BPC Synod 09 in Bluff City, TN - Details
BP Synod 2009 News, General News
To be held at
Ryder Memorial Presbyterian Church
73 General Synod of the BPC
Bluff City, TN August 6-11, 2009
Download Registration
Download Docket
The 73rd General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church will meet August 6-11, 2009, in the mountains of East Tennessee. This year marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth, and it is fitting that we should be holding our sessions in a part of the United States that was so dramatically influenced by Calvinism from the beginning.
An early East Tennessee Presbyterian Church was described by a visitor in this way:
A typical frontier Presbyterian Church of this period is pictured by Earnest Trice Thompson, drawn from a description by C.W. Heiskell: “It is of logs, from twenty-five to thirty feet wide, forty to sixty feet long, and from twenty to thirty feet high. The pews are unplaned benches of pine planks or slabs, eight to sixteen feet long, mostly without backs, though once in a while you find an enclosed pew, but with backs so high and steep that children groan to sit in them…. The prayer is from fifteen to twenty minutes long and the sermon an hour and half to two hours. Back home there is a cold dinner and a cold supper. There is no levity. Whistling is forbidden. Loud laughter, secular reading, or singing is prohibited. A solemn stillness, a holy atmosphere pervades the house.” [Samuel Doak, by Earle Crawford, Overmountain Press, 1980]
In the Ryder Memorial Church, our Synod host, you immediately see a shadow of these early images in its log construction. Directly across the street is a forest, and the logs hewn for the church were pulled from that area under the direction of Presbyterian missionaries.
The Calvinistic heritage of East Tennessee produced an uncommon citizen. The people of this region, blessed with a rich spiritual legacy, were known for their courage, morality and endurance, and even secular historians find themselves tipping their hats to the theology that bred men and women of such strength. Quoting from the same book, the author writes:
Of this Calvinism, Roosevelt wrote: “…the old Calvinistic spirit left a peculiar stamp on this wild border democracy. More than anything else, it gave the backwoodsmen their code of right and wrong. … They at least always retained the fundamental virtues of hardihood and manliness.”
The theme for this year’s synod has not yet been determined, but we will be honoring the memory of John Calvin
with a series of special messages, including a keynote address by Dr. Joel Beeke. As the out-going moderator, I want to
urge you to make plans to join us in the mountains of East Tennessee for an uncommon time of fellowship and labor for
the cause of Christ. I assure you that you will receive a grand East Tennessee welcome from Pastor Cole and the church
family, who are renowned for their hospitality and commitment to the cause of Christ. — Rev. G. W. Fisher - Moderator
Get Directions to Ryder Church
Visit the Ryder Website for more details.
admin @ February 16, 2009
