• 1966: OPC Committee to Confer with Representatives of the Christian Reformed Church proposes working toward organic union with CRC.¹
• March 19, 1969: Joint OPC-RPCES gathering at Calvary Reformed Presbyterian Church, Willow Grove. Edmund Clowney (OPC) and Robert Rayburn (RPCES) speak on “The Urgency of Our Times and the Question of Union."²
• 1972: Formal committee planning begins for OPC-RPCES merger.³
• April 24, 1973: OPC Presbytery of the Midwest and RPCES Midwestern Presbytery meet in St. Louis to discuss proposed union.⁴
• June 1973: Both OPC and RPCES assemblies approve sending Plan of Union to presbyteries for discussion.⁵
• December 4-7, 1973: First general assembly of the PCA.⁶
• January 21, 1975: OPC Committee on Ecumenicity and RPCES Committee on Fraternal Relations finalize proposed Plan of Union to form “Reformed Presbyterian Church."⁷
• June 5, 1975: OPC votes 95-42 in favor of union with RPCES; RPCES votes against merger.⁸
• 1975: North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) formed with PCA, OPC, RPCNA, RPCES, and CRC as charter members.⁹
• 1979: PCA begins merger discussions with RPCES.¹⁰
• 1981: PCA proposes “Joining and Receiving” plan to unite PCA, OPC, and RPCES.¹¹
• May 1981: RPCES synod votes in favor of “Joining and Receiving” at Covenant College.¹²
• June 3, 1981: OPC 48th General Assembly votes 90-48 in favor of “Joining and Receiving."¹³
• 1982: PCA presbyteries approve receiving RPCES but vote against receiving OPC by required three-quarters majority.¹⁴
• June 12, 1982: RPCES Synod votes to join PCA (over 78% approval) at Grand Rapids.¹⁵
• June 14, 1982: PCA General Assembly votes to receive RPCES at Grand Rapids.¹⁶
• 1986: PCA again invites OPC to join via “Joining and Receiving” during OPC’s 50th anniversary year.¹⁷
• 1986: OPC votes against “Joining and Receiving” 78-68.¹⁸
• 1987-1990: Voluntary realignment as OPC congregations transfer to PCA, primarily “New Life” churches influenced by Jack Miller.¹⁹
• 1989: Peak year of OPC membership loss (3.5% decrease to 18,689 members); five congregations transfer to PCA.²⁰
• 1990: Three more OPC congregations join PCA, including New Life Glenside where Tim Keller had served.²¹

Examination of how influential Christian leaders like Martin Luther, Abraham Kuyper, J. Gresham Machen, and R.C. Sproul effectively used emerging media technologies of their times to spread their theological messages and the gospel   Read More

I have served as a deacon in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) since 2014. On the Hopper side, I’m a 5th generation Presbyterian officer. Here are my ancestors who served as officers.

Father

My father, David Hopper, is a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). He was previously a ruling elder in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC).

Grandfather

My grandfather Joe Barron Hopper (1921–1992) was ordained by the Montgomery Presbytery of the PCUS in 1945. He served as a PCUS (and later PCUSA) missionary to Korea for 38 years.

Great Grandfathers

Joseph Hopper (1892–1971), father of Joe Barron, was ordained by the West Lexington Presbytery (PCUS) in 1917. He served as a missionary to Korea.

Hershey Longenecker (1889-1978) was ordained by the Presbytery of Transylvania (PCUS) in 1916. Hershey was a first-generation Presbyterian (coming from an anabaptist family), as was his wife (coming from a Methodist family). He served as a missionary in the Congo.

Great Great Grandfathers

George Dunlap Hopper (1848–1913), a farmer and businessman, served as a deacon for 11 years and then a ruling elder at Stanford Presbyterian (PCUS) in Kentucky, where he was a member for 45 years. George may have been the first Presbyterian Hopper; his grandfather, Blackgrove Hopper (1759–1831), was a Baptist minister.

Archibald Alexander Barron (1851–1909) was the father of Annis Barron Hopper, wife of Joseph Hopper. He served as an elder at Tirzah and First Associate Reformed Presbyterian in Rock Hill, SC. He was a farmer and owner of Rock Hill Hardware.

