Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people, events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

This is our story, our family history. Let's get started.

Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history.

You know, on this program we talk about the church history throughout the centuries,

but I always enjoy when we bring church history a little bit forward and talk about the things that have happened a little bit closer to our time.

So we're going to do that today and joining us on our program this morning is my friend, Dr. Sean Lucas. We've had him here

before. The last time we had him here we had him stuck on a deserted island but

this time we're just going to talk to him, no deserted island and we're going to

talk to him about a moment in contemporary church history.

This was an event that happened 40 years ago.

This is an event that's very special to you, Dr Lucas, you've been working on a book on this

for over a decade and it's finally going to see the light of day.

First of all, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

And what event are we talking about 40 years ago?

Well, on December 4th,th 1973 the Presbyterian Church in America was

formed at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham Alabama and that

really represented a 40-year journey of conservative Presbyterians in the Old Southern Presbyterian Church,

the Presbyterian Church in the United States, a 40-year journey of them trying to bring about

reformation in their church and then failing that seeking to have a continuing

Presbyterian church in the South. Now this expression a continuing

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