History of Central Presbyterian Church (1870 - Present)

By Garner Morgan

Foreword
Central Presbyterian Church is now well into its second century. Shortly after his installation as Senior Pastor, Reverend Richard Kannwischer suggested that I write a brief history of Central Presbyterian Church. I soon found that "brief" had much more to do with the length of the product than with the time involved.

A brief history. Caesar set the standard - "I came, I saw, I conquered" - that few have since equaled (or would care to). What follows goes beyond a time-line listing of pastors called and buildings built, but is certainly not detailed. In particular, few of the thousands of members who have been the life blood of Central Church over her 130-plus years are named: any other course would mean an end to brevity or would require judgments that I am neither prepared nor qualified to make.

My main sources were the excellent centennial history Legacy of the Upper Room by Mrs. H. F. Whitney and Robert J. Wolfenbarger, published in 1970; Edward S. Olcott's Twentieth Century Summit (1998); and the comprehensive Summit, New Jersey, (1996) by Edmund B. Raftis; plus a review of the annual reports and the Session minutes for the past forty years. While I have been an active member of Central Church since 1967, the narrative of recent years is objective and drawn from contemporary accounts, and (I believe) is little colored by personal recollection.

I hope my effort is helpful to the reader and to Central Church. I appreciate Reverend Kannwischer's asking me to undertake the task, and his patience in awaiting its completion. I would welcome comments, suggestions and corrections, preferably written, which would be helpful in improving any possible future edition.

Garner R. Morgan
Elder, Presbyterian Church USA
Summit, New Jersey
August 2002

CENTRAL PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH
1870 - 2001

A Brief History

Presbyterians first came to New Jersey in the seventeenth century. By 1706, the first presbytery was formed, in Philadelphia. In 1747, the College of New Jersey, which would later become Princeton University, was founded by the Presbyterian Church at Elizabeth; the first classes were held at the pastor’s home. The newborn college moved to Newark the following year, and to Princeton in 1756. In 1768, John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian minister, was called from Scotland to be president of the young school, which became Princeton University in 1798, shortly after his death. Along the way, Reverend Witherspoon served in the Continental Congress and was the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence.

By 1825, the United States flag boasted 24 stars, and Presbyterian (or at least Calvinist) families were living in what would become, in 1869, Summit township: designation as a city would follow some thirty years later. While many of these families were affiliated with the New Providence Presbyterian Church, established nearly ninety years earlier in 1737, the five mile journey was not always convenient. The families soon established a local Sunday school, but it was not until 1867, as the country caught its breath after the Civil War, that they met as “The Franklin Chapel Association” in their own building, near the intersection of Springfield and Oakley Avenues.
Another group, affiliated with the New Providence church but living in the Turkey Hill area, preferred a more central location for worship services, and (also in 1867) began a Berean Sunday School and held prayer meetings above Littell’s General Store (“the upper room”) near the new Delaware, Lackawanna & Western railroad station. With the consent and support of the New Providence Presbyterian Church and the approval of Newark Presbytery, Central Presbyterian Church was founded May 29, 1870. For a few years the West Summit Chapel continued to hold services, but internal friction (reportedly Calvinism versus Methodism) soon led to its dissolution.
The new church promptly organized itself by electing ruling elders and trustees. It now lacked only two things: a pastor and a building.

The first need was satisfied on May 11, 1871, with the installation of the youthful Reverend James DeHart Bruen at a salary of one thousand dollars per year. Worship services continued in Mr. Littell’s hall above the store, but while the elders were searching for a pastor, the trustees were planning the construction of a permanent church home. A building fund campaign was launched, and on November 3, 1871, the cornerstone was laid for a Sanctuary.

Dedication of the completed church followed in mid-1872. The cost of the structure (on donated land) was $14,000, including furnishings. The frame Victorian building was distinguished by having two steeples, one much taller than the other. Legend has it that the disparity in height represented the relative importance of men as compared to women in the church. (Whether that is truth or myth, while women achieved the right to vote in U. S. national elections in 1920, they would not be eligible to become Presbyterian elders until 1931, and ordination as pastors would take a further quarter-century.)

