Presbyterian

★427 ★

American Presbyterian Church

1647 Dyre St.
Philadelphia, PA 19124-1340

The American Presbyterian Church was founded in 1977 by persons who withdrew from the Bible Presbyterian Church then under the domination of Dr. Carl McIntire (b. 1906). In that year, McIntire had directed the dissolution of the Bible Presbyterian Church's Philadelphia Presbytery. Three congregations took the opportunity to reorganize separately as the American Presbyterian Church. The dispute was organizational, not doctrinal, and the new church retained the very conservative stance of the Bible Presbyterian and acknowledged the authority of the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith. The church sings only with a psalter (the Psalms set to music) and demands that members refrain from imbibing alcohol. The church does not ordain women to the ministry.

The church has open relations with other small Presbyterian groups (such as the Reformed Presbyterian Church-Hanover Synod and the Presbyterian Reformed Church) with whom they share a basic outlook.

Membership: Not reported. In the 1990s there were some 60 members in three congregations.

Periodicals: Katartizo.

Sources:

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co., 1999.

★428 ★

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

℅ Associate Reformed Presbyterian Center
1 Cleveland St.
Greenville, SC 29601

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church traces its origin to the preaching of Reformer John Knox in Scotland and the establishment of the Scotch Church as the official church of all Scotland in 1560. Under King William II, in 1688, the Church of Scotland was reorganized into the Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland. In 1733 a pastor, Ebenezar Erskine, led a group of Christians in forming a separate Associate Presbytery. Ten years later, another group of Christians who had come into conflict with the established church organized the Reformed Presbytery.

Both churches spread first to Ireland and then the the United States, where the first Associate and Reformed Presbyteries were formed in the mid-eighteenth century. Formal negotiations between the Associates and Reformeds looking toward union began in 1777 and reached fruition five years later. While some congregations did not join the union, the new church included congregations scattered from Georgia to New York.

In 1790 the Associate Reformed Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia was formed in Abbeville County, South Carolina, followed some years later (1803) by the division of the entire church into four synods (Carolinas, Pennsylvania, New York, and Scioto) and one General Synod. Headquarters was established in Philadelphia. In 1822 the Synod of the Carolinas was granted independent status, and by the end of the century was the sole remaining body of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church as the remaining synods had been absorbed through several mergers into the former United Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

The remaining Associate Reformed Presbyteries in the Southeast continued on as the Synod of the South, becoming the General Synod in 1935. There are now nine presbyteries in the United States–First (North Carolina), Second (Western South Carolina and Georgia), Northeast, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama, Mississippi Valley, Catawba, Florida, and Pacific.

The church holds to the Westminister Confession of Faith and the larger and shorter Catechism. The General Synod is the church's highest authority. It is composed of all teachings elders (ministers) and least one ruling elder (lay leader) from each church. The church supports mission work in Mexico, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, and the Middle East; several retirement centers; and an assembly grounds, Bonclarken, at Flat Rock, North Carolina.

Membership: In 2002 the church reported 35,022 members in 255 churches served by over 300 ministers in the United States and Canada.

Educational Facilities: Erskine College, Due West, South Carolina.

Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, South Carolina and in various other locations.

Periodicals: The Associate Reformed Presbyterian.

★429 ★

Bible Presbyterian Church

Haddon and Cuthbert Blvd. S.
Collingswood, NJ 08108

History. The Rev. Carl McIntire (b. 1906) had been a student at Princeton Theological Seminary when J. Gresham Machen left to found the independent Westminster Theological Seminary. McIntire graduated from Westminster in 1931 and became the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In September 1933, he became pastor of the Presbyterian congregation in Collingswood, New Jersey. He was suspended from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. along with Machen and left with him and others to establish what became the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In 1937, after the death of Machen, the church divided on three points. The Orthodox Presbyterians refused to take a stand against intoxicating beverages, rebuffed attempts to make it distinctly premillennial in its eschatology, and declined further support of the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions in favor of a church-controlled board. (A premillennial eschatology refers to the belief that before the millennium–Christ's predicted thousand-year reign on earth with his saints–Christ will return to earth to fight the Battle of Armageddon and bind Satan.) In 1938, McIntire and his supporters formed the Bible Presbyterian Church.

At times, the personality of McIntire seemed to have been a more significant factor in the formation of the Bible Presbyterian Church than any of his three objections to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He has led a zealous crusade against modernism, communism, and pacifism, and called for what he termed the "twentieth century reformation" to root out apostasy and build true churches. Prime targets have been the National Council of Churches and its sister organization, the World Council of Churches. McIntire called all true Christians to separate themselves from the apostasy of members of these councils.

McIntire provided followers with a variety of alternative organizations to support. In 1937, along with others, he founded Faith Theological Seminary. Four years later he was active in organizing the American Council of Christian Churches (ACCC) to bring together separatist churches from across the country. Separatist churches refuse to deal with liberal churches or with conservative churches that cooperate with liberal churches in any way. Just before the Amsterdam meeting of the World Council of Churches in 1948, McIntire joined with others to organize the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC). because of criticism by some outstanding conservative Presbyterian leaders, the ACCC and ICCC lost much support, and in 1956 were repudiated by some who had been close followers of McIntire. In that same year, a faction of the synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church terminated its support of Faith Theological Seminary, the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions, the ACCC, and the ICCC. The seminary and board, though largely supported by Bible Presbyterians, were both separate corporations. The ICCC and ACCC were both interdenominational and had been criticized for some of their activities in the early 1950s such as the Bible balloon project to send religious literature behind the Iron Curtain by balloon. In reputiating these organizations, some of the churches also reputiated McIntire, who had been instrumental in founding the organizations as well as the church. The Bible Presbyterian Church then split into two factions. The larger group, those objecting to McIntire and the organizations, soon changed its name to Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. It is now a constituent part of the Presbyterian Church in America.

