May 5 Today in OPC History

On May 5, 1949, the Presbytery of New Jersey ordained Theodore J. Georgian and installed him as pastor of Grace OPC, Trenton, New Jersey, where he was supplying the pulpit as a licentiate. Professor John Murray from Westminster Seminary preached the sermon, and members of the Presbytery participating in the service included the Rev. James Price (moderator of the Presbytery), along with Charles Ellis, Lewis Grotenhuis, Edward Kellogg, and Meredith Kline.

A native of Boston, Georgian attended Gordon College and Westminster Seminary (BD, 1948, and later ThM, 1956), before serving in Trenton from 1949–1958. From there he took a call to Covenant OPC in Rochester, New York, serving for nearly 30 years until his retirement in 1987. Shortly thereafter, he began to supply the pulpit at New Life OPC in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, a mission work that had lost its pastor to the Army chaplaincy and whose attendance had dwindled to less than twenty. Such a bond developed that Georgian and his wife Gladys moved to Williamsport and he was installed as the organizing pastor in 1990, continuing to serve until it was particularized in 1994 and called Paul Browne. Georgian also served as the moderator of the 57th General Assembly that met in San Diego in 1990. Georgian joined the Church Triumphant on Nov. 21, 2016.

Picture: Ted Georgian as moderator in 1990.