Two branches – one black, one white – of the 204-year-old Cumberland Presbyterian Church are pondering reunification in Chattanooga this week.
It’s not expected that actual reunification will happen during the national denominations’ concurrent General Assembly at the Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, but it’s exciting the Scenic City is where the two denominations are worshiping together and talking about a possible future merger.
“We feel there is no reason for us to be separated because God calls us together,” said the Rev. Forrest Prosser, pastor emeritus of Red Bank Cumberland Presbyterian Church and moderator for the Cumberland Presbyterian Church for the past year. “We have the same basic history, confession of faith, same system of government, same name. It doesn’t seem right to stay as separate denominations when we should be working together.”
The largely black Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America (which now has 113 congregations) split from what is now the largely white — and much larger (800 congregations) — Cumberland Presbyterian Church less than 10 years after the end of the Civil War, actually remaining together longer than some denominations following the end of the conflict that saw master separated from slave. The new name for the potential unified church is the United Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
Reunification has been attempted before, most recently about 15 years ago, according to Prosser. The process reached the level of votes in the individual General Assemblies, he said. However, while the Cumberland Presbyterian Church voted for reuniting, the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America did not.