The smaller group, the supporters of McIntire, included the presbyteries of New Jersey (of which he was moderator), California, and Kentucky-Tennessee. They declared themselves independent and free of the 1956 synod. At a meeting in Collinswood they created the new synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church. They returned support to ACCC, ICCC, Faith Theological Seminary, the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions. and the Independent Board for Presbyterian Home Missions. However, in 1969, McIntire was removed from the board of ACCC, and he then helped form the American Christian Action Council, now the National Council of Bible-Believing Churches in America.

Beliefs. Doctrinally, the Bible Presbyterian Church accepts the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Smaller Westminster Catechisms. They are premillennial, which means that they believe Christ will return before the millennium. Premillennialists also look for Christ to come unexpectedly in the near future to fight the Battle of Armegeddon and bind Satan, thus ushering in the millennium. The Bible Presbyterians have also take strong stands against intoxicating beverages, the new evangelicalism, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, evolution, civil disobedience, and the United Nations.

Organization. The polity is presbyterial, but there is a strong assertion of congregational autonomy. The church supports the Friends of Israel Testimony to Christ; The Five Civilized Tribe Ministry in Oklahoma; Reformation Gospel Publications; The Twentieth Century Reformation Hour, a radio broadcast; The Christian Admiral Bible Conference; and the Cape Canaveral Bible Conference in Florida, all independent corporations. The church also supports the Bible Presbyterian Home in Delanco, Florida.

Membership: Not reported.

Educational Facilities: Independent schools supported by the Bible Presbyterian Church are:

Shelton College, Cape May, New Jersey and Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Faith Theological Seminary, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.

Periodicals: Unofficial: The Christian Beacon. Send orders to 756 Haddon Avenue, Collingswood, NJ 08108.

Sources:

Carl McIntire's 50-Years, 1933-1983. Collingswood, NJ: Bible Presbyterian Church, 1983.

The Constitution of the Bible Presbyterian Church. Collingswood, NJ: Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions, 1959.

Harden, Margaret G. Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies. N.p. 1965.

McIntire, Carl. Twentieth Century Reformation. Collinswood, NJ: Christian Beacon Press, 1944.

——. Modern Tower of Babel. Collingswood, NJ: Christian Beacon Press, 1949.

——. Servants of Apostasy. Collingswood, NJ: Christian Beacon Press, 1955.

★430 ★

Christian Presbyterian Church (Korean)

4741 N. Glen Arden Ave.
Covina, CA 91724

The Christian Presbyterian church was founded in 1992 when a group of Korean members of the Christian Reformed Church in North America under the leadership of Dr. John E. Kim left the denomination over the issue of woman's ordination, which the Koreans strongly opposed. Beginning in 1976, Kim had built his own congregation in Los Angeles into the second largest within the Christian Reformed Church. Kim also founded International Theological Seminary, a Los Angeles-based seminary largely serving students from third-world countries. He took a leading role in 1992, in the formation of the International Reformed Fellowship (IRF), a conservative ecumenical organization that served as an alternative to the World Council of Churches, the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and the Reformed Ecumenical Council. The Christian Reformed Church has been a prominent member of the Reformed Ecumenical Council, and its leadership sharply criticized Kim for his actions.

The newly formed Christian Presbyterian Church included some forty percent of the Korean membership of the Christian reformed church. Kim became moderator of the newly formed church. During the next three years, the Los Angeles congregation almost doubled in membership, growing from 1440 members to 2800 members. In 1995, Kim returned to Korea to become president of Chongshin Seminary, the largest ministerial training school in the world.

The conservative church acknowledges the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Belgic Confession, and the Heidelberg Catechism. It affirms the Bible as the infallible World of God.

Membership: In 1995, the church reported 20 congregations and 50 ordained clergy.

Educational Facilities: International Theological Seminary, Los Angeles, California.

Sources:

International Theological Seminary. http://www.itsla.edu/. 21 March 2002.

Maurina, Darrell Todd. "Dr. John E. Kim Appointed President of World's Largest Reformed Seminary in Seoul, Korea." http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/reformed/archive95/nr95-042.txt. 21 March 2002.

★431 ★

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Cumberland Presbyterian Center
1978 Union Ave.
Memphis, TN 38104

Before the American Revolution, most of the colonies had state churches, some Congregational, many Episocpal (Anglican). All the colonists supposedly belonged to the state church established by their colony. Immediately after the American Revolution, when state churches no longer existed in America, only fifteen per cent of the new nation chose to belong to a church. The remaining eighty-five percent had no religious affiliation. Around the turn of the nineteenth century, this situation ushered in a great drive to "save the nation," a wave of revivalism usually called the Second Great Awakening. One revivalist was the Rev. James McGready, who worked in Kentucky. While preparing to be a Presbyterian minister, he had a mystical conversion experience and became a strong evangelist. He was licensed by the Redstone Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church and moved to Logan County, Kentucky, where he began to preach regeneration, faith, and repentance. Through his work, revivals flourished and by 1800 spread beyond McGready's congregations. The Great Awakening in Kentucky became ecumenical, including Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists. Among the new practices that developed were the group meeting and the anxious seat or mourner's bench. Those in attendance at the revivals exhibited signs of emotional excess, loud, spontaneous behavior, and what today would be called altered states of consciousness (such as trances).

