The History of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Elkins Park, 1850-2026

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          God repeatedly tells us to remember what he has done for us. We ought to remember and give thanks and remember so we more readily trust him when new dangers arise. This is why it is good to share our testimonies often; it encourages faith in us as well as in others.

 

Some of the history of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Elkins Park can be found in session and congregational meeting minutes. Some can be found in books, such as the four volumes that provide biographical sketches of RPCNA ministers. In our own case, a fair amount of information can be gleaned from old programs kept by the McClay family: a program from the congregation's fiftieth anniversary in 1900, a program from the dedication of our second building in 1905, a program from the one hundredth anniversary in 1950, a program from the dedication of our third building in 1960. It is good when a congregation has a keeper of the history.

 

In 1850, fifty to sixty members and adherents of the First and Second Church of the Covenanters presented a petition to New York Presbytery, asking for a new congregation to be organized in Kensington, then a district to the northeast of Philadelphia. As First and Second agreed, the presbytery approved the petition and appointed three men to organize the congregation. One of the three organizers was James M. Willson, the current pastor's great-great-great-grandfather. So, on December 5, 1850, the Third Church of the Covenanters was founded with 45 members. The new church met at Commissioners Hall at Front and Master Streets.

 

By 1852 the congregation had built a church building on Deal Street near Frankford Avenue. Today the nearest intersection is Eyre and Tulip. The existence of three RPCNA churches in Philadelphia led to the formation of a separate Philadelphia Presbytery, including the three Philadelphia churches, one in Baltimore, and one in Lancaster County. We found the old minute book of Philadelphia Presbytery while preparing for our 175th anniversary. Early pastors came and went: Milligan, Middleton, Sharpe, Crozier. Crozier died suddenly after only a year and a half in the ministry. The fifth pastor, R. C. Montgomery, served the congregation from 1883 to 1911. Under Montgomery's leadership, the congregation seems to have reached its largest membership yet. From Montgomery’s 50th anniversary sermon we learn that in 1900 the congregation had 150 members, six of whom were from the original 45 in 1850. The Sunday School had 125 members. He had baptized 115 children, along with and two adults. No vexatious cases, he announced, had come before the session, “and today there is not a more united and harmonious people anywhere to be found.”

 

In 1903, the congregation became incorporated in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, perhaps to facilitate buying property. A new building was promptly built at Franklin and Dauphin Streets in North Philadelphia and dedicated in 1905. This building is still used as a church, Third Church of the Covenanters still carved into the cement at the center of a large set of ornamental windows. Davis Temple Baptist Church, which owns the building, announces itself as the current occupant by means of a conventional, but less permanent, sign.

 

The sixth pastor, Findley Wilson, served the longest of the congregation's twelve pastors. He arrived in 1912, having already pastored two other congregations and continued as pastor of Third Church until late 1950 or early 1951. He served the wider church in a variety of ways, including as Corresponding Secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, and as Editor and Publisher of Olive Trees, the RP missionary magazine. He seems to have been much loved, but the congregation dwindled in his later years, because when he retired to care for his sick wife, questions about the future arose. Should they seek a co-pastor with First Church? The vote was close: 18 No, 14 Yes. Should they merge with First and Second? No, but how could they afford a pastor? While the total number of members seemed large on the official roll of the church, vote totals at congregational meetings reveal a small active group. The congregation seems not to have developed deep roots in its own neighborhood, and members had been moving into the suburbs.

 

          At length the congregation successfully called its seventh pastor, George William Price. A subtle sign of its struggles can be seen in the fact that while Montgomery and Wilson had previously been pastors elsewhere, from Price onwards every pastor but one was a young man entering his first pastorate. Larger, more established congregations typically want experienced ministers, and pay well enough to get one. Men newly graduated from seminary are most often called by new or struggling congregations. From Price to the present, every pastor of Third/Elkins Park came as a new pastor, with the important exception of Chuck Sterrett.

