Space Shuttle Retired

I spend much of my time looking at records and documents and reading books and newspapers from long past. Every once and a while something happens that reminds me that I am a part of history.

The other day, I had one such moment.

The Space Shuttle Endeavour was to be flown to Los Angeles on the back of a 747 jet to become a part of a museum. Mark Kelly was an astronaut to fly on the last Space Shuttle mission and the husband of Congresswoman Gabby Gifford of Arizona. She had been the subject of an assassination attempt that left her severely injured. She suffered a brain injury due to a bullet entering her head. Although she survived the attempt and has recovered much better than expected, she is severely handicapped.

Mark Kelly arranged with NASA to have the Endeavour fly over Tucson on its way to Los Angeles. Her reaction to seeing the Space Shuttle was heart wrenching. I have no idea if his request affected the flight path of the Endeavour as it arrived in California. But the 747 with the Space Shuttle affixed to its top flew to San Francisco before flying to Los Angeles.

I was excited and hoped to see it but I had a class. I asked my husband to photograph the Space Shuttle as it flew over Moffett Field. We didn't have very good communication because he thought that I was joking. I was not because I had an emotional connection to the Space Shuttle Columbia.

I remember the day of the first launch, April 12, 1981. I was working at North American Aircraft Division of Rockwell in El Segundo, California and was pregnant with my daughter. Space Division was very much involved with the space shuttle. The company had installed large screens in the manufacturing area so we all could watch the first launch of the Columbia.

I had some meeting or errand to do at another building before the shuttle was scheduled to be launched. It ran over so I rushed back to the manufacturing building to make sure that I saw the launch. I did. Everyone was so excited.

But the Columbia years later suffered a horrible fate along with her crew. It exploded shortly after launch on February 1, 2003. My daughter was about to graduate from college. Just as she was about enter adult life, the Columbia ended her life.

I would have liked Columbia to be at the museum in Los Angeles rather than Endeavour but I am glad that Los Angeles ended up with one of the few space shuttles.

Domine Hermanus Meyer of Reformed Dutch Church of Kingston

This is a continuation of an article that I posted on December 7, 2010. I had intended to post my final part on the subject the next day, However, my husband and I received word of the death of his father. I have since misplaced my notes. With things settling down and some more research, I am prepared to finish the subject of the Coetus vs. the Conferentie in the Reformed Dutch Church in Kingston, New York after 1754.

Arriving in America in 1720, it was Domine Theodore Jacobus Frelinghuysen who initiated the push to educate and ordain clergy in America. April 27, 1738, the Reformed Church in America held a meeting of clergy and drafted a request to the Classis of Amsterdam to be allowed to form an Association with the power to ordain ministers in America.

It was not until 1747, the year in which Domine Frelinghuysen died, that the Classis of Amsterdam allowed the Reformed Dutch and German churches in America the right to form a Coetus (pronounced seetus). The Classis of Amsterdam imposed enough restrictions that the Coetus was ineffectual. In 1754, the Coetus declared itself independent of the Classis of Amsterdam calling itself the Classis of America.

Following the death of Theodore Frelinghuysen, his son, John, continued to push for the establishment of a college for the training of men for the clergy. In 1754, the charter to establish King's College in New York City (now Columbia University) was granted. Both the Anglican and Dutch churches desired a chair for a professor of divinity. Domine Johannes Ritzema, the senior minister of the Dutch Church in New York City, represented the church's interest in this matter. Although no chair was established, the Anglican Church's interests prevailed.

Domine Ritzema and other Dutch clergymen concerned that the Anglican Church might gain in influence were alarmed when the Coetus declared its independence from the Classis of Amsterdam. They saw that being subordinate to the body in Amsterdam afforded some power over the Anglican interests. So in 1754, Domine Ritzema and four others formed the Conferentie taking the church records with them.

John Frelinghuysen did not live to see a college established for the education of Reformed clergymen in America. He died in 1754. Jacobus Hardenbergh, a man whom Frelinghuysen educated, took up the quest. In 1766, Domine Hardenbergh became the first president of Queen's College (now Rutgers University).

The rift between the Coetus and the Conferentie continued until 1771. A young American, John Henry Livingston, went to Europe to study for a doctorate degree in theology at the University of Utrecht. Completing his studies, he was ordained by the Classis of Amsterdam in 1770. Upon his return to America, Domine Livingston with the support of the Classis of Amsterdam forged an agreement between the Coetus and Conferentie to end the rift.

Just as the factions of the Reformed Church in America were coming together, another, much greater, dispute was beginning to unfold...The American Revolution.

Sources:

James Hastings and John A. Selbie. Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics Part 20. Whitefish, MT: Kessing Publishing, LLC, 2003.

Daniel J. Meeter. Meeting Each Other in Doctrine, Liturgy & Government. Grand Rapids, MI: W. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1993.

James Isaac Good. History of the Reformed Church in the United States 1725-1792 Volume 2. Reading, PA: Daniel Miller Publisherh, 1899.

Hugh Hastings. Ecclesiastical Records State of New York Volume VI. Albany, NY: J. B. Lyon Company, 1905.