The issue of using unordained, uneducated men to fill leadership posts in the growing church had risen. Some of these men were ordained by the Cumberland Presbytery, which had been formed in 1802 from the Transylvania Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church. Critics of the Great Awakening protested the ordination of uneducated ministers and also complained that ministers did not believe in the Westminister Confession. In 1805 the Kentucky Synod judged against the ordinations of the Cumberland Presbytery and decided to examine those irregularly licensed and ordained and to judge their fitness. The Cumberland Presbytery, however, refused to submit to the Kentucky Synod's judgment. In 1806 the Synod dissolved the Cumberland Presbytery, but McGready and the ministers continued to function while appeal was made to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. The efforts for appeal went unresolved and finally in 1810, in Dickson, Tennessee, three ministers-Finis Ewing, Samuel King, and Samuel McAdow-constituted a new presbytery, again called the Cumberland Presbytery. In 1813, those still unable to find reconciliation with the Kentucky Synod formed two more presbyteries, Elk and Logan, and created the Cumberland Synod.

Growth was quick and the Cumberland Synod spread in every direction from its Tennessee and Kentucky base. By 1829, when the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized, the church had reached into eight states.

Post-Civil War efforts at reunion came to fruition in 1906 when the main body of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church reunited with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, now an integral part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). From the Cumberland point of view, though, the union was not altogether a happy one. The union carried by only a slight majority of 60 presbyteries to 51, and a large segment of the church refused to go into the united church. They reorganized themselves as the continuing Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and took that name.

The theology of Cumberland Presbyterianism is derived from the Westminster Confession and is described as the middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism, a theology which defends free will and opposes the belief in strict predestination. The Cumberland Presbyterians deny the five points of Calvinism with the exception of the perseverance of the saints. (The other four points of Calvinism, which this church rejects, are the utter depravity of man, total predestination, limited atonement, and irresistible grace.) The Cumberland Presbyterians have a presbyterian polity. Their General Assembly meets annually.

After 1906 Cumberland Presbyterian missions emerged in Colombia, Hong Kong, Liberia, and Japan. These missions developed into five presbyteries which exist as integral parts of the church. Domestic work includes a Choctaw Indian mission in Oklahoma, and new church developments, some of which are union congregations with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The church participates in ecumenical Christian education curriculum development.

Membership: In 1994 the church reported 83,733 members, 713 churches, and 736 ministers in the United States. There were an additional 6,392 members in missions in Colombia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Liberia.

Educational Facilities: Bethel College, McKenzie, Tennessee.

Memphis Theological Seminary, Memphis, Tennessee.

Periodicals: The Missionary Messenger. • The Cumberland Presbyterian.

Sources:

Campbell, Thomas J. Good News on the Frontier. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1965.

Confession of Faith for Cumberland Presbyterians. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1984.

Hughey, John H. Lights and Shadows of the C. P. Church. Decatur, IL: The Author, 1906.

A People Called Cumberland Presbyterians. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1970.

Reagin, E. K. We Believe So We Speak. Memphis, TN: Department of Publication, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1960.

★432 ★

Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

226 Church St.
Huntsville, AL 35801

In the early years of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, ministers of the church established a mission to African Americans in the South, many of whom were slaves. Many congregations had Black members and some all-Black congregations were formed. By the time of the Civil War, some 30,000 Black members were on the role of the church. After the war, steps were taken to train Black ministers and separate synods were established as a means of organizing (and segregating) the work among African Americans. Between 1871 and 1874, synods were set up in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas.

On May 14, 1874, Black members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church met at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and organized separately what was for many years called the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church. For many years, the Cumberland Presbyterian continued some financial support of the new denomination.

Over the years, the church spread across the South and into the Midwest. During the early 1980s, it completed a process of revising its statement of faith and church polity, which it had originally inherited from its parent body. That process was finished in 1984, and a new Confession of Faith was issued at that time. More recently, it entered into merger negotiations with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but in 1991 voted against the plan of union.

The church is organized into four synods and 16 prebyteries. The general assembly meets annually. The church is a member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

Membership: In 1992, the church reported 10,450 members, 205 ministers (of which 35 are female), and 154 congregations.

Educational Facilities: Educational opportunities and ministerial training are pursued through the schools of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Periodicals: The Cumberland Flag.

Sources:

Campbell, Thomas H. Good News on the Frontier. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1965.

★433 ★

Evangelical Presbyterian Church

℅ Office of the Evangelical Assembly
29140 Buckingham Ave., Ste. 5
Livonia, MI 48154

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), established in March, 1981, in St. Louis, Missouri, is a conservative denomination of 11 geographical presbyteries (10 in the United States, and one in Argentina). From its inception with 12 churches, the EPC has grown to 160 churches. In 1991, the General Assembly approved the formation of the newest presbytery, the Presbytery of Mid-America, located in the heartland area of the nation. It held its first meeting in October, 1991.

Planted firmly within the historic Reformed tradition, presbyterian in polity, evangelical in spirit, the EPC places high priority on church planting and development along with world missions. Fourteen missionary families serve in the church's mission at home and abroad.

Working together with the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPB), a Joint Committee on Missions was established in 1986, meeting in November each year in alternating sites. Strategies for supporting one another in mission outreach and theological preparation are the ongoing goals of the joint committee.

Based on the truth of Scripture and adhering to the Westminster Confession of Faith plus its Book of Order, the denomination is committed to the "essentials of the faith." The historic motto, "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity" catches the spirit of the EPC, along with the New Testament theme of "truth in love." The EPC is made up of churches where the range of worship styles move from traditional to contemporary to charismatic (but not Pentecostal). Some churches choose to ordain women as ruling elders, while others do not. The particular church owns and governs its own property.

The EPC does not believe in taking political positions, but does believe the church has an obligation to speak its mind on matters of importance. The General Assembly has adopted position papers on the subjects of abortion, the value of and respect for human life, homosexuality, capital punishment, the ordination of women, and the Holy Spirit.

