October 24 Today in OPC History

On Monday, October 24, 1966, the Rev. Edmund P. Clowney was inaugurated as the first President of Westminster Theological Seminary. Ordained in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church in 1942 and a member of the faculty since 1952, Clowney was honored earlier in the year by his college alma mater, Wheaton, with an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree.

Professor Cornelius Van Til gave the invocation, the Rev. John Clelland read Scripture, and Professor John Murray gave the inaugural prayer. The Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Rev. LeRoy Oliver, asked Clowney the constitutional questions and delivered a charge to the new President. In his inaugural address, entitled, “The Ministry of Hope,” Clowney contrasted Christian hope with the hope of the world, which is doomed to frustration and fury. “Westminster’s hope,” he went on to state, “is not a new faculty, a new student body, and certainly not a new administration. Our hope is the presence of the Savior’s glory.”

For 37 years Westminster did not have a president, owing in part to the perception that the appointment of a president had contributed to the downfall of Princeton Theological Seminary. But increasing burdens placed on the faculty, often entailing day-long Saturday faculty meetings, eventually prompted Clowney’s appointment. He served in this capacity until 1982, followed by George C. Fuller, Samuel T. Logan, and the current President, Peter A. Lillback.

Picture: Ed Clowney (right) and John Murray