page_title: Edward William Cornelius Humphrey
section_title: Presbyterianism
hierarchical_section_title: Edward William Cornelius Humphrey / Presbyterianism
caption_attribution_description: English: A meeting of the Presbyterian creed revision committee before submitting proposal to the national General Assembly. Photo includes President Benjamin Harrison and Judge Edward William Cornelius Humphrey.
context_page_description: Edward William Cornelius Humphrey, also known as E.W.C. Humphrey, "Alphabet Humphrey," "Judge Humphrey," or "The Hon. E.W.C. Humphrey," was a theological and legal scholar and influential member of the National Presbyterian General Assembly. A Harvard graduate with an honorary degree from Amherst, he was also an 1864 graduate of Centre College,
  of which he became a trustee in 1885. He was a trustee of the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and for forty-four successive terms was elected Director of the Louisville Law Library Company. He was a key figure in a long discussion and eventual acceptance of a Presbyterian creed revision held in May 1902 in New York City by the national Presbyterian General Assembly.
context_section_description: Edward William Cornelius's drafted creed proposal was accepted by vote of the General Assembly of which he was a voting member. He was one of six Presbyterians charged with drafting the proposal regarding creed revision. The other five members of the committee were ordained Presbyterian ministers, one of whom was the General Assembly moderator.
  E.W.C. Humphrey was an active Presbyterian elder, legal advisor to a large body of Presbyterian associations based in Louisville, Kentucky and a voting participant on a strategic creed revision enacted at the National Presbyterian General Assembly of 1901. At an 1895 meeting of the congregation of the College Street Presbyterian Church of Louisville, elders of the church E.W.C. Humphrey and Thomas Speed, a United States Representative from Kentucky were designated to notify the Presbytery of the members' vote to accept the resignation of the church minister. (In Presbyterianism church governance involves levels of decision-making, from church member, to Presbyterian elder, to Presbyterian session, to Presbyterian synod, to representatives to the Presbyterian General Assembly, where final votes on Presbyterian Church creed and Presbyterian polity are decided.)
  In 1897, in accordance with Presbyterian polity a meeting of Presbyterian elders and ministers was held at Edward William Cornelius's home in Louisville, Kentucky to begin to organize and discuss the merging of the northern Presbyterian church and the southern Presbyterian church in the United States.
  
  In 1901, an overflow crowd gathered to hear discussions on Presbyterian creed revision which was held at Princeton Theological Seminary. At this meeting E.W.C. Humphrey and Dr. William McKibben presented the minority report.  
  On October 15, 1902 the Centenary Jubilee of Kentucky Presbyterians was the cause for reflection and celebration in Lexington, Kentucky of the history of the church formed in the Kentucky wilderness of 1802. . Included in the event  was "A Historical Sketch of the Synod" by Hon. E.W.C. Humphrey.
  E. W. C. Humphrey, as a Presbyterian Church Elder from Louisville, was appointed by the Presbyterian General Assembly to serve on the national committee which met in Philadelphia on February 5, 1902 to consider creed revision.  .  The group of six was charged with preparing the statement for changes to be presented to the General Assembly the following May in New York. The Fort Wayne Sentinel reported, "Final action, it is expected, will also be taken on the questions of a brief statement from Presbyterian doctrine and a declaratory statement concerning debatable points in the Confession of Faith."
  On the final vote of the Presbyterian General Assembly, all of the committee's creed changes were accepted except those not recommended by Edward William Cornelius  Humphrey and Rev. Dr. William McKibben, who led the dissenting opinion on those changes.  .
caption: A meeting of the Presbyterian creed revision committee before submitting proposal to the national General Assembly. Photo includes President Benjamin Harrison and Judge Edward William Cornelius Humphrey.
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