upon the basis of principles acknowledged by all, but freshly defined and commonly understood."

1924 to 1930

At the General Assembly in 1924 Dr. Clarence McCartney, an extreme conservative from Philadelphia, was elected over Prof. Charles R. Erdman from Princeton, the more moderate conservative by a narrow margin, 464 to 446. In the words of the liberal Rev. Dr. Charles E. Jefferson, of New York City, "We have arrived at a season of religious controversy. This is a good sign. It proves that we are intellectually alive." Unrest continued and another "Commission of Fifteen" was appointed to report back the next year. In 1926 the commission came out solidly in favor of toleration within the denomination. They also circumscribed the powers of the General Assembly (GA) to define doctrine, thereby nullifying the "essential" doctrines.

In 1924 the Women's Mission Board organization was absorbed into the new governing structure which further decreased the women's role to the control of male elders and clergy. This increased agitation for women's ordination. A report published by Katherine Jones Bennett and Margaret Hodge in 1927 titled "Causes of Unrest among the Women of the Church" brought the issue of women's ordination to a vote. Ordination of women elders was approved in 1930 by the GA, the ordination of female clergy were finally affirmed in the PCUSA in 1957 and in PCUS in 1964.

In 1925 the first minority elder was elected commissioner from the Presbytery of Seattle to GA, Abner L. Jones of the Grace Presbyterian Church. That year the Scopes trial made the views on evolution of Elder William Jennings Bryan, the losing modatorial candidate in 1923, seem ludicrous. An era of pluralism in theology began. Fundamentalism thereafter avoided the public arena. In 1927 there was a decision from the GA to decentralize theological decision to the presbyteries.

A special commission was appointed in 1925 "to study the present spiritual condition of our church and the causes for unrest." Rev. Mark Matthews was one of the 15 committee members. The report satisfied many who had threatened to leave the church because of the undue influence of fundamentalists on the ordination procedures. The committee recommended a more exact definition of the phrase "essential and necessary articles of faith." ... "There must be occasion and opportunity for those not in accord to try to work together upon the basis of principles acknowledged by all, but freshly defined and commonly understood. The Church seeking peace must wait for the spirit of peace to spread and for a full maturing of the purpose to attain peace." The report was received and commended for study. At the 1927 GA, "Fundamentalism" was rejected.

In 1926 the Synod of Washington reported that 762 services were held in logging camps by our missionaries.

In 1926 Rev. Boppell at West Side Presbyterian Church started the "Bible Mastery Plan", which was adopted by Seattle Presbytery in 1930 and soon became national in scope and in time spread to 17 denominations. It was described as "a concentrated reading of one book once a day during the month, not alone to master the book but to be mastered by the message of the book." That year 46,000 pieces were mailed. The monthly booklets were available at a penny or less to the congregations. This program continued until 1952 or later.

At the 1930 GA Overture B was presented for vote on the election and ordination of women as ruling elders. Seattle Presbytery had voted against the overture. The presbyteries voted 158 to 118, to ordain women. Thirteen women were elected elders in the Synod of Washington in 1930, three in Seattle Presbytery. The three women were all from the Ballard (Northminster) Presbyterian Church. Rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE October 1998

Number 9 - "We have also tried to bring more beauty, joy and spiritual reality into our common worship ... "

1930 to 1936

Although female elders began to be ordained nationally in 1930, in the Northwest the church was slow to follow. Three women from the Ballard Presbyterian Church were ordained in 1930, the only three in our presbytery. Five women were commissioners to the 1931 General Assembly (GA), none from our synod. In the 1931 Synod of Washington there were 31 women elders, only two presbyteries had none. Four women attended the 1931 synod meeting, Miss Mary Jane Turner of Gig Harbor, two from Oakesdale and one from Spokane. In 1932 six women were commissioners at GA; two were from Washington State, Miss Mary Jane Turner from Olympia Presbytery and Miss Stella Tuttle from Clarkston, WA. By 1940, only 10 of the 37 congregations of the Presbytery of Seattle had a female elder.

Unable to find a minister for the Gig Harbor Presbyterian Church, Miss Turner (1901-1972) was appointed the "missionary in charge" of the 38 to 100 member church from 1929-1956. The Olympia Presbytery considered her the stated supply in 1930 and the next year she was ordained an elder. In 1935 she was elected secretary of the Synod's Elders Association. In 1941 at her other post, the nearby Rosedale Union Church, she was ordained a minister by the Baptist church. In April 1956, Rev. Turner was forced to resign at Gig Harbor, six months prior to the first female ordination to Word and Sacrament of Margaret Towner by the PCUSA.

The annual report of the Synod of Washington in 1930 to the General Assembly describes the prominent place of the work of our Sunday School and Logging Camp missionaries " ... over the trails and by-ways to the neglected places. Besides their regular work the missionaries have had a large part in developing over 100 vacation schools and two splendid young people’s conferences last year."

Rev. Mark Matthews suggested a motto in his 1930 annual message to the congregation of Seattle First Presbyterian Church which was unanimously adopted; "Pray without ceasing; work without complaining; sacrifice without regretting; love without selfish whining; and practice absolute loyalty without criticizing."

The first union of the PCUSA and UPCNA was considered in 1931, but not accomplished until 1958. The first revision of the 1906 Book of Common Worship was completed in 1932. The committee stated "we have tried to express in these services the deep and growing desire for Christian unity, peace in the world, good will and justice in the social order. We have also tried to bring more beauty, joy and spiritual reality into our common worship ... ". In 1933 a new revision of The Hymnal , “the green book”, was compiled, and it included the doxology for the first time.

The "Allied Forces" (an ecumenical gathering) meeting at Plymouth Congregational Church in March 1933 was reported by Seattle First Presbyterian Church. “The dark underworld paganism is trying to thrust upon us a drunken debauch, race track gambling, prize fighting, vulgarity and every form of sin and crime. ... (we) answer the challenge ... the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. The church shall succeed.”

