I am seldom enamored by anniversaries of organizations. I think I was raised in a generation that undervalues history, and some of that rubbed off on me. But anniversaries give me an opportunity to delve into history when I might otherwise have continued to face forward and ignore that history. Once I have my appetite whetted for history, though, I almost always find it fascinating in some way.

As I write this, many people are thinking about the milestone of inaugurating the first black president of the United States, a country that once treated black people as property. I’m proud of the fact that my Reformed Presbyterian forebears, because of their commitment to the Scriptures above cultural norms, saw the error of inequality even more clearly than most of the Founding Fathers of the U.S. I’m glad that, even though I became an RP as an adult, I have been enlightened and enriched by RP history.

There are Reformed and Presbyterian milestones that we will focus on ...