Rev. Bruen was succeeded by the Reverend James Hall McIlvaine in 1879, for what was to be a brief but productive pastorate. By the time Rev. McIlvaine was called to a new congregation in 1883, Central Church boasted not only a sanctuary but a chapel and a parsonage. Membership totaled 174 and the Sunday School had an enrollment of 150.

Most of the young church’s income at this point came from seat rentals: each pew was assigned a value based on its nearness to the pulpit, with each member being assessed twenty percent of the value of the selected pew. Thus, for $10 to $75 per year, a member could claim a reserved seat in church, at least until the service began. This method of financing church expenses prevailed until, in 1895, the congregation voted to move to a free pew system.

The Reverend Doctor Theodore F. White was installed as the third pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in 1883. During his two-decade ministry, membership would double, to almost 400, as would church income. By 1890, out of total giving of $7,500, Dr. White was rewarded with an annual income of $2,500, while $3,000 went for benevolences. (In the same year the organist was paid $350, the part-time organ blower $20, and the sexton $225.) In 1903, after two decades marked by growth, peace and unity, Dr. White retired and was named Pastor Emeritus.

With the turn of the century, the role of the church (as embodied in the Session) as the arbiter of the morality, propriety or even appropriateness of its members’ everyday activities had largely drawn to an end. (Interestingly, Summit from about 1880 to 1915 was the home of Anthony Comstock, world-famous crusader against immorality, real and imagined.)

In the late nineteenth century, any infraction of church rules as to frequency of attendance, inappropriate conduct, profanity, or worse, could call down punishments ranging from public rebuke or suspension of communion privileges to excommunication.

However, as is noted in the centenary history Legacy of the Upper Room, “In the twentieth century, the Session prosecuted a few more cases. But with expanding enrollment, changing social mores, and increasing responsibilities, the Session’s role as prosecutor, judge and jury gradually gave way. With the change, the Session began to interpret its responsibility for spiritual leadership in broader, corporate terms, and the individual was allowed to be accountable to God and to his own conscience.”

At the end of the century, a group of concerned members of Central Church initiated a mission project to improve the lives - both secular and spiritual - of some new Summit citizens. Though largely forgotten now, for the first quarter of the new twentieth century Summit was home to a relatively large silk processing factory. This facility was located on Morris Avenue near Weaver Street and employed about 500 workers, largely first-generation immigrants.

While the initial intent of Central’s parishioners was only to bring Sunday School to the children and evening services to their parents, a much wider range of needs quickly became more obvious, and by 1904 the Neighborhood House was well established with both a social and a religious mission. Additions to the original structure through 1929 included meeting rooms, a library, and bathing facilities. As the character and needs of the area changed, so did the Neighborhood House, which was finally closed in 1946, having served honorably and well for almost half a century.

Reverend Minot C. Morgan had became Central Church's fourth pastor in 1903, and immediately became a vital force in the Neighborhood House and other mission and civic activities. He also was quick to point out that the existing church buildings no longer adequately accommodated the growing congregation - and the growing needs of Summit City (as it had become in 1899).

Quickly heeding and concurring with Dr. Morgan’s concerns about the inadequacy of the original church building, the Session and trustees proposed a plan for a new and grander sanctuary, with the old structure to be converted to meeting rooms and classrooms. The proposal won prompt congregational approval, and the cornerstone for the present neo-gothic sanctuary was laid May 29, 1906: thirty-seven years to the day after the founding of Central Presbyterian Church.

Astonishingly, the structure with its soaring bell tower was completed the following year, and dedicated in services on July 14, 1907. Pastors of Summit’s Methodist and Baptist churches, and, fittingly, the pastor of the New Providence Presbyterian Church, participated. The $75,000 cost of the new sanctuary included such innovations as electric lighting and steam heat, but the old organ (new in 1893) was remodeled and installed in the new chancel. For the time being, the old church would remain, used as a chapel and for Sunday School and meeting rooms. (The bell tower has no bell. A remotely located electromechanical carillon, the gift of a member, plays appropriate sacred melodies through loudspeakers in the tower.)