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church is a member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, National Association of Evangelicals, World Evangelical Fellowship, and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. Though not members, observers annually attend the North American Prebyterian and Reformed Churches (NAPARC).

Membership: In 1993 there were 175 churches, 56,000 members, and 387 ministers.

★434 ★

Free Presbyterian Church

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Free Presbyterian Church, popularly identified with conservative Presbyterian minister Ian Paisley, began in 1951 when a group of Presbyterians at Crossgar (County Down) in Northern Ireland came into conflict with the leadership of the local Presbyterian congregation. A decision that prohibited them from using the church for a gospel mission became the occasion for their withdrawal from a church they felt had departed too much from what they saw as traditional gospel standards. At that time, Paisley was already pastor of an independent congregation, and the group in Crossgar called him to assist in their forming a new congregation. With the assistance of George Stears, a former missionary in Brazil, a new denomination emerged, the Free Presbyterian Church. Within a few months two other congregations joined the new effort. Over the next decades, the church would become identified with opposition to the Roman Catholic community in Northern Ireland.

The church is presbyterian in theology and organization and holds to the Reformed positions articulated in the sixteenth century. The church basically holds to the Westminster standards (Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms), but also has its own Articles of Faith. It accepts a conservative interpretation of traditional Presbyterian beliefs, but differs at two main points. It allows both views on baptism, namely one that allows infant baptism and one that limits it to confessing adults. Second, it allows divergent views on eschatology, issues regarding last things.

It views true Presbyterianism as focused on the all-sufficiency of Christ and refuses to deal with such philosophical topics as predestination, particular redemption, or human moral responsibility. It accepts these as an element of God's revelation in the Bible and does not find value in speculation as to how they operate. The church attempts to keep a theology that is evangelically warm as well as biblically orthodox.

The Free Presbyterian Church has called for conservative Protestants to separate from liberal and ecumenical ideals. While recognizing the history of Protestant participation in interdenominational activities, the Free Presbyterians see that such movements have evolved into an effort to create a single church and eventually lead all Protestants back into the Roman Catholic Church. Present-day participation in the ecumenical movements, especially the World Council of Churches, necessarily involves one in a compromise of faith.

Based upon its conservative reading of the Bible, the church maintains a variety of opinions that set it apart from many of the larger church bodies. It believes that no women may be appointed to or ordained for any preaching, pastoral, or governmental office in the church. It has determined that males should not attend to worship with their heads covered, and females without their heads being covered. It also holds that no divorced person or anyone married to a divorced person can be elected to the office of deacon or elder in the church. It prohibits the use of any Free Presbyterian church building for a marriage service that includes a divorced person, and does not allow Free Presbyterian ministers to officiate at such a ceremony.

Through the 1960s the Free Presbyterian Church spread across Northern Ireland and its conservative stance found support in other parts of the world. Many identified with Paisley's political activities through the last decades of the twentieth century in the conflicts that beset Northern Ireland. In the 1980s separatist congregations began to appear in North America that identified with his work. They are now found across the continent. The North American churches support missions in Kenya, Jamaica, India, Spain, Germany, and Ireland. They also support a radio ministry, "Let the Bible Speak."

While the church has no central headquarters, the list of local congregations and contact persons are posted on its expansive Internet site.

Membership: In 2002, the church reported 14 congregations in the United States and eight congregations in Canada.

Educational Facilities: Whitefield College of the Bible, Green-ville, South Carolina.

Periodicals: The Burning Bush, Old Junction Rd., Kilskeery, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland, BT78 3RN.

Sources:

Free Presbyterian Church. http://www.freepres.org/main.asp. 20 March 2002.

★435 ★

General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian Church

1251 Crenshaw Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90019

The General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian church was founded in 1976. It grew out of the migration of numerous Koreans to the United States, especially since the end of the Korean War. Many of these Koreans were Presbyterians, and many chose to align themselves with one of the older American Presbyterian denominations. However, still others found themselves unwilling to affiliate, either because of the barrier created by language or their conservative theology. The General Assembly represents one such group that specializes in serving the Korean-American community.

It is conservative in theology and accepts the Westminster Confession as its doctrinal standard. It has a presbyterian form of government.

Membership: In 1992 the church reported 203 churches, 26,988 members, and 381 ministers.

★436 ★

Korean American Presbyterian Church

1901 W. 166th St.
Gardena, CA 90296

Many of the Koreans who migrated to the United States in the years following the Korean War were conservative Presbyterians. Once in America, they began to form independent Koreanspeaking presbyteries. In 1978, five such presbyteries that had formed in California, the Midwest, New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada came together to create the Korean American Presbyterian Church. The meeting that formed the church was held on February 8–9, 1978, at Westminster Theological Seminary (the school of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thirty-two ministers attended and the eldest among them, Rev. Jae Lee, was elected to the office of Moderator. Immediate needs were the formation of a seminary and the establishment of relationships with both the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in Korea and contact with the numerous unaffiliated congregations of Korean Presbyterians known to exist throughout the Western Hemisphere. The Reformed Presbyterian Seminary, now located in Gardena, California, was opened and graduated 68 ministers during its first decade. The church grew quickly from both the adherence of previously formed congregations and the organization of new ones.

The church is staunchly conservative in its theological perspective. It acknowledges an inerrant Bible, the authority of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and both the Larger and Shorter Westminster Catechisms as the most correct interpretations of Scripture.

The church is organized into regional presbyteries. A general assembly of the whole church meets annually.

Membership: In 1990 there were 186 ordained ministers serving approximately 12,000 communicant members in the United States and Canada. There is also a Presbytery of Central South America with congregations in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile.