The Barron line almost certainly includes more elders and deacons, though I do not have records. According to family legend, the Barrons have been Presbyterian since the beginning in 1560.

Joe B. Hopper describes a Christmas celebration for Korean orphans thrown by missionaries   Read More

In April 1972, my dad, a senior at King College, spent a weekend in Montreat, North Carolina. After worshipping at Montreat Presbyterian, Mrs. Ruth Bell Graham–who was a member at MPC–invited dad to Billy and Ruth’s house on Mississippi Road for lunch. In a letter to his parents (who were serving as missionaries in Korea), dad recounts watching the Apollo 16 launch with the Graham’s after lunch:

“Mrs Graham invited (my 2 friends) and me up for lunch. It was the first time I had been up (to the Graham house), and it was quite interesting. Dr. Graham was there and we watched the space shot go off during lunch.

He said that NBC has asked him to narrate the shot with John Chancellor but he had turned them down. It was very interesting talking to him. He really does know the Bible inside out. I got away a little later than planned….

My dad David Hopper, his brother Barron Hopper, his sisters Alice Dokter and Margaret Faircloth grew up in Jeonju, South Korea where their parents were missionaries with the southern presbyterian church (PCUS). On January 5, 2023, I got them all in a room together to share memories of their childhood.

You can listen to the four parts of the interview below.

You can also search for “Ulster Worldly” in your podcast app of choice or subscribe to the feed directly.

Here are links to some things mentioned in the interview:

• Memories of Congo - Memoir of Hershey Longenecker
• Mission to Korea - Memoir of Joe B. Hopper
• Jeonju, Korea
• Joseph Hopper bio
• Joe B. Hopper bio
• Korea Christian Academy
• Ministry to Korean Lepers
• Home of Peace
• Pueblo Incident
• Mission Haven

My friend Matthew Ezzell and I taught a Sunday school class on American Presbyterian History at Shiloh Presbyterian Church.

Here was the overview we wrote for the course:

This class provides an understanding of the historical foundations of modern presbyterianism in America. We cover the breadth of the streams contributing to the presbyterian churches and denominations of our country. In the course, we learn about the controversies and conflicts and also spread of the gospel and the propagation churches throughout the United States. We specially emphasize the origin and development of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the establishment of presbyterianism in central North Carolina.

Here is the audio of the class:

You can also listen on SermonAudio.com.

Letter from Billy Graham on the occasion of the death of Joe B. Hopper   Read More

My great great grandfather Archibald Alexander Barron was a ruling elder in First Associate Reformed Presbyterian of Rock Hill, SC. The ARP is historically a conservative denomination with a high regard for their confessional standards.

In reading The Centennial History First Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Rock Hill, South Carolina, I read a surprising paragraph about my ancestor’s passing.

By the time the 1911 addition was made, the church had become more relaxed in its attitude toward church art, and the memorial windows placed in the church at this time were intended to illustrate stories from the Bible, with human figures and representations of Christ. The “Good Shepherd Shepherd” window, depicting Christ leading a flock of sheep, was a memorial to Archibald Alexander Barron, and was given by his family.

The Westminster Larger Catechism teaches that the Second Commandment forbids “the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever”. As early as 1911, the ARPs were loosening their commitment to this teaching.

Incidentally, the 1911 renovation also added an organ. While seen as a “traditional” church fixture today, this would have been a shock to the older ARPs who were committed to a capella singing in worship.

From Sean Lucas’s For a Continuing Church: The Roots of the Presbyterian Church in America:

The only response that the PCUS leadership could offer was “experimental” worship as a way of connecting with young people. One such 1968 service offered at Montreat received a full review in the pages of Presbyterian Journal: electric guitars and folk music, especially Bob Dylan’s anthem “Blowin’ in the Wind,” a dialogue in place of the sermon that focused on social-gospel causes with no Bible references at all, and a lack of traditional liturgical structures.

The evening service was more of the same: a jazz trio, a movie that focused on race and poverty, a message that called for economic and political justice, a litany that focused on social sins, the Lord’s Supper accompanied by “We Shall Overcome,” and the service’s ending with “sacramental applause.”