Rev. Morgan was called to Fort Street Presbyterian Church in Detroit, in 1917, and in 1926 to Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. He could reflect on a major expansion in mission activities, both home and abroad, during his tenure. China, India and the Philippines were recipients of Central Church missionaries or support, as were North Carolina and Virginia.

As America joined the European democracies in what was for a short time known as the Great War, the Reverend Doctor Rockwell S. Brank was installed as the fifth Pastor of Central Presbyterian Church on October 17, 1917. The young men of Central Church answered their country’s call that same year: they are memorialized on a tablet in the Chapel vestibule. One - Kenneth Gow - would not return. Dr. Brank’s historic ministry would extend almost a quarter-century, through war, prosperity and depression, ending only as an even greater war began.

At the fiftieth anniversary service for Central Church, in 1920, Dr. Brank used as his sermon theme a text from the second chapter of Revelation: “I know thy works, and thy love and faith and ministry and steadfastness, and that thy last works are more than the first.” He thus recognized Central’s record of service in Christ and looked forward to further and greater opportunities to come.

Significantly, the annual report for 1920 shows benevolence funds thirty percent higher than church expenses. Somewhat reluctantly, but at the urging of Dr. Brank, the Session in the following year agreed to join with many other Presbyterian churches and allow the national organization to allocate the major portion of benevolence giving through the New Era Committee.

Summit at this point was a growing and prosperous little city of about ten thousand: it was time to build again. The cornerstone for the present parish house and auditorium was laid June 24, 1923. With a combination of pledges, gifts and fund-raising events, the building was fully funded by the time of its dedication the following year.

The census of 1930 showed the six square miles of Summit to contain a population of about fifteen thousand people. (As befits the name “central,” more than half the area of Summit is within one mile of Central Presbyterian Church.) The church had grown along with Summit, and it was time to increase the pastoral staff. Providentially, Reverend Ralph A. Nesbitt and his wife Agnes (née Swenson, of Central Church) were returning from eleven years as missionaries in India, and Rev. Nesbitt accepted appointment as assistant pastor.

As the country moved through the depression, the youth of Central Church pushed for greater freedom in the use of church facilities. While presentation of a play in the Parish House was permitted in 1935, dancing was still forbidden, and a pastor or elder had to attend (and report on) all meetings. Nevertheless, Sunday School enrollment continued to increase, reaching 600 by 1940, including many of the rebuffed young people.

In 1939, Reverend Nesbitt resigned to become assistant pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City, continuing a relationship between the church in the big city and the church in the little city which - never formalized but nonetheless real - persists to the present day.
Late in 1940 Dr. Brank ended his pastorate of twenty-three years, having seen membership double to almost 1,500 during his incumbency. He was named Pastor Emeritus by a grateful congregation.

Few would have complained openly because of genuine affection for the departing pastor, but there was considerable sentiment that it was time for some changes at Central Church. Toward the end of the 1930s, attendance at worship services was declining and reduced interest in church activities was evident. Some efforts were made to temper the unbending formality of the church under Dr. Brank’s leadership, but nothing was allowed to disturb the dignity of the church as the House of God. And much - perhaps most - of the congregation found this climate congenial.

In May of 1941 the membership of Central Presbyterian Church unanimously issued a call to the Reverend Dr. Leonard V. Buschman to become the congregation’s sixth senior pastor. He accepted, and on June 15 delivered his first sermon from the pulpit he would occupy for seventeen years. Change came quickly. With the reluctant consent of the Session, Dr. Buschman discontinued the Sunday evening service so that he could spend more time with the young people of Central, whose organizations typically met at that time. This move brought a prompt and positive response: in short order, clubs and Bible study groups were formed ranging from junior high youth to young married couples. A youth activities budget became part of the operating budget, and in 1944 an assistant pastor was engaged with specific responsibility for youth activities.