Educational Facilities: Reformed Presbyterian Seminary, Gardena, California.

★437 ★

Orthodox Presbyterian Church

607 N. Eastern Rd.
Bldg. E, Box P
Willow Grove, PA 19090-0920

In the early years of the twentieth century the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America became a major focus of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. Conservatives felt that liberals were leading the church into compromise with the world and away from the witness to the gospel. Conservatives traced liberalism to the Plan of Union of 1801 between Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The Conservatives said that plan aligned Presbyterians with Congregationalists infected with the "New School theology" of Samuel Hopkins. Late in the nineteenth century the issues of compromise with the world and lack of witness to the gospel were raised anew by the heresy trials of Professors Charles Briggs and Henry Preserved Smith. In 1903 doctrinal standards were revised to facilitate the merger with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

In reaction against liberal Baptist Harry Emerson Fosdick's preaching in First Presbyterian Church in New York City, a group of conservatives drew up a document presented to and passed by the 1923 General Assembly calling for the ministry to uphold the essentials of the faith, namely the five fundamentals-the infallibility of the Scriptures, the virgin birth of Christ, the substitutionary atonement, Christ's bodily resurrection, and Christ's miracles. Although the assembly passed the conservative document, many of the church leaders were liberals and held key positions on the boards and agencies of the church. In protest of the assembly's vote, they joined with the 1,300 ministers who signed the Auburn Affirmation. This signpost of liberal faith created a storm of controversy, and the two sides were locked in battle.

The publication of Re-Thinking Missions by W. E. Hocking in 1932 began the final stage of the church's liberal-conservative battle. Hocking asserted, among other controversial opinions, that missionaries should not take conversions as their only goal, but should provide social services and do medical missionary work in addition to preaching the gospel. J. Gresham Machen, a theology professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, opposed Hocking's suggestion. With other conservative Presbyterians, Machen charged in 1932 that the board of Foreign Missions approved, sent, and supported missionaries who did not teach that Christ is the exclusive, unique way of salvation. The church countered with a mandate comparing non-support of the church boards with refusal to take communion. The fundamentalists replied with charges against other boards, and they condemned participation in the Federal Council of Churches. Machen was tried and convicted of disturbing the peace of the church. Machen and his supporters then left the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and formed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Doctrine of the new church is the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms to which all officers are required to subscribe. A general assembly meets annually. Over the years support for the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions was dropped and a denominational board created. Great Commissions Publications produces a complete line of church school materials in cooperation with the Presbyterian Church of America. The church participates in the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC), and for many years belonged to the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. It has more recently joined the International Council of Reformed Churches (ICRC).

Membership: In 1996 the church reported 22,186 members, 192 congregations, 42 mission works, and 366 ministers. There is one congregation in Canada. Missionary work is supported in Korea, Japan, China, Cyprus, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Surinam.

Periodicals: New Horizons.

Sources:

Cohen, Gary G. Biblical Separation Defended. Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1977.

Galbraith, John P. Why the Orthodox Presbyterian Church? Philadelphia: Committee on Christian Education, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1965.

The Standards of Government, Discipline and Worship of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Philadelphia: Committee on Christian Education, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1965.

★438 ★

Presbyterian Church in America

1700 N. Brown Rd., Ste. 105
Lawrenceville, GA 30043-8122

History. During the 1960s tensions began to rise between liberals and conservatives within the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Among expressions of this rift was the conservatives' protest of denominational support of the National Council of Churches and involvement in social issues, possible union with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (which would put the conservatives in an even smaller minority position and which eventually occurred in 1983), liberal theology in The Layman's Bible published by the church, the ordination of women, support of abortion on demand for socioeconomic reasons, and liberal churchmen in positions of authority in the denomination.

In 1972-73 several presbyteries were formed by some 260 congregations with a combined communicant membership of over 41,000 that had left the denomination. These presbyteries were the Warrior Presbytery in Alabama, the Westminster Presbytery in Virginia and East Tennessee, and the Vanguard Presbytery at large. In December 1973, delegates gathered at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and organized the National Presbyterian Church. Rev. Frank Barker, pastor of the Brairwood Church, hosted the gathering.

Organized at a constitutional assembly in December 1973, this church was first known as the National Presbyterian Church, but changed its name in 1974 to Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). It separated from the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) (Southern) in opposition to the long-developing theological liberalism which denied the deity of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. The PCA held to the traditional position on the role of women in church offices. The PCUS had not only permitted women to serve in offices but began to force all churches to comply. There was also opposition to the PCUS affiliation with the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches which supported the radical left political and social activism. As conservatives in the southern church, there was opposition to the movement toward merger with the more liberal United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Northern).

In 1982 the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, merged into the Presbyterian Church in America. The Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, had been formed in 1965 by a merger of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod.

Evangelical Presbyterian Church was the name taken by the larger segment of the Bible Presbyterian Church following the split in that church in 1956. (See the discussion of the split in the entry on the Bible Presbyterian Church.) The name for the larger group had been adopted in 1961 to avoid confusion with Dr. Carl McIntire's smaller group. At the time of the split, the synod, controlled by the larger group, had voted to establish an official periodical, the Evangelical Presbyterian Reporter; a synod-controlled college and seminary, Covenant College and Covenant Seminary in St. Louis; and its own mission board, World Presbyterian Missions. Immediate efforts were directed toward healing the rift with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and opening correspondence with the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America General Synod. In 1960 the constitution was amended to allow any view of eschatology, not just premillennialism.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, was of the Covenanter tradition, the church which adhered to the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643 which spelled out the doctrine and practices of Scotch Presbyterians. The General Synod (as the church was often called) dated to 1833 when the Reformed Presbyterian Church split over the issue of participation in civic affairs. One group within the church took the name Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, and allowed its members to vote and hold office. The General Synod also adopted the practice of allowing hymns as well as psalms to be sung at services and allowed instrumental music to be used in worship. Those who did not allow members to vote or hold office, and opposed hymns and instrumental music, are known today as the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. In 1965, the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, merged with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The merged body became known as the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.

