April 12: Presbyterian Churchmen United (PCU)

About a month ago we published a post about the organization Concerned Presbyterians and their newsletters. Today we would like to continue that theme with focus on a related group, Presbyterian Churchmen United, with a pointer to their newsletter, which was issued between 1970-1973.

To refresh your memory, there were four main organizations that were formative of the Presbyterian Church in America :
1. Concerned Presbyterians, a layman’s group led by ruling elders;
2. Presbyterian Churchmen United, an organization for pastors;
3. The Presbyterian Journal, a magazine begun in 1942; and
4. The Presbyterian Evangelistic Fellowship, a ministry focused on revival.

A fifth organization really should be added to that list, and that would be the Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Mississippi, which was founded in 1966.

Following the organization of Concerned Presbyterians (and here we have good evidence that it was the ruling elders who were leading the movement for renewal in the Church!), an organization specifically for pastors was formed a few years later under the title Presbyterian Churchmen United (PCU). Contact, the newsletter issued by this group, first appeared in May of 1970. Then, just prior to the formation of the Presbyterian Church in America (in December of 1973), the group very appropriately published their final, closing issue in September, 1973.

Click the cover image below to view the contents and to access the issues of Contact, the newsletter of Presbyterian Churchmen United :

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