While Dr. Buschman was re-ordering Central Church in Summit, Central’s traditional mission support was not neglected. Though the major Summit project, Neighborhood House, was being phased out in 1946, missionaries in West Africa, China, Costa Rica, Brazil and Lebanon all received major support from Central during this period.

During the war years, church attendance prospered despite (or because of) gasoline rationing and the absence of young men and women in military service. (As with the 1917-18 war, those of Central’s membership who served are memorialized on a plaque in the chapel vestibule.) By war’s end, membership was actually less than in 1940: a Session touched by realism had in 1942 removed some 350 on the “inactive roll” from the membership roster. By the early 1950s, however, membership again reached record levels, and Church School attendance neared 900 on a typical Sunday - not counting 140 in the nursery.

As the Presbyterian Church moved into the second half of the twentieth century, the beloved but archaic King James Version of the Bible was generally replaced by the Revised Standard Version (a New RSV would appear at the end of the century); fund-raising events were eliminated in favor of reliance on sacrificial pledging and giving; and Central called its first associate (as distinct from assistant) pastor, Reverend James W. Muir.

In 1947, a committee had proposed the construction of a memorial chapel and additional rooms between the existing 1907 sanctuary and the 1924 parish house. By 1954, space was so tight that the congregation enthusiastically endorsed this plan. The following year the new chapel, designed as a miniature medieval cathedral, and associated rooms were dedicated. (Almost a quarter-century later, the chapel would be designated the Buschman Memorial Chapel.)

The organ that led Central’s congregation in song at this point was the same instrument, albeit rebuilt and enhanced, as had been installed in the original sanctuary in 1886. With undoubtedly the enthusiastic support of Music Director Nellie Gordon Blasius, the congregation at the annual meeting in 1958 decided to install a new Möller instrument, with appropriate alterations in the Sanctuary. At this point, Central’s music program included six choirs totaling two hundred voices, as well as one of the earliest handbell choirs in America. The tenure of Mrs. Blasius as organist and choir director which began in 1935 under Dr. Brank would continue through Dr. Buschman’s pastorate well into that of Dr. Stephens, until her retirement in 1967.

The annual meeting of 1958 was notable also in that Dr. Buschman formally announced his retirement from his pastorate of seventeen years, during which membership and church school enrolment doubled. A grateful congregation paid warm tribute to both Leonard and Lillian Buschman, and he was named Pastor Emeritus.

Since Dr. Buschman’s retirement had been anticipated, a Pastor Nominating Committee had been at work, and the congregation with little delay called as the new senior pastor Dr. Robert H. Stephens of the Market Square Church, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The installation of Dr. Stephens as the seventh senior pastor of Central Presbyterian Church in May of 1958 was coincident with a new era as well for the Presbyterian Church nationally. At the historic 1958 Pittsburgh General Assembly meeting, the Presbyterian Church in the U. S. A. and the United Presbyterian Church of North America became a single denomination of some nine thousand churches and three million communicant members.

The early years of Dr. Stephens’ pastorate were exceptionally rewarding ones. The music ministry continued to prosper, and Sunday night hymn sings were begun. By 1961 membership topped three thousand, and overflow Sunday School classes were held in the (then) junior high school, YWCA and library.

Over the years 1961-63, Central Church repaid its near-century-old debt to the New Providence Presbyterian Church by helping to found the Westminster Presbyterian Church in Berkeley Heights with contributions totaling $40,000 - and providing 57 of its 182 charter members. Elder William Braunwarth of Central had earlier assured the availability of the desired site by pledging his own funds.

The social ferment of the 1960s and 1970s did not stop at the church door. While the Supreme Court decisions on prayer and Bible reading in public schools caused initial resentment, discussions were sponsored on race and society, poverty, and open housing, as well as America’s increasing Vietnam involvement. Dr. Stephens preached that the church must not be silent in the face of challenges to “the sincerity of our Gospel of the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of Man, and the Saviorhood of Christ.” Central youth groups were quick to accept these challenges, and organized vacation work projects in West Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Increasingly, the crowded buildings of Central Church were put to use by many organizations, from the Summit Fencing Club to the Elusive Eleven (a stage band of medical professionals), and from the AA to the Boy Scouts. More than a hundred thousand people used Central facilities for worship and meetings in 1966. The Church welcomed the congregation of Temple Sinai for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services while their Temple was being enlarged. And the Back Door, a youth-run teen canteen, drew young people for several years.