 

Under Price, nonetheless, the congregation set itself to start a new Sunday School program elsewhere in the city. A committee was formed, and four city neighborhoods were examined. But a vacant suburban church came to the committee's attention, and they suggested it to the congregation. It was a Presbyterian Church in Elkins Park. The price had dropped from $24,000 to $10,000, and the congregation wanted to sell to the Democratic Party, but the township commissioners were refusing to change the zoning to accommodate them. The real estate agent invited Third Church to make an offer.

 

The Elkins Park area had been a sugar-cane farm in the early 1800s. After fire destroyed the sugar-cane press in 1840, the area cycled through various names like College Green and Sarsfield. In 1895 developer William L. Elkins began to build homes in the area through his Ogontz Land & Improvement Company. The immediately surrounding area was named McKinley in 1900, after the president. Eventually the local zip code was called Elkins Park.

 

          The mainline Presbyterian Church started a Sunday School mission in the community in 1896. In 1898 William Elkins donated a pharmacy building to the mission. The pharmacy was broken in pieces and for $259 it was hauled by hay wagon to the current location at the corner of Cypress and Cadwalader Avenues. The Presbyterians added a sanctuary onto the old pharmacy in 1912, and in 1917 organized the M.Y. Smith Presbyterian Church there. When elementary school classes began in the area, the church building was used until a school was built down the street in 1921. M.Y. Smith Presbyterian was later renamed Olivet Presbyterian Church. Olivet merged with another Presbyterian congregation in the 1950s. The merged congregation moved nearby to Cedar Road, where they built a bigger building in hopes of becoming a genuinely large congregation. At length they became known as the Elkins Park Presbyterian Church.

 

Third Church bought the Olivet building and pursued its goal of starting a new Sunday School. They worked hard, canvassing the neighborhood, visiting door to door, and putting notices in local papers. But 3 PM on Sunday afternoon did not work. At length the Sunday School was dropped in favor of a Friday evening Junior Boys Club, and Sunday evening preaching services. The congregation must have worked very hard to run Sunday School and church every Sunday morning in North Philadelphia and then evening church in Elkins Park. Today, at least, it takes at least 35 minutes of city driving to drive from the one location to the other.

 

          On March 1, 1959, the pattern was reversed. Now Sunday School and worship would be at Elkins Park in the morning, and at Franklin and Dauphin Streets Sunday School would be at 2:30 PM, with worship following. This too must have been exhausting. In addition, the neighborhood around the old building had become unsafe. I could not find documentation for the following story, but old congregational lore has it that the last straw was when 'Uncle Walter' McClay was mugged twice on the same day while going to church. The congregation sold the Franklin and Dauphin building to Rehoboth Church of God in Christ for $33,000, and by 1960 its entire ministry had moved to Elkins Park.

 

There were evangelistic services. Young people from the immediate neighborhood began to join. Pastor Price ran White Lake Junior Camp every summer and took young people from both church and neighborhood to camp, a fact remembered by some of the older local residents. Familiar names supplied preaching while Price was at camp, men like Ed Robson, Ron Nickerson, and Laverne Rosenberger. Westminster Seminary is only four miles away, and these men studied there and worshipped with the congregation. So did men like Young Son and Jonathan Chao. Robson was the congregation's summer intern in 1963.

 

But alas, a dispute arose. There was an election for elders in 1964, and a considerable (but not quite sufficient) number wanted to see the dentist Dr. Gene List elected elder. Reading between the lines, it appears the existing session may not have been enthusiastic about adding List to the session. Pastor Price sent a letter about the election to out-of-bounds and shut-in members, naming several possible candidates for their consideration as they prepared their absentee ballots. Price's letter did not include Dr. List. He was not elected. Some believed the process was unjust. The matter was appealed to presbytery, which supported the process, but ill-feeling lingered.

 

Bill Price continued as pastor until 1968 when he resigned. Charles Sterrett was installed in 1969. He was an experienced pastor and a calming presence. The congregation was small but encouraged by the occasional presence of Westminster students like Ron Good, Bob Vincent, Gordon Keddie, and Bill Cornell. David Coon, son of the RP pastor in Chicago, arrived in 1974 and was immediately put to work as SS superintendent. He was elected an elder in short order, somewhere around age 25.