Beliefs. The PCA has made a firm commitment to the doctrinal standards which have been significant in presbyterianism since 1645, namely the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. These doctrinal standards express the distinctives of the Calvinistic or Reformed tradition.

Among the distinctive doctrines of the Westminster Standards and of Reformed tradition is the unique authority of the Bible. The reformers based all of their claims on "sola scriptura," the scriptures alone. This included the doctrine of their inspiration, which is a special act of the Holy Spirit by which He guided the writers of the books of scriptures (in their original autographs). This was so their words should convey the thoughts He wished conveyed, and be kept free from error of fact, doctrine, and judgment, all of which were to be an infallible rule of faith and life.

Organization. The church is organized presbyterially. The PCA maintains the historic polity of Presbyterian governance, namely, rule by presbyters (or elders) and the graded courts, which are the session governing the local church, the presbytery for regional matters, and the general assembly at the national level. It has taken seriously the position of the parity of elders, making a distinction between the two classes of elders, teaching and ruling. In addition, on presbyterian governance, it has self-consciously taken a more democratic position (rule from the grass roots up) in contrast to a more prelatical (rule from the top assemblies down). The General Assembly meets annually. The church conducts mission work in 56 countries and is a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Membership: In 2000 the church reported over 306,000 communicant members, 1,450 congregations, and 2,980 clergy. The PCA has approximately 500 career missionaires, over 125 two-year missionaries, and 5,000 short-term summer missionaries working through its Mission to the World (MTW). The organization also has more than 150 chaplains in the military.

Educational Facilities: Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

Other schools supported by the church and/or its constituent presbyteries include:

Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi, Orlando, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina.
Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Escondido, California.
Birmingham Theological Seminary, Birmingham, Alabama.
Chesapeake Theological Seminary.
Atlanta School of Biblical Studies, Atlanta, Georgia.
Greenville Thelogical Seminary, Greenville, South Carolina.

Sources:

The Book on Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America. Atlanta, GA: Committee on Christian Education and Publications, 1983.

MacNair, Donald J. Hallmarks of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. St. Louis, MO: Presbyterain Missions, n.d.

Richards, John Edwards. The Historical Birth of the Presbyterian Church in America. Liberty Hill, SC: Liberty Hill Press, 1987.

Smith, Frank J. The History of the Presbyterian Church in America: The Continuing Church Movement. Manasa, VA: Reformation Education Foundation, 1985.

★439 ★

Presbyterian Church in Canada

50 Wynford Dr.
Don Mills, ON, Canada M3C 1J7

The church today is the continuing Presbyterian body which in 1925 did not merge with the Canadian Methodists and Congregationalists to form the United Church of Canada (UCC). Approximately 30 percent did not enter the United Church. As such, the Presbyterian Church in Canada shares the heritage of Canadian Presbyterianism with the UCC.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada was constituted in 1875 by the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces, the Synod of Canada Presbyterian Church, and the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland.

Those Presbyterians who disapproved of the merger into the United Church of Canada feared the loss of such Presbyterian distinctives as reformed theology and structures. Theology was being equally threatened by Methodism and a growing liberalism. Many also argued that most of the rewards to be gained from the union could be gained by a federated relationship.

Doctrinally, the church adheres to the Westminster Confession of Faith and both the Longer and Shorter Westminster Catechisms. In 1875, Article 23 of the Confession, concerning civil magistrates, had been explicitly deleted from the Confession accepted by the new church. This issue was resolved in 1955 by the adoption of a "Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation." In 1962 the church also recognized several of the European Reformed confessions, specifically the Belgic, the Second Helvetic, and the Gallican Confessions, as parallel to the Westminster and the Heidelberg Catechisms and permitted their teachings by church elders.

Though more conservative than the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada has remained a vital part of the larger protestant ecumenical movement. It is a member of both the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. In 1966 it admitted women to the ordained ministry. It conducts international work in Africa; East, South, and Central Asia; the Caribbean and Latin America; and the Middle East.

Membership: Not reported.

Educational Facilities: Knox College, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Presbyterian College, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Sources:

Reed, R. C. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1912.

Silcox, Claris Edwin. Church Union in Canada. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1933.

★440 ★

Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces

(Defunct)

(The Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces no longer exists as a separate entity. It is now a constituent part of the United Church of Canada and the Presbyterian Church in Canada.) The Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces (1817-1875) grew out of the Seceders, a faction of Scottish Presbyterianism which emerged during the revivals that swept the Scottish church in the early 1700s. The Seceders were united in their attack upon the patronage system of the established Church of Scotland and its lack of spiritual awareness. They divided into two factions, usually termed Burgher and anti-Burgher, which resulted from the demand of an oath as part of the requirement to hold office in Scotland; the anti-Burgher party refused the oath, claiming it legitimized the established church.

Members of both parties arrived in Canada in the late 1700s. Three members of the Burgher Synod, Daniel Cook, David Smith, and Hugh Graham, organized the Presbytery of Truro in 1786. Almost contemporaneously, James McGregor and two other anti-Burgher ministers began work which culminated in the formation of the Presbytery of Pictou in 1795. Attempts at reconciliation in the new setting eventually led to the merger of the two presbyteries, the creation of a third presbytery (Halifax), and the formation of the Synod of Nova Scotia in 1817.

