wfn.org | Moderator's Cross is Symbolic Church History

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

15-June-1997 
GA97026 
 
               Moderator's Cross is Symbolic Church History 
 
                           by Nancy Rodman 
 
SYRACUSE--The cross presented to each new Moderator at the time of 
installation is highly symbolic of the history of the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.).  Although referred to as The Moderator's Cross, it is in fact 
three crosses riveted together. 
 
    In 1948 the Rev. Dr. H. Ray Anderson, pastor of Fourth Presbyterian 
Church, Chicago, bought two silver Celtic crosses on the Scottish  island 
of Iona.  Later that year,  Anderson presented one of the crosses to the 
Rev. Dr. Jesse H. Baird, moderator of the 160th General Assembly of the 
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A.  The next year, during the 89th General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., he presented the second 
cross to the Rev. Dr. W.E. Price following Price's election as moderator of 
that Assembly. 
 
    Soon after, the Rev. Frederick W. Ingle, a minister of the P.C.U.S., 
purchased a similar Celtic cross while visiting Iona and sent it to Dr. 
Anderson for presentation, in 1953, to the newly-elected moderator of the 
United Presbyterian Church in North America, Samuel C. Weir. 
 
    Anderson longed for the reunion of the two Presbyterian denominations 
separated by the conflict over slavery and in presenting the first two 
crosses expressed the hope that someday they would be reunited.  He died in 
1979, before the divisions of the Civil War could be healed, but not before 
he saw two of the three crosses united when, in 1958, the Presbyterian 
Church, U.S.A. and the United Presbyterian Church in North America came 
together to form the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of 
America.  The two crosses, now one, became a symbol of Presbyterian unity. 
 
    Anderson's dream became reality in Atlanta in 1983 when the cross worn 
by moderators of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. and the now single 
cross, formerly two, were riveted together.  Cheers and applause erupted as 
more than 5,000 people watched UPCUSA Moderator James H. Costen and PCUS 
Moderator John F. Anderson place the chain from which hung the united 
crosses around the neck of the Rev. Dr. J. Randolph Taylor, first moderator 
of the newly reunited Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 

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