February of 1967 saw ground-breaking for another major Central Church facility, the Christian Education building, which was dedicated the following June. The new space was promptly put to good use: a nursery was provided during services, and a weekday nursery school was organized. As a beautiful complement for the new construction, the Cloister Garden was contributed by an anonymous member, essentially completing the Central Presbyterian “campus” as it exists today.
Shelter for others as well concerned Central Church in 1967. After it became apparent that several hundred Summit citizens lived in slum housing, a group of Central’s concerned lay people pushed for low-income apartments at Glenwood Place, a few blocks away, and the church provided seed money in the amount of $32,000. Central Church people have continued with this interest ever since, providing active leadership through a second project on Weaver Street and the senior housing apartments on Chestnut Street.

For the congregation of Central Church, the emotional high point of Dr. Stephens’ pastorate was the centennial year observances in 1970. With bagpipes, banners, processions, hymns and worship, Summit Presbyterians celebrated their centenary with thanks to God, gratitude to those who had gone before, and pledges for an even brighter future.

The youth ministry was enhanced during this time by seminarians from Princeton Theological Seminary; financial support for this program was provided by the Hunt Foundation. These students included Thomas Tewell, now of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church (earlier of New Providence Presbyterian Church); Victor Pentz, now of Peachtree Presbyterian Church in Atlanta; and Charles Jones, now of First Presbyterian Church in St. Petersburg.

Mrs. Blasius had retired as organist and choir director in 1967, and was succeeded by D. David McKeever the same year. Mr. McKeever was a talented performer, director and composer, and Central’s music ministry thrived under his direction for several years. By 1972, however, contention was developing between Mr. McKeever and the Session and Staff as to the extent of his non-church musical activities and other matters. After counseling and closer supervision were judged unsuccessful, his resignation was accepted. The adult choir generally valued Mr. McKeever highly, and some defections from both choir and church membership resulted, but the majority chose to stand with the Church.

Donald Armitage, Mr. McKeever’s successor, combined excellent musicianship with a winning personality, but left after two years for a perceived better position. (His legacy, still going strong, is the “Brown Bag” series of concerts during Advent and Lent each year.).

In his Annual Report letter in 1976, just before retirement, Dr. Stephens lamented that membership had declined to 2,602 from a peak of 3,271 in 1970, but he had many pleasant memories too: “...the music...the Couples’ Club and their dances...the Clipper Club...the Women’s Association...the Seminarians...the ‘Back Door’ and the ‘Dawn Patrol’...the Westminster Church...the Memory Garden...the Brown Bag concerts...the many new windows...” And finally, quoting from the Apostle, “I thank my God in all my remembrances of you...thankful for your partnership in the Gospel from the first day until now.” Dr. Stephens was named Pastor Emeritus, briefly joining in that honorary status Dr. Buschman, who died the following year.

The congregation of Central Church called the Reverend Bruce Gregor Ingles to be senior pastor in 1977, for what would prove to be one of the briefer and more troubled pastorates in the church’s history.

The beginning, as outlined in Rev. Ingles’ January 1978 letter to the congregation in the annual report for 1977, was both ambitious and auspicious. Declaring a “fresh start,” he listed ten objectives, ranging from improved staffing through better attendance to increased pledging, and described his approach to each. Realistically, he asked for a “three-year checkup” in 1980.

Assisting in the ministry were the Reverends Thomas J. Johnson III and Reid S. Byers, Jr., associate pastors, and Myrl Jean Hughes, long-time director of religious education. Dr. Robert T. Kelsey, recently retired associate pastor, would shortly return as minister for visitation.

