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RPTS TO CELEBRATE BICENTENNIAL AT HEINZ HISTORY CENTER JUNE 24: 200-YEAR-OLD SEMINARY BRINGS ITS OWN HISTORY VIGNETTES AND ARTIFACTS, INCLUDING JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA DONATED BY HARRY HOUDINI

The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) will celebrate its bicentennial on June 24 at the Heinz History Center. 

“Before the telephone, before the electric telegraph, even before the Pony Express, RPTS was equipping men to herald the news -- the Good News of Jesus Christ,” says RPTS President Jerry O’Neill.  “We are excited to give God glory on June 24 for His 200 gracious years to this Seminary!”

A buffet style dinner will be served from 5 to 6:30 p.m., and groups of people will move on to see sections of the museum while also enjoying RPTS vignettes featuring students and life at the Seminary through period actors and artifacts amidst the background of museum exhibits highlighting the years of 1810, 1910, and 2010.  The event continues with a formal program from 7:20 until 9 p.m. in the History Center’s fifth floor Mueller Center that overlooks the city.  Attendees also will receive “mystery cards” with biographies of graduates throughout RPTS history and guess their identities, with the answers found during their stroll through vignette exhibits.

The Seminary also will display other tables at the Mueller Center that feature artifacts highlighting its history and that of its denomination, the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA), such as:

• A Jewish Encyclopedia donated by Harry Houdini to a former RPTS president and friend;
• A model wearing high priestly garments made by an RPTS alum in the 1800s for a doctoral project at Moody Bible College in Chicago, and a newspaper article with him wearing the garments next to his construction of Solomon's Temple;
• Old scrap books kept by churches and congregants;
• A Seminary guest book, dated 1923-1963, that features a page with a signature by converted Mormon and senator Frank J. Cannon;
• A communion set from an RPCNA church in Bellefontaine, Ohio, dated November 15, 1884;
• RPCNA Native American Missions items: an 1899 framed art with photos, and beaded moccasins;
• Tokens required by the RPCNA in the past to partake of communion;
• Chinese mission items, including chopsticks and their ornate case.

Keynote speakers for the evening program will be Dr. Sinclair Ferguson, senior pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Columbia, S.C., and professor of systematic theology for Redeemer Seminary in Dallas, Texas; and Dr. Derek Thomas, professor of systematic and practical theology for Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, Miss., and minister of teaching for First Presbyterian Church in Jackson.

For more information, or to register, visit www.rpts.edu/celebrate.php.