 

          There are little hints that the congregation needed some help on reaching its culture. In the 1960s, the congregational meeting minutes contain the suggestion that a bulletin be printed up, so 'strangers' could know what to expect if they came to church. In 1974 the name of the congregation was changed from Third Church of the Covenanters to the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Elkins Park (Covenanter). Once in a great while, mail still arrives with that old name attached.

 

After ten years, Sterrett resigned, effective December 31, 1979. He was succeeded briefly by Stephen Conte, whose background was in the United Methodist Church in Iowa. Pastor Jonathan Leach served from 1984 until 1988, when he entered the US Army as a chaplain. Jonathan was later instrumental in starting the Hazleton Area RP Church.

 

          After Pastor Leach left, Bill Cornell and Bill Edgar, temporarily provisional elders of the congregation, researched the List affair from twenty-five years prior. Cornell wrote up a report, and they met with the congregation to encourage them to confess sin and ask forgiveness for the congregation’s infighting. In Bill Edgar's opinion, this act was essential for repairing the spiritual life of the church.

 

Tony Cowley arrived in 1990 to be their pastor. He and his wife Natalie had local roots, having been brought up in the Swedenborgian heresy. The Swedenborgians (the 'New Church') are a well-funded group with schools and an impressive cathedral only six miles away in Bryn Athyn. Cowley had a knack for meeting people and bringing them to church. In 1993 Bob and Debbi Allmond joined the congregation with their infant son James. On the same July day, Emil Nahm also joined. He was dating Laurie McClay, and Pastor Cowley had met with him and brought him from his Roman Catholic upbringing to a Reformed understanding.

 

The McClay family has very deep roots in the Elkins Park congregation, supplying elders, deacons, and treasurers through the past century. It was from Laurie McClay Nahm that I received the programs from the 50th and 100th anniversaries. But there was no program for a 150th anniversary celebration. That is because of the congregation's near-death experience in 2000.

 

By 1998, the congregation had no resident ruling elders, and the presbytery appointed Glen Chin of the Ridgefield Park congregation to act as a provisional elder alongside its pastor, Tony Cowley. In August 1998, Cowley resigned to take a call to Minneola, Kansas. A presbyterian congregation cannot be maintained as organized with only absentee provisional elders. So, the congregation was declared (i.e. recognized as in fact) disorganized on August 29, 1998.

 

In many ways, congregational life continued as before. Members met every Lord's Day for morning worship. Preaching was supplied: it is good to be near Westminster Seminary, and Broomall had seminary students attending at that time. Deacons Bob McClay, Clara McClay, and Laila O'Connor continued to serve. Members continued to tithe, which paid for building upkeep and preaching. A young seminary couple moved into the vacant parsonage.

 

          But 1998 was a severe test. The congregation began the year with 55 members, ended it with 34, and average attendance was 25. Bill Edgar of Broomall was again chair, this time of a steering committee, rather than a session. He did three key things. First, he successfully argued at presbytery that the provision in the Directory for Church Government regarding members of disorganized churches – that they should be placed first on the rolls of presbytery, and then, within a year, should join another congregation – should not be followed in this case. That provision envisions a congregation that is both disorganized and dead. But Elkins Park still had the last group of people gathered by Pastor Cowley, together with a few older members such as the McClays and Nahms. Elders could be found in this group, and the congregation reorganized. Moving membership elsewhere would discourage this effort, he argued. The presbytery agreed.

 

Second, he encouraged a young Broomall couple that had just bought a home near Elkins Park to transfer there. Either of them could lead the singing, previously done by Natalie Cowley. They were Duran and Betsy Perkins – Betsy is Bill's daughter.

 

Third, he told another young family that was considering joining Broomall to go to Elkins Park and help. This family was Mike and Anna Jessop, and their infant daughter Willow.

 

In January 2000, Duran Perkins was elected an elder. Two other men were nominated and missed being elected by only one and two votes, respectively. These two were not elected because a couple that had ceased attending worship but were still members came to the election and cast blank ballots, which, according to the rules then in force, counted against electing anyone. The congregation continued to be disorganized, although it now had a 25-year-old elder as part of its steering committee.