Emerging conflict within the pastoral staff was soon evident to the Session, if not immediately to the congregation at large. Dissatisfaction with the music program also grew, which would lead to changes in personnel. More important, personality conflicts and disagreements between Rev. Johnson and the senior pastor as to assignments and career goals threatened the peace and unity of the church. Informal counseling by Session and Presbytery failed to improve the situation. By early 1981, the congregation was generally aware of the dissension, and both Session and Presbytery were convinced that action was necessary.

During this restive period, the congregation of Central Church and the city of Summit were shocked and saddened by the sudden and unexpected death of their beloved minister and friend, the Reverend Doctor Robert T. Kelsey, on March 7, 1981. Ever-practical in their sorrow, the congregation immediately established a fund to supplement Mary Jo Kelsey’s future income.

By March of 1981, both Session and Presbytery were agreed that the pastoral relationship with Rev. Johnson should be dissolved, and at the congregational meeting of April 8 the concurrence of the congregation was requested. By a vote of 261 to 243, however, the motion was defeated. The majority was not to rule: Presbytery appointed a neutral committee of pastors and elders from other churches to resolve the situation, and Rev. Johnson resigned his Central Church pastorate before the end of the year.

The pastoral staff of Rev. Ingles and Rev. Byers was augmented in 1982 by Rev. Ray and Betty Downs who, as visitation ministers, were welcomed warmly by the congregation. (Reverend Byers would leave the full-time ministry in 1984 for a business position.) Peter Boak was engaged as director (later minister) of music in 1983, and immediately began restoring the ministry of music to its traditional important place in worship at Central Church.

When Rev. Ingles resigned in mid-1984, the Session was ready with an interim senior pastor: the Reverend Doctor William R. Phillippe began his brief but effective pastorate in October 1984.
Dr. Phillippe quickly became “Bill” to all. His candid and straightforward approach to his ministry may be characterized by this quotation from his letter to the congregation of May 5, 1985, almost midway through his pastorate: “Shortly after I came to Summit...I was asked to give my first impressions. In essence I said...that the budget was low, the program was thin and the building was shabby.”

The congregation did not argue with this assessment, but responded with the most successful pledge campaign in Central’s history up to then, an increase of fifty percent over the previous year. The most urgent of deferred maintenance tasks were brought current, church facilities were brightened with paint and banners, and programs were subjected to review and enhancement.

Personnel matters were not overlooked, as Central’s first woman pastor, Associate Jean Johnston, was recruited. Dr. Phillippe stated that his vision was for “a lively lot of Christians, joyously working together in this place to make agape real.” As one member of that period sums it up, “Bill made us pull our socks up.”

The Pastor Nominating Committee reached across the breadth of the continent to call the Reverend Doctor Riley E. Jensen, 43, of Mercer Island Presbyterian Church, Seattle, to be the new senior pastor of Central Presbyterian Church.

Meeting with his congregation early in 1986, Dr. Jensen found a church eager for new leadership. He also found a physical plant in need of substantial repair, with problems ranging from leaky roofs to buried oil tanks, capital and maintenance budgets substantially inadequate to the needs at hand, and a sanctuary organ that threatened to bleat its last at every service. It was clear that a capital campaign with a substantial target was essential. Wisely, however, a period of planning, review, setting of priorities, and educating the congregation was to come first.

Housekeeping in other areas was in order as well. As of December 1985, the official membership roll of Central Presbyterian Church stood at 1,676. Over the following twenty-four months, the Session established that about 425 of those people did not exist, at least in the sense of being communicant members, or even citizens of the Summit area. (About twenty percent of Central’s members are from neighboring communities.) Appropriate action was taken to correct the active roll, and membership would remain in the 1200 - 1250 range through the rest of the century.

Meanwhile, the life of the parish moved on: Reverend Donald Shrumm was called as associate pastor; Rev. Jensen helped kick off the organ fund by appearing in the choir musical The Phantom of the Anthem (or, Lays Miserable); a new, high-tech organ console was installed; Rev. Jean Johnston resigned and Rev. Janice Smith was called as associate.