In January 1936, in the midst of the depression with one in four unemployed in Seattle, the Presbytery passed a resolution “that all Presbyterian apportionments be canceled.” As an example, the 1935 per capita for one Presbyterian church in Seattle was $56.49. The church owed $234.52 and was then paying $10 quarterly. In June 1936, the Centennial of the Spalding-Whitman mission to Oregon (Territory) was celebrated in Rushville and Syracuse, NY with Rev. Mark Matthews, Rev. Clifford Drury and others participating. Another celebration was held in Walla Walla in August.

Like female representation in governing bodies minorities were also few in number at this time. Grace Presbyterian Church, an African American church, was organized in 1912 and dissolved in 1956. The first minority elder to represent Seattle Presbytery at GA was John Cragwell in 1936 from Grace Presbyterian Church. The second minority elder was Luke Markishtum from the Neah Bay Presbyterian Church in 1940. The church, like society, continues to find inclusion difficult. rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE November 1998

Number 10 - The end of the Mark Matthews “era”
1937 to 1946

Temperance continued to be an issue even after the 21st Amendment, repealing prohibition, was ratified in 1933. Congregations were urged to write their representatives. It was noted that there were then 125 “speakeasies” in Seattle. Yet in 1937 the legislature passed the "Infamous Bill" number 443 which authorized the sale of wine and beer on the Lord's Day.

May 16, 1937, Rev. Orio Inouye, our first minority minister, died. Born in Japan in 1863 he graduated from Maiji Presbyterian College and Seminary. He came to the US in 1897 and studied at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and at Union Theological Seminary in New York and returned to Japan. In 1907 he came to Seattle and was recruited by Rev. Matthews to be the first minister of the Japanese Branch of Seattle First Presbyterian Church (SFPC) where he remained until 1922. His son-in-law, Genji Mihara, was the first Japanese elder at SFPC in 1931. Rev. Inouye returned to Japan, because of his father’s illness and remained there until 1932. He and his wife both died in Seattle and are buried just north of the Nisei Veteran’s Monument in the Lake View Cemetery.

The 50th anniversary of Rev. Mark Matthews ordination (at age 20) was celebrated in September 1937, with a banquet (the cost was 50 cents per person). The SFPC session consisted of 110 elders, "the world’s largest session". In September 1938 a session caravan of 30 cars, with Highway Patrol escort, drove to Bellingham for a SFPC session meeting and a dinner "to honor the women who have served this session dinner twelve times in the year". SFPC now had 26 branch Sunday Schools and missions. the women’s association had 57 circles and its radio station had been in operation since 1928 at 1220 on the AM dial.

February 5, 1940 Rev. Mark A. Matthews died of the complications of pneumonia, at age 72. He had been pastor of SFPC for one day short of 38 years. When he died he had eleven assistant pastors. In 1942 his bust was placed in Denny Park, where it may still be seen. Due to his work SFPC had been the nation’s largest Presbyterian Church since about 1910, growing to 8,818 members in 1939.

In 1940 the first two branches of SFPC became independent, Boulevard Park (1940-1980) and Olympic Heights (later Hillcrest 1941-1968). Both left the denomination later. Only 29 of the 43 churches of Seattle Presbytery were then self-supporting, the others were receiving national mission support.

President Roosevelt issued executive order 9066 for the "exclusion of all suspect persons from war zones" on February 19, 1942. This affected 110,000 people of Japanese descent on the west coast, two thirds of whom were American citizens. 13,400 were interned from Washington State. Two years prior, in 1939, the Japanese membership of SFPC was 421 members in Seattle and another 300 in Japan and elsewhere on the west coast.

In January 1946, a special committee on branch churches and missions made their report. Rev. Paul McConkey, the senior pastor of SFPC, moved that 1) In order to obviate the difficulty of the branch system (that) the presbytery organize a Board of Church Extension with a paid executive in which all shall pool their branches 2) that all branches of all churches in the presbytery be placed under this board and 3) that the Board be composed of elders and active pastors of churches in equal number. The motion passed unanimously. The Board of Church Extension of the presbytery was formed "to discharge the duties normally carried on by the Committee on National Missions". Church development began at the local level. Rev. Clarence E. Pohlemus was selected as the first executive secretary of the board in October 1946.

Errata. In 1918 the first minority elder, Richard S. Brown, was commissioner to General Assembly from Grace Presbyterian Church. He was followed by Abner L. Jones from Grace in 1925; both preceded John Cragwell the commissioner in 1936.

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE December 1998

Number 11 - women in leadership, GA in Seattle, executive presbyter named.

1946 to 1948

Movement was made toward acquiring a conference facility after the war. In January 1946 the Conference Ground Committee reported that 31 of the 45 churches had responded. 23 were in favor of the proposed plans, 2 against and 6 equivocal. June 19, 1954 the 80 acre Presbyterian Conference Ground, Calvinwood, at Nels Johnson Lake was dedicated, SW of Port Orchard. After seven years, this camp was sold to the Presbytery of Olympia in 1961.

The Board of Church Extension of the presbytery was formed "to discharge the duties normally carried on by the Committee on National Missions". Church development now began at the local level. The general sentiment was expressed at the meeting. "This is a big undertaking. It is the biggest thing Seattle Presbytery has ever done. I think we are beginning to realize now what an important and heavy task the (Seattle) First Presbyterian Church (SFPC) has been doing all these years in work, brethren that we should have been shouldering. ... Ours will be the responsibility of mothering 21 churches (the former branches of SFPC) ...”. Rev. Clarence E. Pohlemus was selected as the first executive secretary of the board in October 1946.

The first woman commissioner from Seattle Presbytery, Mrs. William (Janet) Whiteside, an elder from Riverton Heights Presbyterian Church, attended the 1947 General Assembly. Two years later the next female commissioner was elder Sarah Brown of Grace Presbyterian Church.

November 1947 the Presbytery appointed its first Committee on History. Rev. Ezra Giboney was elected chairman. They outlined their task at the January 1948 meeting of presbytery. They noted that the presbytery history can only be achieved with the “ hearty cooperation of every pastor and session ”. [Some things never change] Two copies of the preliminary sketch of the 50 churches were completed. Churches were surveyed for interest in purchase of further copies. By that May, 32 mimeographed copies had been ordered, but the order was never printed (one copy remains at the presbytery office).

