John Mitchell Mason (1770–1829) was a prominent American Presbyterian minister, theologian, and educator. Born in New York City, he was the son of Scottish immigrant John Mason, an Anti-Burgher Associate minister who became one of the founding fathers of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in America. The younger Mason studied at Columbia College and later at the University of Edinburgh, returning to become a leading voice in the ARP, pastor of its Cedar Street Church in New York City, and founder of its theological seminary in 1805.¹

Mason pastored Cedar Street for seventeen years. By 1809, overworked and lacking an assistant, he proposed enlarging the building to increase revenue and hire help. When the trustees refused, Mason resigned in May 1810 and led a portion of the congregation to establish a third ARP church on Murray Street.²

Construction delays forced the Murray Street group to share space with a PCUSA congregation pastored by Dr. John B. Romeyn. Mason’s service followed Romeyn’s, and many Presbyterians stayed to hear the eloquent young minister. The two congregations grew close. When Mason administered the Lord’s Supper, he invited Romeyn’s flock to participate, a departure from ARP practice, which reserved communion for vetted members holding “tokens.” Romeyn reciprocated.

Reports of Mason’s “inter-communion” reached the 1811 General Synod, along with a secondary charge: while preaching for Romeyn, Mason had used Watts’s psalms and hymns, violating the ARP’s exclusive-psalmody rule. Synod appointed a committee to investigate. The committee’s report was measured, acknowledging Mason’s “peculiar circumstances” and noting that “by force of circumstances, the two congregations became acquainted with each other… practically, they were, only for the time being, one congregation.” But it also observed that Mason’s use of uninspired psalmody “created… displeasure.”²

A motion to censure Mason, along with two other ministers (Rev. James M. Matthews and Rev. John N. Clark, whose cases were bundled with his), failed 13-3. A compromise resolution passed instead, calling for “mutual forbearance” and warning against communion practices “contrary to… brotherly love” and “sound… discipline.” No one was satisfied. Mason had defended himself in what contemporaries called “the mighty speech”: a three-hour address. Lathan drily concludes: “No One Satisfied–The Parties Disposed to be Extremists.”²

The Scioto and Carolinas synods, dominated by strict-communion ministers, formally condemned Mason’s actions. The rift deepened. In 1816, Mason published his 181-page A Plea for Sacramental Communion on Catholick Principles, arguing that the visible church transcends denominational boundaries and that the Lord’s Supper should express unity, not enforce sectarian purity. The book became a manifesto for “open-table” Presbyterians and a red flag to conservatives.³

Mason continued to press for an ARP-PCUSA merger. By 1822, the General Synod, now dominated by latitudinarians, voted to unite with the Presbyterian Church. The decision was procedurally dubious: only two of five subordinate synods supported it, and the vote (7–5, with 4 abstentions) represented barely half the commissioned delegates. The Scioto and Carolinas synods withdrew, reconstituting themselves as independent bodies. The remaining fragment dissolved into the PCUSA, transferring the ARP’s theological library and funds to Princeton.²

Mason himself had already departed. In 1821, he accepted the presidency of Dickinson College and transferred to the PCUSA.⁴ He died in 1829, still regarded as one of the era’s great preachers but also as the man whose “peculiar circumstances” hastened the ARP’s fracture.

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