In 1825 the Church of Scotland organized the Glasgow Colonial Society, which sent missionaries to Canada. Those which settled in Nova Scotia and other Eastern Provinces refused to join the Synod of Nova Scotia. In 1833 the Presbyterian Synod in Connection with the Church of Scotland was organized. This synod prospered until 1843 when the Church of Scotland went through a period of turmoil which led to a number of ministers resigning and forming the Free Church of Scotland. In Canada, the Presbyterian Synod sided with the Free Church faction in the homeland. In 1860 this Free Church Synod merged with the Synod of Nova Scotia to form the Presbyterian Synod of the Lower Provinces.

In the disruption of 1843, one faction of the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland, the Presbytery of New Brunswick (which had grown to become the Synod of New Brunswick), remained loyal to the established Church of Scotland. It became independent of the Free Synod. Three of its members in New Brunswick then withdrew and formed The (Free) Presbyterian Synod of New Brunswick, which in 1866 became a part of the Presbyterian Synod of the Lower Provinces.

In 1875 the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces merged with three other Presbyterian churches to form the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In 1925 most of that church merged with the Methodist Church, Canada and the Congregational Union of Canada to form the United Church of Canada.

Sources:

Reed, R. C. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1912.

Silcox, Claris Edwin. Church Union in Canada. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1933.

★441 ★

Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces

(Defunct)

(The Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces no longer exists as a separate entity. It is now a constituent part of the United Church of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada.) The Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces (1868-1975) traces its history to the arrival in Canada of ministers of the Church of Scotland in the 1820s. In 1833 the Presbyterian Synod in Connection with the Church of Scotland was organized by a group of ministers, many of whom had been sent to Canada by the Glasgow Missionary Society. At the same time, a Presbytery of New Brunswick had been designated as one of the synod's constituent units. During the next decade the Presbytery of New Brunswick had grown into the Synod of New Brunswick. In 1943 the Church of Scotland had been disrupted by a dispute involving government powers in the appointment of ministers. Those who disagreed with the court's decision in the controversy left the Church of Scotland and formed the Free Church of Scotland. In Canada, the Presbyterian Synod in Connection with the Church of Scotland sided with the Free Church and broke its relation with the established Church of Scotland. The Synod of New Brunswick, however, remained loyal to the established church and became independent. Some members of the new Free Synod wished to return to their connection with the established church, and in 1854 established the Synod of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. These two groups merged in 1868 to form the Church of the Maritime Provinces.

In 1875, the Church of the Maritime Provinces united with three other Presbyterian churches to form the Presbyterian Church in Canada. In 1925 the majority of that church merged with the Methodist Church, Canada and the Congregational Union of Canada to form the United Church of Canada.

Sources:

Reed, R. C. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1912.

Silcox, Claris Edwin. Church Union in Canada. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1933.

★442 ★

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

100 Witherspoon St.
Louisville, KY 40202

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was formed in 1983 by the reunion of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States–the two largest Presbyterian bodies in the United States. It continues the beliefs and practices of the two churches, which originally had split over the same issues that divided the United States at the time of the Civil War.

History. The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed in 1958 by a merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America inherited the tradition of early Presbyterianism in the colonies and is in direct continuity with the first synod organized in 1706. In the 1700s the Presbyterians were split between the revivalism of the Methodist, George Whitefield, who had influenced William Tennent and his brother, Gilbert Tennent, and the more traditional, creedal Calvinism with its ordered worship. The Tennents were the founders of a seminary which later became Princeton University. A split developed in the church in 1741 which lasted until 1758.

The church supported the Revolution and afterward reorganized for western expansion. On the heels of the cooperative Plan of Union of 1801 with the Congregationalists and the Second Great Awakening, the Presbyterians moved West and, in the forty years after the Revolution, grew more than tenfold. The nineteenth century, an era of expansion westward, saw the development of an impressive educational system and large-scale schism over revivalism and slavery. Other schisms would grow out of the fundamentalist-modernist debates in the early twentieth century.

The United Presbyterian Church of North America was formed in 1858 by a merger of the Associate Presbyterian Church and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. These two churches continued the Scottish Covenanter and secession movements. The Covenanters were Scotch Presbyterians who seceded from the Church of Scotland, which was Reformed in theology but episcopal in government. The Covenanters formed their independent secession into a church in 1733. The Covenant to which the new church adhered was the Solemn League and Covenant ratified in 1643; it spelled out the doctrine and practices of Scotch Presbyterians.

People who followed the Covenant of 1643 found their way to the American colonies during the seventeenth century. These early Covenanters formed "societies" for worship because they had no minister. The first pastor was the Rev. Alexander Craig-head, a Presbyterian attracted to the Covenanters because of their passion for freedom. In 1751, John Cuthbertson landed and began long years of work on a large circuit of Covenanters. He was joined in 1773 by Matthew Linn and Alexander Dobbin, and the three constituted the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

The Covenanters represented one branch of the Scottish secession movement; the Seceders represented another. The Seceders developed from the revival movements of the 1700s in Scotland which attacked the patronage system of the established church and its lack of spiritual awareness. The Seceder Church was not formed in Scotland until 1743, although Seceders began to arrive in the colonies in the 1730s. In 1742 a plea for a minister was issued by a congregation in Londonderry, Pennsylvania. The problem of providing leadership was compounded by the Scottish split into Burgher and anti-Burgher factions. The two parties resulted from the requirement of an oath to hold public office in Scotland. The anti-Burghers felt the oath legitimized episcopacy, and they therefore objected to it; the Burghers saw nothing wrong with taking the oath. Most of the Americans were anti-Burghers. Two anti-Burgher ministers, Alexander Gellatly and Andrew Arnot arrived and, in 1753, organized the Associate Presbyterian Church.

