Administrative History:
The idea of this project began around 2001, when Mr. Jordan Siverd came to the PCA Historical Center with a research question focusing on Chapter 35 of the Book of Church Order. Wayne Sparkman, director of the PCA Historical Center, began to sketch out the basic concept of the project and also began acquiring original editions of many of the texts cited in the project. Dr. Jack Maddex was gracious in providing photocopies of the 1867 and 1869 PCUS drafts. From these photocopies transcriptions were then made and computer files established. Other, published editions were digitized using OCR software.
Between 2002 and 2006, Mr. Sparkman continued to digitize selected editions and began to compile paragraph by paragraph comparisons. That material is now being posted to this Project web site as the first information in this Historical Development of the PCA Book of Church Order.
Posting of the BCO Project to the Internet began in April of 2007, followed by public announcement of the Project in May of that same year.
Posting Order & Progress Update :
Due to the size of this project, it has been posting to the web in stages :
Stage 1 : Current PCA BCO text, compared with antecedent texts.
Stage 2 : Tracking of Amendments to the BCO since 1973.
Stage 3 : Reference to relevant judicial cases; possible inclusion of Scripture proofs.
Updates:
- 01/07/22 — A very long hiatus, with apologies. Updated BCO 58-4.
- 05/19/18 — After a long hiatus, work has resumed on this project, beginning with design revisions of each page within the project. Updating BCO amendments will follow.
- 02/02/16 — new index page posted for the BCO History Project.
- 1/07/10 - Additions to Chapter 11 of the Book of Church Order.
- Polity articles posted March 2009:
Adger, John B., "Harbingers of the Reformation" (1885)
Latimer, James F., "The Influence of the Invisible Church Upon the Visible Church in the Formulation of Her Creed" (1885)
Thornwell, James Henley, "A Few More Words on the Revised Book of Discipline" (1860)
Webb, R.A., "The Revised Directory" (1890) and "The Revised Directory for Worship" (1892)
White, H.M., "The Revised Directory for Worship" (1892)
- 6/26/2008 - Charles Hodge, 1858, "The Revised Book of Discipline".
- 3/22/2008 - John Bailey Adger, 1877, Report concerning the Revised Book of Church Order [PCUS], from his General Assembly Report for that year.
- 07/30/2007 - Posted Catechism on the Government and Discipline of the Presbyterian Church(1849)
Chapter Index [links are to Paragraph 1 in each chapter]: |
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II. Preliminary Principles
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DfW |
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[FoG = Form of Government ; RoD = Rules of Discipline ; DfW = Directory for Worship] |
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©PCA Historical Center, 12330 Conway Road, St. Louis, MO, 2017. All Rights Reserved.
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