The Church Split Over… What, Precisely?

Presbyterian minister Michael Lindvall begins his fictional story about a pastor in the Midwest in The Good News from North Haven like this:

I am the pastor of Second Presbyterian Church. There is no first Presbyterian Church in town and there hasn’t been for years. More than a century ago, the newly founded First - and then only - Presbyterian Church enjoyed a fine church fight. Folks still tell the story of the Sunday in June when half the congregation walked out during the sermon and founded Second Presbyterian.

All memories agree as to what the fight was…