The 160th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of the United States of America (PCUSA) met in Seattle for its annual meeting in June 1948. This was the second General Assembly meeting in the Pacific Northwest, the first was in Portland in 1892. During this meeting the commissioners visited the bust of Rev. Mark Matthews at Denny Park.

September 1948 a committee was appointed “to study the advisability of having a general presbyter”. It was felt that an Executive could implement and coordinate the efforts of Presbytery and that the Presbytery Council could be a more effective guide to the functions of Presbytery with the Executive, Moderator, Clerk and the eight committee chairmen. An office was to be established for the Presbytery. The Executive Secretary would be elected for five years. In January 1949 Rev. Clarence E. Polhemus was elected the first executive of the Presbytery of Seattle. Rlw

IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE January 1999

Number 12 - "My plans require time and distance". Marcus Whitman

1949 to 1956

In the 1940s seven new churches were formed and another 12 assisted with building programs in the Presbytery. At this time every church in the Presbytery, except for Westminster Presbyterian Church, had been assisted by the Board of National Missions in supporting their first minister and with grants and loan money for their buildings.

In 1950 Presbytery meetings must have gotten away from "Robert's Rules" as the council had a special committee on "Saving Time at Presbytery". They recommended "that in order to save time at Presbytery meetings that the Presbytery cooperate with the moderator in not speaking on the floor of Presbytery until a motion is before Presbytery or unless special permission has been granted for presenting a matter to Presbytery".

The "Presbytery House" was purchased in July 1952. After remodeling the two story house at 1104 17th Avenue East, it housed both Seattle Presbytery and the Synod offices. That year the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible was published.

Two actions were taken on March 17, 1953 by the Presbytery. The first was to approve the ordination of women and the second to dissolve Grace Presbyterian Church. Grace Presbyterian Church was dissolved and it was recommended that its congregation merge with the Madrona Presbyterian Church to form an inter-racial congregation. It had been the only Negro (sic) Presbyterian congregation in the city and in the Synod of Washington. The last services at Grace were on Easter Sunday, April 5, 1953.

On May 22, 1953 the statue of Dr. Marcus Whitman was unveiled in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC, as part of the Washington Territorial Centennial celebration. The inscription on the base states "My plans require time and distance". Each state is allowed two statues; in 1980 our state’s second statue was that of Mother Joseph of the Sisters of Providence.

In September 1955, Seattle Presbytery became a Specially Designated Presbytery. Thereby the presbytery became self budgeting with 90% of the National Missions receipts.

The 1956 General Assembly ratified the actions of the Presbyteries in regard to women's ordinations. Rev. Margaret E. Towner, of the Cayaga-Syracuse Presbytery, was the first ordained woman minister in the PCUSA. She was ordained in Syracuse, NY and became the director of Christian Education at the First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, PA. Later she was made vice-moderator of General Assembly. In 1965 Rev. Rachel Henderlite was ordained as the first clergywomen of the PCUS. In the next thirty years nearly 3,000 more women were ordained to the ministry in the PC(USA). It was 1971 before the first woman was ordained to ministry in our Presbytery. Rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE February 1999

Number 13 - Mergers, building and expansion of programs.

1957 to 1963

By January 1957 "a struggling program at Calvinwood (camp) is inadequate because of the buildings". Presbytery Executive Rev. George McCleave stated in March 1957 "One phase of our program has not been stressed until now. It might be called the Inner City Problem ."

May 28, 1958 the United Presbyterian Church USA (UPCUSA) was formed from the merged United Presbyterians of North America (UPCNA) and the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). The confessional basis for the union was the Westminster Confession. The PCUS, the “Southern Presbyterians”, had withdrawn from these talks, as less than the required 3/4 of their presbyteries had approved the merger. Joining Seattle Presbytery were four UPCNA churches with 1,253 members of the Puget Sound Presbytery (UPCNA). They were the First United (later Laurelhurst), John Knox, Trinity and Queen Anne Presbyterian Churches.

Seattle Presbytery unsuccessfully petitioned the Synod of Washington to merge Seattle and Bellingham Presbyteries in November 1958. April 1959 the Faith and Life Department and Board of Church Erection concurred about the purchase of Buck Creek Ski Lodge from Seattle University for $15,000, the remaining mortgage to be less than $140,000. There was then a $25 rental fee yearly to the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service. In May 1961 the Calvinwood Conference Ground was sold to Olympia Presbytery.

The Presbyterian Counseling Service was begun in 1960 by Rev. Neal Kuyper. June 1961 the name of the Synod of Washington was changed to the Synod Washington-Alaska, as it now had the "full administrative responsibility by the Board of National Missions for the churches of Alaska ... ".

In April 1962 the Seattle World's Fair, “The Century of Progress”, opened in Seattle. Presbyterians were working at the Christian Witness Pavilion with the theme "Christ the same, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow". Parkshore Retirement Home was being constructed, Exeter Presbyterian House would soon be purchased and work had yet to begin on the Buck Creek Lodge. The “Presbytery House” was located at 1104 17th Avenue East from 1952 until the Presbytery and Synod offices were moved to Exeter House in 1962.

Rev. George McCleave again spoke about our expanding population and our mobile population. “We have to train our members to the concept of a total church, not just a local congregation. With our megapolis (sic) 97% will be in city urban mission”.

March 1963 it was reported that 54 of the 60 churches in presbytery had been involved in a building program during the past decade. The inner city churches, “Queen Anne, Westminster and Seattle First will all be in the center of apartments soon!” The largest number of communicants in our presbytery was during 1966 with 30,969 in the 63 churches. Rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE March 1999

Number 14 -. Confession of 1967 and Women’s issues.