In 1990, Peter Boak led the Motet Choir on a concert tour of Europe. The choir members included Janet Whitman, the first woman mayor of Summit (though not the first mayor from Central Church). A highlight of the tour was the concert in Notre Dame cathedral on Bastille Day.

The year 1991 marked the highly successful Our Faith is Central capital campaign of $1.5 million dollars. Aside from more mundane commitments, a contract was signed for a new Schantz 63-rank organ. The old Möller organ was given to Piscataway Methodist Church, and the new organ would greet the congregation on Easter morning, 1993. A Zuckerman Flemish harpsichord, the gift of two families, was added to the Central collection of instruments.

The year 1993 brought the stunning news that the will of a long-time member, Lena Willis, included a bequest of three million dollars to Central’s restricted mission endowment fund. Appropriate arrangements were made to ensure prudent investment of and disbursements from this most generous gift.

Reverend Tom Boone joined the pastoral staff, replacing Rev. Shrumm who had answered a call to another church. Another choir tour, this time of England, Scotland and Wales, included as accompanist Noel Werner, who would become director (later minister) of music in 1995, after Peter Boak was lured away by the charms of Martha’s Vineyard.

125 in 95! Was the theme of Central’s one-hundred-twenty-fifth anniversary celebration, led by Peter Wood, fifty-year (plus) member, and Judith Shipley. The procession organized on the Village Green complete with flags and banners, and entered the sanctuary to the skirling of bagpipes. The year was also notable for the introduction of Stephen Ministry to Central Church.

The decision in 1996 to fold the Board of Trustees into the Session marked the first major change in governance in the history of Central Church. By all accounts, this fusion of the two lay leadership groups of the church has proved quite successful. The sale of the Prospect Street manse provided funds to allow a more flexible approach to pastoral housing. The following year saw the resignation of Rev. Tom Boone; the Rev. Dr. Leonard Grant, a retired academic and minister, accepted an interim appointment as associate pastor. A highlight of the year was the recognition one Sunday morning of Jehonias Grisby for his thirty years as custodian for Central Church.

Shortly after Rally Day in September of 1998, Rev. Jensen advised the congregation that he had accepted an unsought and unexpected call to the pastorate of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Grand Rapids. Thus began an “interim” period of more than two years for Central Church.

Rev. Janice Ammon (née Smith) agreed to assume the interim head of staff position, but was soon called to be associate pastor of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church and the position was filled by Rev. Dr. Robert Colman. Interim Associate Pastor Patti Weikart served faithfully and well, but was soon called to the Basking Ridge Presbyterian Church. Dr. Grant retired (again) in January 2001.

On Sunday, February 11, 2001, the congregation of Central Presbyterian Church concurred in the recommendation of the Pastor Nominating Committee and called the Reverend Richard R. Kannwischer to be senior pastor and head of staff. He was installed by the Presbytery of Elizabeth at a service of worship the evening of May 6, 2001.

A graduate of Trinity University, San Antonio, and Princeton Theological Seminary, Rev. Kannwischer was associate pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Houston, where he worked with the Rev. Dr. Victor Pentz, once a Hunt Scholar at Central Church. As a seminarian himself, Rev. Kannwischer had worked with the Rev. Dr. Thomas Tewell of Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, also a former seminarian at Central Presbyterian Church.

At the end of summer in the first year of the new millennium, Central Presbyterian Church called her congregation together to celebrate the life and mourn the untimely passing of one of her sons, a victim of the September eleventh terrorist attacks on the United States.

With the installation of Rev. Kannwischer, subsequent calls to associate pastors John Illian in 2002 and Rebecca Laird in 2003 completed the pastoral staff complement.

Rev. Kannwicher's tenure was to prove relatively brief: in Freruary 2005 he accepted a call to be the senior pastor of First Presbyterian Church of San Antonio, Texas. During the current interim period, the church will be led by the Rev. Dr. S. Allen Foster as senior pastor and head of staff. Dr. Foster is a graduate of Westminster College of Pennsylvania, Princeton Theological Seminary and the University of Edinburgh. He recently retireed as senior pastor of Southminster Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh, and will assume his Central Churh duties September 1.

To be continued.