While preparing the interview with Bob McFarland about his 60 years in various ministry roles, we thought of one of his colleagues in Midwest Presbytery, Ed Hindman, who served as pastor in a single congregation for 42 years.

What other pastors could we find who served for a long period in a single place? We asked an RP histor­ian to look into it.—Editor

▶ 1. J.R. Thompson served Second (Newburgh, N.Y.) RPC from Dec. 19, 1855, until Mar. 27, 1917—61 years and 98 days! He died while in the pastorate.

▶ 2. F.M. Foster served Third (N.Y.) RPC from Sept. 27, 1887, until May 26, 1941—53 years and 241 days. He resigned for health reasons.

▶ 3. Alexander Kilpatrick served Union (Butler County, Pa.) RPC from May 17, 1876, until July 7, 1927—51 years and 51 days. He resigned for health reasons. See note at #5.

▶ 4. T.P. Stevenson served First (Philadelphia, Pa.) RPC from May 5, 1863, until Oct. 1, 1912—49 years and 149 days. He died while in the pastorate.

▶ 5. Alexander Kilpatrick served Pine Creek (Hampton Township, Pa.) from May 17, 1876, until Mar. 11, 1925—48 years and 298 days. He stayed pastor until the congregation disorganized. Pine Creek and Union were separate congregations; he served both simultaneously.

▶ 6. D.S. Faris served Bethel (Sparta, Ill.) RPC from Oct. 7, 1857, until Jan. 1, 1906—48 years and 85 days. He resigned for health reasons.

▶ 7. Thomas McFall served Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, RPC from Aug. 25, 1881, until Jan. 14, 1929—47 years and 142 days. He died while in the pastorate.

▶ 8. J.B. Williams served White Lake, N.Y., RPC from Nov. 14, 1850, until May 6, 1897—46 years and 173 days. He died while in the pastorate.

▶ 9. John Galbraith served North Union (Butler County, Pa.) RPC from June 29, 1843, until Aug. 10, 1889—46 years and 101 days. He resigned for health reasons. When he started, he was pastor of Pine Creek, Union, and North Union (a single congregation with three meeting locations).

▶ 10. D.C. Faris served Barnet, Vt., RPC from June 25, 1873, until June 6, 1919—45 years and 346 days. He resigned for health reasons.

▶ 11. William Sommerville served Horton, Nova Scotia, RPC from May 5, 1833, until Sept. 28, 1878—45 years and 146 days. He died while in the pastorate.

▶ 12. William Slater served Miller’s Run (Washington County, Pa.) RPC from May 24, 1843, until Apr. 13, 1887—44 years and 324 days. He resigned for health reasons.

▶ 13. Shigeru Takiura has served Okamoto-Keiyaku (Kobe, Japan) RPC since Sept. 4, 1977—43 years so far. He is still the pastor.

▶ 14. Ed Hindman (pictured) served Denison, Kan., RPC from May 15, 1977, until May 31, 2019—42 years and 19 days.

▶ 15. Khalil Awad served Latakia, Syria, RPC from Mar. 12, 1920, until July 1, 1961—41 years and 111 days. He remained pastor of this congregation until his death in 1975, but he ceased to be an RPCNA minister in 1961 because the government forced the RPCNA to cut connections with our Syrian congregations.

▶ 16. Roy Blackwood served Second (Indianapolis, Ind.) RPC from Dec. 29, 1966, until Feb. 29, 2008—41 years and 62 days. He resigned for age reasons.

▶ 17. R.H. McKelvy served Lochiel, Ontario, RPC from May 31, 1928, until Oct. 31, 1968—40 years and 153 days. He resigned for age reasons.

▶ 18. David Coon has served White Lake, N.Y., RPC since Oct. 4, 1980—40 years. He’s still the pastor.

▶ 19. J.W.F. Carlisle served First (Newburgh, N.Y.) RPC from June 26, 1888, until Apr. 5, 1928—39 years and 284 days. He died while in the pastorate.

▶ 20. C.D. Trumbull served Morning Sun, Iowa, RPC (not the same as the current Sharon, Iowa, RPC) from Apr. 14, 1874, until Jan. 21, 1914—39 years and 282 days. He died while in the pastorate.

Some of these men even served other pastorates before the really long one:

▶ #2 served seven years at Bellefontaine, Ohio, RPC.

▶ #16 served seven years at Bloomington, Ind., RPC and then took a few years off church planting in Indianapolis before he was formally installed in 1966.

▶ #18 served a year and a half at Coldenham-Newburgh, N.Y., RPC working at revitalizing White Lake RPC (it was a mostly dead mission church at the time).

▶ #19 served three and a half years at New Alexandria, Pa.

▶ #20 served ten years at Linn Grove, Iowa, RPC just a few miles from Morning Sun RPC.

▶ #12 also served 17 years at Middle Wheeling, concurrent with his first 17 years at Miller’s Run.

We welcome updates to this list. Since there hasn’t been a new RP Ministers book since 1994, current information is lacking in some cases.