1964 to 1967

In 1966 the Presbyterian Hospital Chaplaincy was started with Rev. Richard Johnson. Through the efforts of the Presbytery of Seattle on October 1, 1978 the Harborview Hospital Chaplaincy program was organized, with support from Seattle First Presbyterian Church. Rev. Cirilo Del Carmen became the first director, a position he held until May 1997. The program is now called the Pastoral Care Department at Harborview Medical Center.

December 27, 1966 Elder Howard Hux, of Bellevue First Presbyterian Church, was commissioned as a lay preacher for one year. His commission was renewed in January 1968 to preach at the Georgetown and Duwamish churches and for pulpit supply at Queen Anne.

With a Synod boundary re-alignment, ten churches from the Presbytery of Seattle were transferred to the new North Puget Sound Presbytery in 1969; four from North King County and six from the Olympic Peninsula. The Presbytery of Seattle now had 53 churches with 24,764 communicant members.

The first major confessional statement since the 1902’s “Brief statement of the Reformed Faith” was the "Confession of 1967" (C67). In 1968 two churches, Hillcrest and Bremerton First, withdrew from the denomination because of the controversy surrounding C67. Seattle Presbytery in February 1967 voted 88 to 60 to accept C67. There was much discussion concerning several areas of the theme of reconciliation in the new confession, but it did pass by 166 (88%) of the 188 Presbyteries. The church now "gathers to Praise God", "disperses to serve God" and properly exists in "a wide variety of forms". To many the conflict was between "private Christians" that were more concerned about personal conversion and conduct and the "public Christians" that were interested in societal problems and the conversion of public institutions.

In 1967 the Special Committee on the Status of Women was formed to address the "essentially patriarchal attitude" toward women. It reported to the General Assembly that only 67 women had been ordained since 1956 (none in Seattle) , less than 1 percent of the denomination’s clergy. Women elders now comprised only 15.7 percent of the elders (Seattle had 30% in 1980). “The church's sexism has damaged its mission by stifling the participation of half of its members.” In 1969 the first General Assembly Task Force on Women was formed.

June 1967 the joint planning between the United Church of Christ and UPCUSA began for the Kingsgate United Church. The UCC was to be the organizing denomination. This church effort existed from the fall of 1969 until 1973. Hillcrest, Bremerton First and a portion of the Laurelhurst congregation withdrew from the denomination in 1968 because of the C67 and its tendency toward humanism. General Assembly had mandated ordination of female elders and justice issues, but these churches felt that racism, justice, poverty and feminism were not being addressed from a Biblical perspective. Rlw “

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE April 1999

Number 15 -. Women’s ordination, Angela Davis, Inclusive language, Korean Church

1970 to 1979

In 1970 the fourth edition of the Book of Common Worship marked such a departure from previous editions that a different name was chosen, The Worshipbook . Liturgical renewal was becoming the emphasis in the church. Presbyterians became the first Protestants to use the Roman Catholic lectionary, now known as the Common Lectionary. Two years later hymns were added and published as The Worshipbook: Services and Hymns . The prior norm of quarterly communion now changed to monthly communion.

August 29, 1971 Rev. Linda Hofer became the first women ordained in our presbytery at Bethel Presbyterian Church, where her father was clerk of session. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary she was called to be a chaplain at the Presbyterian Hospital in Philadelphia. In 1984 while moderator of Yellowstone Presbytery she died after a horseback riding accident, at age 38.

1971 was also the time of the Angela Davis controversy. Ms. Davis was a philosophy professor at UCLA, a Black Panther and a self-avowed Communist who had been indicted on conspiracy charges. She had been supported by the Council on Church and Race of the UPCUSA with a defense fund of $10,000. Many individuals objected. A little publicized fact was that twenty African-American Presbyterians sent the moderator a matching gift from their personal funds to repay the church support, yet the controversy continued.

The new Synod of Alaska-Northwest was formed in 1972, with the addition of the Northern Idaho churches to those of Alaska and Washington. The first study of sexist language in the Presbyterian Church was initiated in 1973 and it was received, but not adopted, by the Church in 1975. In 1983 the National Council of Churches published their Inclusive-Language Lexionary.

Nationally by 1973, 250 congregations had left the UPCUSA to form the Presbyterian Church of America (PCA), including members of our former Laurelhurst congregation. May 9, 1974 the Seattle Times reported that “Washington was the least churched state” with only 32.5% of adults being members of a church. July 4, 1976 the Presbyterians gathered for worship at the Seattle Center as part of the United States Bicentennial celebration.

Sept. 1974, Rev. Patricia Campbell-Schmitt became the installed first woman pastor in our Presbytery. Working with Rev. Dr. David Yeaworth she and her husband, Tom, were assistant co-pastors at Newport Presbyterian Church. In Oct. 1978, Rev. Myrlene Jacobsen was installed as the first woman interim pastor in our Presbytery at the Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church.

The Korean Community Presbyterian Church joined our Presbytery as our first Korean speaking congregation in Sept. 1979. Now there are 16 Korean congregations in our Synod. rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE May 1999

Number 16 - Division and Church re-union

1980 to 1990

Mandatory ordination of women was the issue of 1980. Riverton Heights Presbyterian Church and Boulevard Park Presbyterian Church left the denomination in August 1980 over the mandatory election (Overture L) of women elders to the session. In 1947 Mrs. William Whiteside, an elder at Riverton Heights, had been the first female commissioner from our presbytery to GA. Both churches were later sold to the continuing congregations. In 1987, many members of Renton First left over the same issue. In 1935 Mrs. Sarah Tonkin had been Renton’s first woman elder.

The PC(USA) was re-united on June 10, 1983. At that time the United Presbyterian Church USA (UPCUSA) and the Presbyterian Church of the United States (PCUS), the “southern church” joined in Atlanta after fourteen years of negotiation. After 120 years of separation, all UPCUSA presbyteries and three fourths of the PCUS presbyteries supported the merger. The Presbyterian Church was reunited with 13,225 congregations, 21,255 clergy and 2,726,375 members. Communion rules allowed children to now participate in the Lord’s supper. With the merger PC(USA) became the fourth largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

The office of Seattle Presbytery moved to the Beacon Hill Presbyterian Church in 1984 from Exeter House, where it had shared space with the Synod offices since 1962. January 1986 the final payment on the loan for Buck Creek Camp and Conference Grounds was made and the 1959 mortgage was burned at the Presbytery meeting with the Synod executive participating.

