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Reformed Presbyterian Minutes of Synod 1997 - Rparchives.org

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REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF NORTH AMERICA 207<br />

Westminster <strong>Reformed</strong> <strong>Presbyterian</strong> Church in Colorado, on February 8, 1<br />

which many neighbors and friends spoke highly <strong>of</strong> his impression upon their lives.<br />

His works do follow him and his rewardis with him in Heaven.<br />

Prepared by E. Raymond Hemphill<br />

REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN WOMAN'S ASSOCIATION<br />

1897 - <strong>1997</strong><br />

Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things <strong>of</strong> old.<br />

Behold, I will do a new thing, nowit shall spring forth; Shall you not know it<br />

I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.<br />

Isaiah 43:18-19<br />

In 1890, a member <strong>of</strong> the Wilkinsburg <strong>Reformed</strong> <strong>Presbyterian</strong> Church lost her<br />

hand. Unable to work and therefore unable to support herself, she applied for<br />

admission to the <strong>Presbyterian</strong> Home in Wilkinsburg; but they had no room for her.<br />

Her plight came to the attention <strong>of</strong> the women <strong>of</strong> the Pittsburgh Presbyterial<br />

(RPCNA) and served as a catalyst for aaion. They petitioned the 1892 <strong>Synod</strong> to<br />

consider the "necessity <strong>of</strong> taking steps to provide a Home for Aged Persons and an<br />

Orphanage if found praaicable." At the same time, Mary McKee Morton <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Allegheny congregation asked her aged father, John A. McKee to make financial<br />

provision for a Home in his will. Aaing on his daughter's suggestion, he left<br />

$5,000 to the <strong>Synod</strong> on the condition that a work be started within fiveyears.<br />

Mr. McKee died a month later.<br />

Fearing that the $5,000 would be lost because <strong>of</strong> inaction, the women again<br />

petitioned <strong>Synod</strong> in 1895. <strong>Synod</strong>'s response was to approve the cooperation<br />

between the women <strong>of</strong> Pittsburgh Presbyterial and <strong>Synod</strong>'s Board <strong>of</strong> Trustees "in<br />

the matter <strong>of</strong> establishing a widow's and orphan's and aged people's home." The<br />

women commenced to examine twenty-five properties as potential sites. They<br />

narrowed the search to four and left the final decision to the Trustees who chose<br />

the McNaugher residence on Linden Avenue.<br />

Soon it became apparent to the Trustees thatit would be appropriate for the<br />

women to assume sole responsibility for the work and recommended the same to<br />

the <strong>Synod</strong> <strong>of</strong> 1897, which passed a resolution stating, "that the board <strong>of</strong> Trustees<br />

<strong>of</strong> the <strong>Synod</strong> be relieved from further work, management and responsibility in<br />

conneaion with the Home, and that <strong>Synod</strong>, by formal resolution, commit such<br />

management and responsibility from this time forth to the women <strong>of</strong> the church<br />

under the corporate <strong>Reformed</strong> <strong>Presbyterian</strong> Woman's Association". In<br />

anticipation <strong>of</strong> this resolution, the RPWA was chartered in March <strong>of</strong> that year.<br />

The purpose <strong>of</strong> the RPWA, as stated in its charter,is to establish a home for<br />

"widows, orphans, infirmed and aged persons <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Reformed</strong> <strong>Presbyterian</strong><br />

Church and others." The doors <strong>of</strong> the <strong>Reformed</strong> <strong>Presbyterian</strong> Home opened that<br />

same summer.

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