Covenanter Witness Vol. 53 - Rparchives.org

will concern the meeting of Synod and we will hopethat the other departments of the Convention willgive their report for publication. There was quite along list of announcements to be made and these wereinterspersed with humor by the Camp Manager D.Raymond Park.First Session of SynodSynod was constituted in prayer by Dr. R. J. G.McKnight and the roll call followed,and the memorialservice with a memoir of Dr. J. B. Tweed Which hadbeen prepared by Dr. Robert Parke and read by Dr.T. C. McKnight was followed by a memoir for Rev.R. W. Piper, prepared by Dr. W. O. Ferguson butsince Mr. Ferguson was not present as yet it was readby Rev. Walter McCracken. The memorial for Rev.Hanna Besna was to have been prepared by Rev. C.A. Dodds but did not arrive in time for this service.and Rev. Awad, fresh from the fields of labor whereMr. Hanan Besna had served, spoke of Mr. Besna'sChristian life and devotional work. The program onthe docket calls for the reports of the Board ofTrustees of Synod, all treasurers, Coordinating Committee, Stewardship Committee, Board of Pensions,Board of Church Erection. In the main this programwas carried out as far as possible but in the absenceof certain persons some of these reports did notcome up until later. This was also the day for the presentation of papers to come before the Synod and tobe referred to the various committees to recommendthe action to be taken. Among these was one concerningclosed communion to be discussed at anothermeeting of Synod, and this matter led to some discussion which threatened to take quite a bit of time,but we suspect that the contention was not moresharp than that between Paul and Barnabas concerningwhether John Mark should be included in theirsecond itinerary. While we were speaking of that subject there was a motion brought in later and passedthat any question that had been discussed by Synodand decided,should not be brought before the Synodagain for a cooling-off period of five years.Rev. John Edgar read the report of the Board ofPensions and one of their recommendations was thatdue to the lack of funds and the threatening furtherlack of funds, that the pensions should be reduced10% with a minimum of $50.00 per month. No pensions except one exceed $700 per year;it was notthought advisable to do this but perhaps a campaignministerial pension fund.could be put on for aThe Coordinating Committee brought in the recommendation that the budget for the coming yearwould be $109,200 which is $3,000 less than lastyear's but all askings had been reduced byat least10%, but this was laid on the table to await the report of the Publication Board which thought thatcould not operate on their share of the Budgettheyon this basis. This matter is still pending at this moment. So much for the first session.Thursday P. M., July 15The program for the afternoon calls for unfinished business ; however, the first matter on the program was the hearing of a representative ol thePresbyterian Ministers' Fund which Fund has chargeof our pension system. The interesting thing thisrepresentative, Mr. Mullinhour stated was that therewas no other insured group that was getting as much52dollar value for their money as was pledged to ourSynod.The paper that seemed to bring out the most interest was a report of the Committee on Practicalsteps toward an implementation of Section 4 of theCovenant of 1871 which section calls for effort tounite all Christians in a Holy Brotherhood and reminds us that Schism is a sin in itself. If our Churchis to work for union on a scriptural basis we mustdiscuss with other Synods of other denominations ourprinciples and their principles and see wherein eachof us may be wrong in regard to the doctrine, worship, government and discipline, and the report recommended a permanent committee to exchangeviews and standards with various denominations. Thereport specifically named the Synod of The Associate Presbyterian Church, General Assembly of theOrthodox Presbyterian Church, Synod of the BiblePresbyterian Church, and the Synod of the ChristianReformed Church, the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church of North America; othersmay be added later. This report was signed by themembers of the committee of which J. G. Vos waschairman. Some discussion as to whether the UnitedPresbyterian Church should be included in this sincethey departed from several of the principles whichwe now hold, but in the discussion a letter was readby Mr. Russell (without giving the name) of a UnitedPresbyterian minister asking if there was room for aman in our Church who believed in the worship of thePsalms and other things for which we stood. Thisman was an entire stranger to Mr. Russell but it wasfelt that he represented a considerable group in theUnited Presbyterian Church who would like to getback to some of the things they have forgotten. Dr.John Coleman said that he and his wife had carriedon some advertising in the U. E. A. concerning ourPsalter for sale and that it had brought some ordersto Mr. Fox, though the number of orders that camein from this advertising was hard to determine. Hespoke of opportunities they had had to sell the Psalter to the Billy Graham Organization and to otherswho were inquiring for Psalms with music.The delegates to the N.A.E. Convention reportedon the value of such a convention and the efforts thatare being made toward keeping the Evangelical message on the air and the benefits to be obtained bybelonging to such commissions as the EFMA with itsand travel divisions. A protestpurchasing, passports,was registered by Rev. S. E. Boyle against any association with the Evangelical Association as being contrary to the aims of our church.Synod adjourned for the day. To be continued.Board of Church ErectionOnce more we record the goodness of God in enabling the board to meet the needs of our congregations.The congregations of First Beaver Falls, CollegeHill, Syracuse, Central-Pittsburgh, Hetherton andQuinter met their annual obligations to us. Southfieldis again far ahead of schedule, and Kansas has completed repayment of her loan. Hebron and Denver alsomade payments.The difficulty met by the new president of theSeminary in finding a home in Pittsburgh presenteda special problem,which was called to our attentionTHE COVENANTER WITNESS