Communications

The Cumberland Presbyterian Magazine is the publication of record of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Obituaries appear in the Cumberland Presbyterian Magazine because we believe notice deserves to be paid to a person’s death because they are newsworthy. Typically, we find the deaths of Cumberland Presbyterian clergy and denominationally active elders to be newsworthy. On rare […]

The Reverend Harris Toney, 88, of Chattanooga, Tennessee, died May 5, 2020. He was pastor of several churches throughout Eastern Tennessee for 42 years. He served as Moderator of the Hiwassee Presbytery and the Tennessee Synod of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America. In 2010, he retired as the Pastor of Christian Fellowship Cumberland Presbyterian […]

Mary Margaret Waddle Williams, 68, a member of McKenzie, Tennessee, First Cumberland Presbyterian Church (West Tennessee Presbytery) and daughter of the Reverend Doctor L.C. Waddle and Mary Elizabeth Dotherow Waddle, died Wednesday, May 13, 2020, at Henry County Medical Center in Paris, Tennessee. Mary was a nurse in Henry and Carroll counties, previously employed at […]

James “Jim” E. Swafford, 82, of Cleveland, Tennessee, died Tuesday, May 12, 2020. He was a very active member of the First Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Cleveland (Tennessee-Georgia Presbytery), where he served as elder, treasurer for nineteen years, and Sunday school superintendent for thirteen years.

Samual Tipton Jones II, 72, died Friday May 15, 2020. He was an elder at First Cumberland Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga and a trustee of the Tennessee-Georgia Presbytery. Sam practiced law in Chattanooga for more than four decades. As a young man, he was an Eagle Scout and an officer in the United States Army. […]

The Reverend Doctor Theodis Acklin, moderator of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America, in a communication dated May 17, 2020, urged churches to exercise caution before re-opening their facilities for public worship despite the direction of state and federal officials to “re-open for business.” “Worship is essential to me,” said Dr. Acklin, “but equally as […]

The Reverend Nancy Kate McSpadden, 67, (Arkansas Presbytery) died on May 12, 2020. Nancy was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, to Emmett and Joann McSpadden. The family attended the Rose City Cumberland Presbyterian Church in North Little Rock with many other McSpaddens. They descended from the Reverend Samuel McSpadden, one of the early ministers of […]

Since August 2017, the Reverend T.J. Malinoski has written a column examining the Confession of Faith for Cumberland Presbyterians in the Cumberland Presbyterian Magazine. It has appeared almost monthly ever since. We present it here for your enjoyment and edification. This posting was made from T.J.’s manuscript and may not contain editorial changes or formatting […]

Help! We Need To Have A Session Meeting By T. J. Malinoski A whoop or a holler to have a church session meeting with the minister and elders is not a call made too often. Ordinarily, one tends to avoid attending a meeting like one avoids poison ivy or a wet dog. There are so […]

Dr. William Lee “Bill” Odom, 85, died May 9, 2020. He was president of Bethel College from 1975-1991, a turbulent period in the institution’s history. Bill was born in Richmond, Virginia, on December 28, 1934. He graduated from John Marshall High School in 1953 and from Hampden-Sydney College, a Presbyterian institution in Virginia and the […]