In 1988 the National office of the church moved to Louisville, KY from Philadelphia, PA. The Presbytery of Seattle was still having "annual" pulpit exchanges.

With church reunion work was begun on a new statement of faith. In 1989 the Committee of Fifteen, which included Rev. S. E. Viau of Seattle Presbytery, refined the document prior to the final submission to the General Assembly. In June 1990, after six years of work by two committees, the draft of the new “Brief Statement of Faith: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)” was approved and sent to the presbyteries. Its two pages outlined a contemporary confession of our faith in the church Catholic, Protestant and Reformed.

May 21, 1989 a presbytery-wide Bicentennial celebration commemorating the first General Assembly (Philadelphia May 1789) was at the Seattle Center Coliseum. The Rev. Richard C. Halverson, Chaplain of the U. S. Senate, was the keynote speaker.

In 1990 The new Presbyterian Hymnal was completed "using inclusive language and sensitive to the diverse nature of the church”. This had been mandated by the 1980 and the 1983 General Assemblies. rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE June 1999

Number 17 - New churches, new missions

1990 to present

Five New Church Developments (NCD) were begun between 1989-1994. Soos Creek was organized in 1995, Celebration and Community Presbyterian Churches in 1996. The North Bend NCD was closed in 1992, Pacific (North Kitsap) NCD existed from 1994 until 1997.

Since the 1994 General Assembly (GA) there has been a special committee to write a New Presbyterian Catechism. The placement of John Calvin's Genevan Catechism in the Book of Confessions has been under consideration. The issue was addressed at the 1998 GA.

In 1995 the Intentional Communities Coalition was formed with support from Bethany, Bellevue First, John Knox and University Presbyterian Churches. These churches have committed financial support for the operation of four residential communal-type sites for urban ministry modeled after the Volunteers in Shared Ministry initiative of General Assembly.

1995 was also the year of the internet as the PC(USA), University Presbyterian Church and Frontier Fellowship began informational sites on the World Wide Web. At this time most of the presbytery is connected on the internet. In November 1995 Bihn Nguyen was ordained as a commissioned lay preacher (CLP). He was the first Vietnamese CLP to be commissioned in the PC(USA). He served at Brighton Presbyterian Church and now leads the Good News Fellowship at the former Brighton church.

In August 1996 Laurelhurst Presbyterian Church was dissolved. This was the first church dissolution in our presbytery in over 30 years, since Greenwood Presbyterian Church in 1963 (excluding changes at Boulevard Park and Riverton).

In January 1991 Rev. Jean Kim began the Church of Mary Magdalene for the homeless women in Seattle. Woodland Park Presbyterian Church in 1997 sent an overture to the General Assembly concerning homeless women, this was supplemented by overtures from five of our churches in 1998 which were passed by GA proposing measures to end homelessness.

In Chicago in October 1998, full communion was recognized by the PCUSA, Reformed Church of America, United Church of Christ and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. The churches confessed their centuries-long sins of division and reaffirmed their unity as baptized believers in the body of Christ.

Recently two new NCDs have been formed; Pyung An NCD in Federal Way and Seattle Community NCD in the former Laurelhurst Presbyterian Church. Also active are the Good News Fellowship at the former Brighton Presbyterian Church, and the Spanish, Persian and Indonesian fellowships. Rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE August 1999

Number 18 - Early Presbyterians in Oregon Territory (OT)

The first Presbyterian service in the present State of Washington took place on October 4, 1835, lead by Rev. Samuel Parker at Fort Walla Walla. Rev. Parker and Dr. Marcus Whitman had come together to the Fur Rendezvous on the Green River in the present state of Wyoming. From here Dr. Whitman returned to New York and Rev. Parker continued west, preaching to the Nez Perce Indians at Lapwai, Idaho, enroute. The first Protestant service west of the Rocky Mts. was the prior year, July 27, 1834, at Fort Hall, near the current Pocatello, Idaho, conducted by Rev. Jason Lee, the first Methodist missionary to the Oregon Territory.

The following year the Spalding-Whitman party reached Fort Walla Walla on Sept. 3, 1836 after a 3,500 mile journey. It took almost two years before these missionaries, Rev. Henry H. Spalding and Elder Marcus Whitman , were able to constitute the Columbia Mission into the "First Presbyterian Church of the Oregon Territory" with six members. This took place at the Whitman cabin on August 18, 1838. The next Presbyterian Church was organized as the "Presbyterian Church of Willamette Falls" of Oregon City, OT on May 25, 1844. This church was short lived, however the first elder in OT was ordained here. November 29, 1847 the Whitmans and twelve others were massacred, ending their mission.

Rev. Lewis Thompson organized the next Presbyterian Church at Clatsop Plains, OT in 1846. This is the oldest continuing Presbyterian Church in the Pacific North West (at Warrenton, OR, west of Astoria). Two other Presbyterian ministers, Revs. Robe and Geary, were in Yamhill County and Eugene City, OT.

The first presbytery west of the Rocky Mountains, the Presbytery of California, Synod of New York, was organized in San Francisco on September 21, 1849. During 1850-1851 the Reformed, Cumberland and PCUSA all organized in OT. The UPCNA was recognized in Oregon in 1860.

Following the General Assembly meeting in St. Louis in 1851, the Presbytery of Oregon , Synod of New York , was organized on November 19, 1851 in Lafayette, Yamhill County, OT at the home of Rev. Edward R. Geary with the Rev. Lewis Thompson and Rev. Robert Robe . The following year the Synod of the Pacific was organized at the First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco on October 19, 1852. Rev. Robe came to this meeting by means of a “lame horse“ to Astoria and then by boat to California. The three presbyteries, in the new Synod of the Pacific, each had only three ministers at this time.

