 This was, for Steele and Lusk, the final straw.Synod adjourned on June 26, 1840, and the following day, he protested and separated from the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, along with fellow minister Robert Lusk and elders William McKinley, William Wylie and Nathan Johnston, on the grounds that the RPCNA had "corrupted the doctrines and worship, and prostituted the government and discipline of the house of God"..They constituted themselves as the Reformed Presbytery and set about to return the "old paths."