November 3 Today in OPC History

On November 3, 1936, Covenant Orthodox Presbyterian Church of East Orange, New Jersey, was organized as a congregation by the Presbytery of New Jersey. Two days earlier, the Rev. Dr. J. Gresham Machen spoke in East Orange at a public rally for the prospective church at Lincoln School in East Orange. In his address, Machen urged his listeners to work towards perpetuating the testimony of historic Presbyterianism in the metropolitan area of New Jersey.

Machen had been invited to speak by Mr. Richard W. Gray, then a senior at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia. Mr. Gray and Mr. Alfred Stapf had done preparatory survey work in the East Orange area. After his graduation in May 1937, Mr. Gray was ordained and installed as the first pastor of Covenant Church.

Membership in Covenant Church would peak at one hundred members under the leadership of Pastor Charles Ellis in 1953, and a new building would be dedicated in 1957. As the neighborhood changed, Covenant Church's membership declined. In 1968, the property was sold and the church closed the next year.

Picture: The members of Covenant OPC at its inception in 1936.