The Covenanter Witness, whose roots are outlined in the preceding pages, was born in 1928. The Witness continued the format of its predecessor, The Christian Nation. The 16- page weekly paper offered the same departments and editors. The associate editors were three prominent Covenanter ministers, Dr. F. M. Wilson, Dr. D. H. Elliott, and Dr. W. J. Coleman. Advertisements were reduced but included Parker’s Hair Balsam, the Hotel Earle, and the White Lake and Pacific Palisades camps. Subscription: $2.50 per year. J. H. Pritchard died on Christmas Day, 1932, and the associate editors took over, with Dr. Wilson becoming the managing editor. By then the paper featured an occasional full-page photo spread of Geneva College. Reports continued to be given of the meetings of Synod. The magazine reported on June 21, 1933, that Synod had appointed a Board of Publication to “take over the Covenanter Witness and supervise all matters pertaining to its publication” (323). Revs. D. Raymond Taggart and Owen F. Thompson were elected co-editors and, because both men had charges west of the Mississippi, the magazine was published in Topeka, Kansas.

The editors stated, “We recognize our unworthiness of any service for Him save through the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and are conscious of our utter inability for the work save for the enabling power of Him who, with His commission give the assurance, ‘I am with you always.’ We thank God for all the periodicals that have served our church up to this time, and for the Covenanter Witness as it is now serving the church. We accept it as one of God’s tools given into our hands to be kept fit, to be used, and not to be abused. Full well it has served hitherto in promoting the unity of the faith in our church” (Aug. 2, 1933, 67).

Color appeared in the paper for the first time in November 1933. The contents remained very much the same, with much news from the various mission fields and congregations and a variety of articles on doctrinal issues. Even a short story appeared.

By 1939 Dr. Taggart assumed the full editorship of the paper, and two distinct departments—Current Events and Kingdom Builders—had been added. The largest amount of space in the magazine was then being devoted to the news and the regular departments; articles generally occupied no more than six pages. The cover usually contained poetry or a brief quotation taken from various outside religious sources.

The Synod of 1939 had received a paper submitted by the Ohio Presbytery suggesting that the election of women elders be permitted when the “need was imperative.” The Discipline Committee of Synod recommended that this be allowed, and following this statement in the Witness, the lengthy supporting argument by the committee occupies seven and one half large columns of the magazine. An opposing argument is printed alongside.

The editorial policy of the magazine is clearly stated: “There will probably be considerable discussion on this question during the coming months, and the decision that is reached may be of very grave importance. We are urging you therefore to follow the discussion throughout, and we have the voluntary promise of some other articles in opposition…Be assured that the columns of the Witness are open for discussion on both sides of the question…Since it is a new question to our church, I think that most of us are willing to be convinced either way, and we shall be glad to have suitable papers either from ministers or laymen, or lay women” (November 1, 1939, 309). This issue was debated in the pages of the magazine for a time hut gradually faded away.

The church responded to World War II as it had to the Great War. The magazine published an address by Dr. Walter McCarroll, Oct. 17, 1939, on the subject, “Is the War Justified?” An article in the Dec. 20, 1939, issue by Robert Metcalfe on “Christian Isolation” is a response to an earlier statement by Dr. Boyd Tweed who declared isolation to be “impossible, undesirable and unchristian.” Metcalfe argues that the “the way of sacrifice, moral suasion and love—the way of the cross—is stronger than the way of the sword,” although he is willing to agree with Dr. Tweed’s statement if he meant “humanitarian acts, prayer, etc.”

Memorials and tributes play a large role in the magazine. In 1939 there appears an extensive memorial to Rev. James Henery, who drowned at Camp Buddy, Rose Point, Pa. In the issue of Jan. 3, 1945, ten of the sixteen pages of the paper are devoted to memorials for four Covenanter ministers who had died: W. J. Coleman, W. A. Aikin, E. M. Elsey, and G. R. Steele.

In the final issue of each year the magazine published the prayer meeting topics for the year following. For many years two columns opened each issue: “Glimpses of the Religious World” by Dr. Frank Allen and “Current Events” by Dr. John Coleman. The annual National Reform Issue would occupy half the magazine. By then advertising was minimal. A rare full-page ad might appear, such as one for Catherine F. Vos’s The Child’s Story Bible.

Upon the death of Dr. Taggart in November 1958, the editorship fell to Revs. M. W. Dougherty and R. Wylie Caskey. The use of poetry and quotations on the front cover continued. The Covenanter Witness remained a 16-page magazine with a subscription rate of $4 per year. Occasionally an ad for a Covenanter Presbytery camp appears. By 1959 there appear issues devoted largely to the work of the mission field or the seminary. The 1959 Synod created the Board of Christian Education. In September 1959, after decades as an integral part of the church’s publication, the current events column was discontinued.

