One the founders of the Presbyterian Church in America, Dr. Morton H. Smith, age 88, was granted the status of Honorably Retired as a minister of the Presbyterian Church in American by Western Carolina Presbytery at its February 25 meeting. Dr. Smith’s retirement is effective immediately.

Dr. Smith holds the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, the Bachelor of the Theology of degree from Columbia Theological Seminary, and the Doctor of Theology from the Free University of Amsterdam.

Honorable retirement will free Dr. Smith from some responsibilities as a churchman, such as attendance at Presbytery and General Assembly, but he will continue his labors as Professor of Systematic and Biblical Theology at Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, a position he has held since 1998.

The church has benefited from his wide spectrum of service which has included serving as Professor of Bible and Chairman of the Bible Department at Belhaven College, as Professor of Theology at the Reformed Theological Institute (forerunner of Reformed Theological Seminary), as Professor of Systematic Theology and Department Chairman of RTS, and the first Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in America, as Moderator of the General Assembly.

In granting Dr. Smith’s request, Western Carolina Presbytery adopted the following statement:

“Western Carolina Presbyter hereby grants honorably retired status to Teaching Elder Morton Smith upon his request this twenty-fifth day of February, 2012, giving great thanks to God for His kindness to us in the gift of Dr. Smith. As a founder and leader of our denomination, as a presbyter, educator and brother in the Lord, Dr. Smith has been, under God’s providence and by His gracious provision, a guardian of our way, both exhorting and modeling the way in which our Lord would have us to go in His service. We are the better for his labors among us. While his stepping down from active service in this Presbytery is our loss, we rejoice in knowing that he will not slow down, especially when called upon for advice and assistance. There will yet be great churchmen, but none greater. All Glory to God.”

Following is a tribute that was prepared by me for the occasion of Dr. Smith’s 80th birthday:

I join the many who are thanking God and congratulating you on eightieth birthday. Our Lord has been most gracious to you and to His Church in sparing you these many years.

Your service as Professor of Theology in two seminaries, as Stated Clerk and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, and as faithful pastor of Christ’s flock is much appreciated and of great benefit to our Church. The salutary effects of your ministry are seen now in many people and places, but the full effects will be known by us and by you only with the perspective of the coming kingdom.

I thank you for your teaching me as a seminary student over thirty years ago. You grounded me in a system of doctrine that has been the foundation of my ministry since I was ordained in 1972. I have told several seminary presidents, as well as others, that, while other professors have their distinctive gifts and contributions, the remarkable thing about your teaching is that you have been able to get across to students a theology they understood, believed, and used in ministry. I am never embarrassed to say, “Morton Smith gave me my theology, and it is that theology that has guided me and that I have preached and taught in every place that I have served as a minister of the Gospel.”

I am appreciative, as well, that you have modeled before many of us and encouraged us to have the courage of conviction. You have stood for what you believe in all the seasons of your life and without fear or favor in the life of the Church. All this you have done as a godly man and a Christian gentleman.

I pray that the Lord will be pleased to grant you many more years of happy and useful service. You will, I am without doubt, fight the good fight, finish your course, keep the faith, and attain the crown of life. When your service is complete, you, full of years, will rest in the presence of the Savior you have trusted, loved, and served, as you await the yet more glorious day when you shall rise to honor and enter the unmixed joy of your Lord.

Bill Smith is a Teaching Elder in the Presbyterian Church of America. He is a writer and contributor to a number of Reformed journals and resides in Jackson, MS. He currently serves as a volunteer news assistant for the Aquila Report.

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