Rev. John L. Yantis and Rev. George F. Whitworth organized the First Presbyterian Church of Portland on January 1, 1854 with ten members, four from the Whitworth family. Rev. Yantis returned to Missouri the following year, Rev. Whitworth had gone to Olympia and the church failed, but it was soon re-organized, in 1860.

RLW

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE September 1999

Number 19- Early Presbyterians Ministers in Washington Territory (WT)

March 4, 1854 Rev. George F. Whitworth (1816-1907) first preached in Olympia. November 12, 1854 Rev. Whitworth organized the First Presbyterian Church (now the United Churches of Olympia) in Olympia, WT with seven members (again four from his family). Three deacons were elected, but it was 1857 before the first elder, William Kincaid, was elected.

Sept. 1858 the Presbytery of Puget Sound was “organized” with Rev. Jotham Goodell of Grand Mound, Rev. George Sloan of Steilacoom, and Rev. Whitworth, but the presbytery was not recognized by the Synod of the Pacific.. That year the first Presbyterian Church in Washington Territory was built at Chambers Prairie, near Yelm, by Olympia’s second elder A. Williamson Stewart. Rev. Goodell (1809-1859) died one year later and he was the first Presbyterian minister to be buried in WT.

Rev. George F. Sloan (1825-1900) organized the Steilacoom Presbyterian Church in 1858. He had just graduated from Western Theological Seminary in Allegheny City, PA. To support his family he taught school, was superintendent of schools and was a surveyor. When Fort Steilacoom was abandoned in 1867 he next organized the White River Presbyterian Church. He later preached at Sumner, taught at the Puyallup Indian Reservation and at Spokane Falls Indian Church and returned to Pennsylvania where he died in 1900.

In the spring of 1860 Rev. Richard J. Evans (1834-1863) came to Washington after completing Allegheny Seminary and being ordained a missionary. He served at Chambers Prairie and Grand Mound until Rev. Whitworth resigned at Olympia. Rev. Evans now became the first called pastor at the Olympia’s First Presbyterian Church. Evans died at age 28 just as he had completed building the church in 1863.

Rev. John R. Thompson (1833-1899) was ordained in 1858 and served a church in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He came to Olympia in 1870 and later organized Tacoma First, Snohomish First, Yakima First and some 17 other churches. As the Presbytery missionary-at-large he is said to have built ten churches. He served as Superintendent of Thurston County Schools for six years and then served in the Territorial Legislature. He was one of the first trustees of the Washington School for the Deaf in Vancouver. Thompson died in Manila, P.I. of acute illness while he served as chaplain in the Spanish American War, for the First Regiment of Washington Volunteers.

Rev. Thomas J. Weekes (1839-1916) was born in England where he took his medical training. In 1862 he came to the Fraser River gold fields. He next trained for ministry in San Francisco and came to San Juan Island in 1870, he was ordained in 1872 to serve the San Juan (Friday Harbor) Presbyterian Church and also served Orcas and Lopez Islands. He served as chaplain to the American troops during the “Pig War”. In 1892-1894 he worked for NPRR Land Company and then resumed his ministry at Gig Harbor. In 1913, at age 73, he oversaw the building of the Memorial Presbyterian Church (now Chapel Hill Presbyterian Church). RLW

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE October 1999

Number 20 - Whitworth the teacher, lawyer, minister, surveyor, farmer, businessman

Born in 1816 in Boston on the East coast of England of Baptist parents, George Whitworth came to Rochester, NY at age 12. His father was a harness and saddle maker. The family including one sister, lived for three years in Ohio before moving to Terra Haute, IN where George graduated from high school. He enrolled in the classical course at Hanover College graduating in 1838, and married Mary Elizabeth Thomson of Greensburg, IN. Three of her brothers became Presbyterian ministers; several had been in college and seminary with George.

While teaching school he studied law and then practiced law as an attorney in Dayton, OH. One 15 month old child of theirs died about that time. In 1844 he enrolled in the New Albany (IN) Theological Seminary (later McCormick). He was ordained and installed as the stated supply of the nearby 36 member Corydon, IN Presbyterian Church (PC) in 1848. The next year he was stated supply at Cannelton, IN and acrosss the river at Hawesville, KY. In the April 1852 Presbyterian Magazine he proposed a Presbyterian colony for Oregon. Twenty families showed interest in the project.

He was commissioned a missionary to Puget Sound. May 1853 the family travelled to St. Joseph, MO where they started on the Oregon Trail. His family included his wife age 35, her 63 year old mother, four children ages 2 to 13 and two nieces of his wife, ages 16 and 18. They arrived in Portland in November after the usual discomforts of the six month overland journey with three ox wagons. The colony dream had by now disappeared along with the other five families. In January 1854 he helped organize the First PC of Portland.

March 1854 he conducted his first worship service in Olympia, WT. The following November he organized the First PC of Olympia, while homesteading his 320 acres north of town. While in Olympia he organized and served the churches at Grand Mound, Claquato (Chehalis) and Chambers Prairie. In addition to the farm, he had a school and was county Superintendent of Schools Because of the lack of funding by the church he was forced to resign his pastorate in 1860.

He moved to Whidbey Island and farmed for three years and there organized a PC near Coupeville. In 1863 he returned to Olympia as Chief Clerk for Indian Affairs. All of this time he continued to preach most Sundays. In 1866 he was named President of the Territorial University and moved to Seattle. In Seattle he alternated services with Rev. Daniel Bagley at the Methodist Protestant Church of Seattle. Soon the University closed and he was employed surveying and soon was organizing the coal mines at Issaquah and Newcastle. Seattle First PC was organized in November 1869 at the Whitworth home. While he was stated supply the Seattle First PC was finally built in 1877.

In 1876 he was again named President of the University. By 1877 he was stated supply serving at White River, Puyallup (now Sumner) and Newcastle. For a time he also served at the Tacoma First PC. He continued working with White River PC through 1887. Sumner Academy (Whitworth College) was started in 1883 with his dream. He was involved as a trustee and fund raiser. In 1885 he organized the Renton First PC. By 1887 he was also serving Kent PC. He was involved with the organization of Second (Bethany) PC in 1888 and Port Orchard (Summit Avenue) in 1894.