Echoes of the political dissent issue remain. An ad sponsored by the National Association of Evangelicals entitled “Stand Up and Be Counted” provoked a layman’s letter to the editor protesting the inclusion of the ad because, to him, it implied the necessity to vote. He argues that the ad should not have appeared, for it suggested that the Witness supported a position contrary to the position of the church. But by 1964, after three synods had discussed the role of the Christian citizen to the state, Chapter 30 of the Reformed Presbyterian Testimony had been revised. In the July 29 issue the revised chapter appears in its entirety, so that members of the Church might have firsthand knowledge of the significant change that had taken place. In August 1964, Rev. M. W. Dougherty became the sole editor of the magazine, having been elected to that position by the Synod. He continued the publication of all standard departments and issues devoted to specific ministries of the church. The magazine retained its size; the subscription rate increased to $5. Color began to appear more frequently, but very little advertising, except for the institutions of the church and for presbytery camps. In the late 60s as much as seven frill pages of filler came from sources outside the Covenanter Church, together with five pages of helps and four pages of letters and articles from within the denomination.

In 1970, Synod combined the Boards of Publication and of Education, it having been thought wise to place the publication of educational materials as close to a publisher as possible. The fifteen-member Board was to oversee the activities of both the editor of the magazine and the director of the educational ministry of the church. In September 1971, Rev. Ronald Nickerson became editor, replacing Rev. Dougherty who retired in December. The E&P Board reported to the Synod that the international Sabbath school lessons would be discontinued and that in 1972 the magazine would be published as a biweekly.

Nickerson revamped the magazine’s cover, adding color on a regular basis and dropping “the” from the magazine’s name. The size and subscription rate remained the same. Late in 1971 he asked for poetry to be submitted. In 1972 the size was increased to twenty pages (twenty-eight when quarterly helps were included), but the contents remained stable: lead articles, sometimes as many as seven, usually by Covenanters, an editorial, religious news, a children’s department, and quarterly topics for juniors, the Women’s Missionary Societies, and the prayer meeting. The editor added color to the interior of the magazine, and the print stock was enhanced.

In 1976, one bi-weekly issue in July and one in September were dropped. The magazine ran a photo contest; poetry was being submitted and printed by this time. Congregational news began to be greatly reduced. The usual memorials and obituaries remained. More space was devoted to letters to the editor, and once again after many years, book reviews appeared. Occasionally, a full-page photograph graced the cover. In 1979 Nickerson resigned in order to take the pastorate of the Washington, Iowa, RPC. Donald McCrory, the first layman since John W. Pritchard to edit a periodical, began his term in 1980. The Board also recognized that the cost of printing a biweekly was prohibitive and made the magazine a 16-page monthly, retaining many of the features that had been introduced over the years and adding a “Kid’s Korner,” and “Gleanings,” a women’s feature. The size of the magazine alternated almost regcilarly between sixteen and twenty-four pages.

Mr. McCrory resigned in 1986 to take other work, and the Synod elected the present managing editors, Drew and Lynne Gordon. Rev. James Pennington served as director of publications for several years. A typical 24-page issue included an editorial—Viewpoint”; “Watchwords—a guest editorial by Russ Pulliam; “Thinking Out Loud” articles; “Family Life”; “Christian Education”; WMF news; “A Page for Kids”; “Around the Church”; “Brief Notes births, baptisms, marriages; ‘Comment’ and the monthly Prayer Calendar. The rationale of the family magazine clearly remained and was consistently supported by the Board who felt that this was what the constituency of the denomination wanted most.

Financial constraints continued to plague the Board; the July and August issues were combined. The use of multiple color, both without and within, became standard, as was the greatly increased use of photographs. More space was given to church news and notes; a typical issue might use more than four pages for these features.

The magazine introduced a yearlong theme for its lead articles. In 1995 the focus was on “Reaching Out’ in response to Synod’s emphasis on the “health, growth and multiplication of congregations,” a clear demonstration of the magazine’s bonding role. In 1996 the Board authorized the purchase of equipment that would allow the magazine to be published in house for the first time. In 1997 the Synod divided the Board again, separating the educational (Youth Ministry) emphasis from that of publication.

Today, the Covenanter Witness continues to seek freshness in its emphasis as the family magazine of the church, supplying not only news of the congregations, the mission works and the institutions of the church, but also practical instruction in the matters of worship, understanding of the church, knowledge of the faith, and godly living. 1998 marked the seventieth anniversary of the magazine, by far the greatest age for any periodical in the denominations history.