A small but significant change will take place in the Witness this January. The name of this official denominational publication will change from the Covenanter Witness, which it has been for 73 years, to the Reformed Presbyterian Witness. Response to this change has been, and will likely continue to be, quite varied. Most responses have been of the “no big deal” variety. Some laud the change as a clearer definition of what the magazine is to be—the official voice of the Reformed Presbyterian Church. Others grieve the loss of a term from our heritage that has deep meaning: “Covenanter.”

The decision to change the name was not spontaneous. It grew out of conversations and discussions in meetings of the Board of Education & Publication over 18 months. A paper on the subject was written by board member Gordon Keddie and submitted to the board, and later to Synod. While the board never sought to discuss or concur with all the reasons and arguments of the paper, a number of basic reasons resonated. If I—not as a board member but as a witness to those discussions—could summarize the focus of the discussions, it would be with the question, “What is the best name for our denomination’s magazine?”

The board did not, as a few have worried, set out to jettison ties to our Covenanter forbears or to sidestep the fact that we are the denomination most closely tied to what the Covenanters lived and believed and even died for. I shared with the Synod that, in my 15 years as editor, I have only grown in my love and understanding of the Covenanters. It would be my sincere hope that we would follow their example, but more in substance than merely in the name of one of our publications.

Names are important, however. Something is lost while something is gained. Truthfully, I feel better about the board’s decision knowing that there was no pressing issue that influenced its decision, but rather the reasoned consideration of what would be the best label for the denomination’s magazine in the 21st Century.

That new name will bring a rich heritage along with it. The name Witness refers not only to our desire to be witnesses of the gospel but also witnesses to the kingship of Jesus Christ over all things today. The words Reformed Presbyterian are hardly new to the denomination’s magazines. A precursor to the Covenanter Witness was The Reformed Presbyterian and Covenanter. Another publication was called the Reformed Presbyterian Standard. And there was even once a Reformed Presbyterian Witness! That publication was authorized by the Synod of Scotland in 1863 and continued for many decades. We purpose to bring the best of old and new to the ongoing work of the RPCNA’s official magazine.