 

In September 2001, Mike Jessop and John Edgar were elected ruling elders, and Steve Salisbury and Emil Nahm were elected as deacons. The congregation was reorganized as a self-governing presbyterian church. The three elders had an average age of 28.7. The presbytery appointed the oldest possible moderator, Dick Weir, which required him to drive regularly through New York City and down the Jersey Turnpike to Elkins Park. With Dr. Richard Weir included, the average age of the session was a more reasonable 41.

 

          The congregation still had no pastor. One man declined a call in 2000, another in early 2002. So, in the fall of 2002 the congregation called John Edgar to become its pastor. He had just graduated from Westminster Seminary and was teaching mathematics at the time. He both pastored and taught for the rest of the 2002-2003 school year and then resigned his teaching position. The congregation was not in a strong position, with its membership roll dropping first to 31, and soon to 25. Nonetheless, the church persevered and began to find small things to do locally. They organized an annual blood drive and participated in a few local events. Pastor Edgar, while doing a great deal of work on the boards and committees of the Synod, also became a co-chair of the local civic association. Over the course of the next decade, the Lord periodically removed a man or family from the congregation, and then, shortly thereafter, added a man or family. After about 2013, the Lord saw fit to add more than he subtracted. His additions often came from other nations, like Brazil, Cameroon, Ghana, Malaysia, Nigeria, and Pakistan. But they also came from America: a couple that perceived that the church age had not ended, contrary to what Harold Camping had taught them over the radio, and another local family that found the congregation loving and the preaching clear. And then another, and another.

 

In early 2020 Hunter and Angie Jackson moved into the home next door to the church, already renovated and rented out by elder Duran Perkins. Hunter was attending Westminster Seminary and would be the summer intern. But the Jacksons and their young twins did not get out of that apartment much for the next several months, because the COVID-19 pandemic descended on the world in March. The congregation complied with the national consensus not to meet in person for a while, and the elders and deacons met weekly by phone to stay in touch and hammer out periodic adjustments. An adherent supplied video conferencing for the church to worship together online, and a local synagogue allowed the use of its parking lot for a drive-in service to baptize a baby. In June the congregation returned to its building for worship, half in the morning, half in the evening, masked and sitting apart. Church members supplied the ability to stream the service to the basement and online. At length the church worshipped at the same time, some upstairs, and some in the basement. Next, masks were taken off upstairs, but continued to be used downstairs, and eventually the sole safety precaution was some slightly opened windows.

 

In hindsight most would agree that the national response to the pandemic was overwrought and obnoxiously restrictive, given that the plague in question proved to be not that severe for most of the population. But two things made the time more palatable for the Elkins Park congregation. First, the Pennsylvania state constitution denies the state the power to shut down churches. The local county commissioners instead held voluntary online meetings with clergy to ask for their cooperation – nicely. The lack of compulsion allowed the elders and deacons to attempt to weigh the risks as best as they could, rather than debate how to respond to governmental tyranny.

 

Second, and far more importantly, the elders and deacons united around plans that provided options for those who wanted more or fewer precautions, and the members accepted these plans without complaint. Many churches were torn apart by the pandemic. In God's grace, in 2022 the Elkins Park congregation grew to what was probably its largest size since 1950.

 

Significant in the church's growth were the contributions of Hunter Jackson, first as intern, and then as co-pastor from 2022-2024. He proved to be an excellent pastor whose strengths complemented John Edgar's very well. In 2024 he was called to the Broomall congregation.

 

On May 2, 2026, the Elkins Park congregation celebrated its 175th anniversary, several months late to take advantage of better weather. John Edgar related the history found above, and Hunter Jackson and David Coon exhorted the congregation about the present and the future. The congregation was joined by former members, including multiple former elders, including Tony and Natalie Cowley, and also by neighborhood residents who currently attend a Bible Study that John Edgar leads.

 

A quick google search suggests that the median lifespan of a congregation is 67 years. Elkins Park RP Church is two and a half times that number, so let us thank God for preserving us for many years and let us look to God always for the days ahead.

– John Edgar