In 1890 his wife died and he was only serving at Renton PC. He was honored with a D.D. that year from Hanover College. The Renton PC was closed for a few years . Whitworth was the stated clerk of the Puget Sound Presbytery from 1876-1899. He was stated supply again at Renton PC from 1896-1899 and continued to preach occasionally thereafter.

He died in October 6, 1907, at age 91, and is buried at Lake View Cemetery, Seattle. Rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE November 1999

Number 21 - Rev. Mark A. Matthews - church builder!

Rev. Mark Allison Matthews was born Sept. 24, 1867 in Calhoun, GA. Of twelve children, only he and a sister lived to maturity. His father, a Southern Presbyterian (PCUS) elder, was a carriage maker and wheelwright. He lost his business and home when General Sherman’s troops burned Calhoun. His sister, Laura, married a grandson of Rev. Whitworth. Matthews never graduated from high school or seminary. He attended the Calhoun Academy where he was taught by Prof. J. B. Millhouse, pastor of the Calhoun Presbyterian Church. He studied theology privately and graduated in 1887 from the Gordon County University.

He was licensed to preach at age 17 and served four mission churches. He was ordained at age 20, in 1887, by the Cherokee Presbytery, PCUS, to be the pastor in Calhoun. He next served as supply pastor at the First Presbyterian Church, Dalton, GA for two years. He went to the First Presbyterian Church, Jackson, TN in 1895. Here he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1900 and received his D.D.. He was called to the Seattle First Presbyterian Church (SFPC) in January 1902, which then was a church of 443 members. By November he had his first assistant pastor, Rev. Owen Jones, from the Welsh Presbyterian Church of Seattle. The church’s motto was “Looking upward, reaching outward, pressing forward!”

The Chinese Mission was the first mission he helped to organize in June 8, 1903 with 18 boys. Miss Grace Owens Jones, the daughter of his assistant pastor became his wife August 24, 1904. They had two children, Grace Gwladys and Mark A. Matthews II.

By 1906 he had received 2,000 new members and had five assistant pastors involved with two other churches and nine branches, including Rev. Orio Inouye at the Japanese branch. The new sanctuary seating 3,000 was dedicated on December 1907, at the present church site. The $500,000 building was nearly paid for with only a $30,000 debt remaining. The church now had 2,550 members.

In 1908 he was Moderator of the Synod of Washington and got his LL.D. from Whitman College. Huron College awarded him a LL.D. in 1912. As the police chaplain (badge #445) he worked hard to “clean up the city”. Through his efforts the mayor was recalled and the police chief went to prison. Matthews lost his bid to be Moderator in 1911, but was elected Moderator of the General Assembly the following year. He traveled “42,000 miles” by train that year and only missed 12 Sundays in the pulpit of SFPC. 1911 SFPC had 4,576 members. making it the largest church in the denomination. Rev. Matthews was elected our commissioner to General Assembly 20 times!.

Radio station KTW was started by SFPC in August 1922. Commercial radio had just begun in 1920. This was the first church owned radio station in the world. In 1923 Rev. Matthews was moderator of Seattle Presbytery. Starting in 1918, he was the author of five books.

By 1939 the church had 26 branches and 11 assistant ministers. The membership had grown to 8,818, the largest ever. The 110 man session now had twenty departments. There were 44 women's circles! SFPC remained the largest church until 1942, when some of the branches became independent churches.

Rev. Matthews died Feb. 5, 1940 at age 72 with pneumonia and a stroke. He was cremated. His assistant for 32 years, Rev. Frederick Forbes, died in April, at age 85, after 56 years in ministry. February 8, 1942 a bronze bust of Rev. Mark Matthews was erected in Seattle’s Denny Park, “Preacher of the Word of God and Friend of Man.” The death mask had been made by Seattle sculptor Alonzo Victor Lewis.

His biography, The Life of Mark Matthews , was written by Dr. Ezra Giboney and Agnes M. Potter, in 1948. Another biography is due to be published next year. Rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE December 1999

Number 22 - Women elders in Seattle Presbytery

In 1876, and possibly later, the General Assembly (GA), went on record against women speaking in church by affirming I Cor. 14:34. Now 125 years later, 58 percent of all Presbyterian communicants are female and 45 % of our elders are women.

Women were first ordained as deacons in the PCUSA in 1915. In Seattle Presbytery deaconesses were ordained in 1918. A number of other Protestant denominations ordained women to all categories of ministry after the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920. A report published in 1927 titled "Causes of Unrest among the Women of the Church" brought the unrest to a vote. This report came after the male takeover of the women’s missionary societies finances in 1915.

Historically, the first women elders were ordained two days after the General Assembly vote in Cincinnati, Ohio, on June 2, 1930. The GA vote was 158 to 118, Seattle Presbytery, and Rev. Mark Matthews, had voted against the issue, along with three of the eight presbyteries in our synod. That year the first three women elders in Seattle Presbytery were ordained at Ballard (Northminister) Presbyterian Church; 1) Miss Lucile Hayslette, 2) Miss Dora Zeldenrust and 3) Mrs. Ola Smith. There were then 13 women elders in the Synod of Washington. The pastor at Ballard, Rev. Taylor, L. Wendell (1895-1968) had been a missionary in India.

In 1931 Mrs. Maude Lambert was ordained at Quilcene. Nationally five women served as commissioners to the 143rd GA that year. In 1932 two women commissioners, from Olympia and Walla Walla Presbyteries, went to GA from our synod.

During the next four years Mrs. Otto Peterson was ordained at Port Blakely Presbyterian Church on Bainbridge Island, Mrs. Alta M. McCoy at Neah Bay, Mrs. Mary K. Nielsen and Mrs. Frank Hanson at Calvary Presbyterian Church in Enumclaw and Mrs. Sarah F. Tonkin at Renton First.

From 1936 to 1939 the next churches to ordain women as elders were Black Diamond, Mrs. Maude Botts, and Clallam Bay, Mrs. Emma Tuttle. In 1936 all of the presbyteries of the synod had a few women elders.

In 1941 Mrs. Gertrude Biggar was ordained at Lake Burien and Mrs. V. M. Gerard at Rainier Beach. Nearly one quarter of our 41 churches then had a women elder. Following Rev. Matthew’s death in 1940 Lake Burien was the first of the former Seattle First Presbyterian branch churches to ordain women.

In 1947 Mrs. William Whiteside was the first woman from Seattle Presbytery to be an elder commissioner to GA; she was an elder at the Riverton Heights Presbyterian Church. Mrs. Sarah Brown, from the Grace Presbyterian Church, was the second woman to be an elder commissioner and our first minority woman commissioner in 1949.

By 1953 one half of the churches of the presbytery had ordained a woman elder.

In 1971 Elder Gwen McElroy was the first woman to be elected Moderator of the Synod of Washington-Alaska. In 1973 Seattle Presbytery elected the first woman as Moderator, Elder Mildred Shrumm of the First Presbyterian Church of Bellevue.

In 1979 the mandatory election of women elders to session (Overture L) was approved by the GA. This was part of the reason that the Riverton Heights and Boulevard Park congregations left the UPCUSA in 1980.

The last church in our presbytery to ordain their first woman elder was in 1992. Some of our ethnic churches, due to their historic roots, have yet to ordain a woman elder. rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE January 2000

Number 23 - Women in ministry in Seattle presbytery

The overture regarding ordination of women in ministry was disapproved in 1955 by the vote of Seattle Presbytery. The following year the ordination of women was ratified by the majority of presbyteries and added to the Book of Order. Rev. Margaret E. Towner, of the Cayuga-Syracuse Presbytery, was the first ordained woman minister in the PCUSA that year. She was ordained in Syracuse, NY and became the director of Christian Education at the First Presbyterian Church in Allentown, PA. Later, she was the vice-moderator of the General Assembly.

Miss Linda Lee Hofer (1946-1984) was the first woman to be ordained a minister in our presbytery on August 29, 1971. She was ordained at Bethel Presbyterian Church, where she had grown up and her father was an active elder. She was installed as a chaplain for the Presbyterian Hospital of Philadelphia, PA. Hofer had a degree in nursing from the University of Washington and a M. Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1971. In 1978 she transferred to the Yellowstone Presbytery, MT, where her husband, Rev. Bruce Cameron, was installed as pastor. She began a pastorate in MT in 1981. While moderator of her presbytery in 1984 she died following a horse back riding accident.

October 1974, Rev. Patricia M. Campbell-Schmitt was the first woman to be installed in our presbytery. She served as a half time assistant pastor at Newport Presbyterian Church where her husband, Thomas C., also served as a half time assistant. They currently serve in Bend, OR.

Rev. Myrlene Jacobson became the interim pastor at Rainier Beach in October 1978. She served as part of the national "women's interim program" under the Synod of Alaska Northwest, to place women in ministry. The following spring Rev. Sue Ellen Porter was installed as an assistant pastor at the Mercer Island United Church of Christ. Rev. Miriam Dixon became an assistant pastor at Northminster in 1979, and then the first associate pastor in our presbytery while there.

1981 set a new record with four women ministers installed in our presbytery; there had only been one in the years prior. Rev. Dixon was at Northminster, Rev. Joyce L. Manson the pastor at Madrona and Rev. Donna F. DeCou and Murial C. Brown were serving as interim pastors at Calvary and Magnolia.

1983 saw co-associates at Calvary with Jennifer Byler Clark and her husband Steven. Rev. Porter was the assistant at Saint Andrew, Rev. Gwen A. Beighle chaplain at Harborview and Rev. Marta Bennett a campus chaplain. In the next two years Rev. Mary Ellen Geibel served as assistant at Newport and Rev. M. Louise Holert began work with International Neighbors.

From 1986 to 1989 women served as associates at Bellevue First, Calvary, Newport, Mercer Island and Lake Burien. They served as interims at Sammamish , Magnolia and Wedgwood and as co-pastor at Marcus Whitman. In 1987 Rev. Elizabeth B. Knott was the Executive for the Synod of Alaska Northwest. In 1988 Rev. Donna Frey DeCou became our first designated pastor at Laurelhurst and Rev. Sheri L. Edwards (now Dalton) was serving as an associate in Victoria, BC. Rev. Jean Kim and Rev. Susan Schilperoort were campus pastors.

During the 1990s women in our presbytery were installed as executives, chaplains, stated supplies and interims. They were associates at Bellevue First, Maple Valley, Woodland Park. Japanese, Lake Burien, Northminister, Steel Lake and Bethany Churches.

In 1999 twenty of the 101 active pastors were women. Of the twenty, eight are pastors, 9 are associate pastors and three are tentmakers. In other ministries are our associate executive, two chaplains and one female pastor teaching at the Western Seminary in Kirkland. rlw

“IN THE BEGINNING ... “ NOTES FROM THE HISTORICAL COMMITTEE OF THE PRESBYTERY OF SEATTLE January 2002

Number 24 – nearby American Presbyterian/Reformed Historic Sites

The Rev. George F. Whitworth Grave site (registry # 252) was featured in the Fall 2001 issue of the Journal of Presbyterian History. Recognition of this site was celebrated on September 17, 1985 through the efforts of Seattle Presbytery and Whitworth College.

The other nearby Presbyterian sites are the Clatsop Plains Presbyterian Church of Warrenton, OR (#3), the oldest continuing congregation west of the Rocky Mountains, the Whitman Grave at the Waiilatpu mission (Walla Walla, WA #230), missionary Sue McBeth’s cabin at Kamiah, ID (#240), the Spalding Presbyterian Church at Lapwai, ID (#241) and the First Presbyterian Church of Kamiah, ID built in 1874 (# 242), where Rev. Spalding also served. The latter three sites are on the Nez Perce reservation.

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