In 1782 the Associate Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church merged to form the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. A few members of both merging churches declined to enter the merger and continued to exist under the names of their respective churches before 1782. Then in 1822, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church split into northern and southern branches. The southern branch continues today as the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (General Synod). The northern branch continued to be called the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1858 this northern branch merged with the majority of the continuing Seceders, called the Associate Presbyterian Church. The new church formed in 1858 took the name the United Presbyterian Church of North America. In 1958, the United Presbyterian Church of North America united with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America to form the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The Presbyterian Church in the United States arose out of the same controversies which had split the Methodists and Baptists in the years prior to the Civil War. Presbyterians were able, as a whole, to remain in the same ecclesiastical body until war actually broke. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, meeting in Philadelphia only days after the firing on Fort Sumter and devoid of most southern delegates, declared its loyalty to the United States. Presbyterians in the South claimed the Assembly had no such right to make such a political statement. One by one the Southern presbyteries withdrew, and in December 1861 they organized the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States (later changed to the Presbyterian Church in the United States).

The war divided the North from the South and feeling created by the conflict did much to keep the churches apart. The two churches had little disagreement on either doctrine or church polity. The southern church tended to be more conservative in its doctrinal stance and adopted a more loosely organized structure. It had replaced the church boards created by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America with executive committees, unincorporated and devoid of permanent funds.

Beliefs. In 1967 the United Presbyterian Church adopted a new confession of faith. The confession was a present-minded document though it begins with a statement of continuity with the Reformed Confessional tradition. It is focused on the reconciling work of Christ through the grace of God. A significant section deals with the mission of the church, particularly in society, and has a vague eschatology. The Confession was published along with the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds, five Reformed Confessions, and the Shorter Catechism in a Book of Confessions. The Book of Common Worship contains the liturgical resources.

Organization. The merger of 1983 left many of the important questions of merging geographically overlapping synods and presbyteries and national offices, boards, and agencies to be resolved in the future meetings of the annual General Assembly. In 1986 a structural Design for Mission was adopted by the General Assembly, and in 1988 most of the national offices were consolidated at the new headquarters building in Louisville, Kentucky.

Membership: In 2000, the church reported 2,525,330 members, 21,065 ministers, and 11,178 congregations. Partnership efforts in Christian mission exist with churches in 63 nations.

Educational Facilities: Theological seminaries:

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, Texas.
Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia.
University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.
Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia.
Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.
McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois.
Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.
San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California.
Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education, Richmond, Virginia.

Colleges and Universities:

Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia.
Alma College, Alma, Michigan.
Arkansas College, Batesville, Arkansas.
Austin College, Sherman, Texas.
Barber-Scotia College, Concord, North Carolina.
Beaver College, Glenside, Pennsylvania.
Belhaven College, Jacskon, Mississippi.
Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois.
Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, New Jersey.
Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, Iowa.
Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Centre College of Kentucky, Danville, Kentucky.
Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina.
Davis & Elkins College, Elkins, West Virginia.
University of Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa.
Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida.
College of Ganado, Ganado, Arizona.
Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania.
Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, Virginia.
Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana.
Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska.
Hawaii Loa College, Kaneohe, Oahu, Hawaii.
Huron College, Huron, South Dakota.
College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho.
Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois.
Jamestown College, Jamestown, North Dakota.
Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina.
King College, Bristol, Tennessee.
Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee.
Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.
Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois.
Lee Junior College, Jackson, Kentucky.
Lees-McCrae College, Banner Elk, North Carolina.
Lewis & Clark College, Portland, Oregon.
Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Missouri.
Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia.
Mary Holmes College, West Point, Mississippi.
Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee.
Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri.
Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.
Montreat-Anderson College, Montreat, North Carolina.
Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio.
Occidental College, Los Angeles, California.
College of the Ozarks, Clarksville, Arkansas.
Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Pikeville College, Pikeville, Kentucky.
Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina.
Queens College, Charlotte, North Carolina.
Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana.
St. Andrew's Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, North Carolina.
School of the Ozarks, Pt. Lookout, Missouri.
Schreiner College, Kerrville, Texas.
Sheldon Jackson College, Sitka, Alaska.
Southwestern at Memphis, Memphis, Tennessee.
Sterling College, Sterling, Kansas.
Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
Tarkio College, Tarkio, Missouri.
Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.
Tusculum College, Greeneville, Tennessee.
University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, North Carolina.
Waynesburg College, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri.
Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.
Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington.
Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.
College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio.

Periodicals: Presbyterians Today. • Church & Society Magazine. • Call to Worship.

Sources:

Balmer, Randall, and John R. Fitzmier. The Presbyterians. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994.

Jamison, Wallace N. The United Presbyterian Story. Pittsburgh: Geneva Press, 1958.

Miller, Park Hays. Why I Am A Presbyterian. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1956.

Minutes of the 195th General Assembly, United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 123rd General Assembly, Presbyterian Church in the United States, 195th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Atlanta: Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1983.

Study Draft, A Plan for Union of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. New York: Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, 1974.

Weston, William J. Presbyterian Pluralism: Competition in a Protestant House. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997.

★443 ★

Presbyterian Reformed Church

PO Box 82
Chesley, ON, Canada N0G 1L0

The Presbyterian Reformed Church is a small conservative Presbyterian denomination founded in 1965 by two Canadian Presbyterian congregations in Ontario, Canada. Instrumental in the creation of the presbytery was John Murray, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary (the seminary of the very conservative Orthodox Presbyterian Church). Murray had been associated with the congregations for several years and like them shared a Scottish and Scotch-Irish heritage. He wished to see the organization of a body that would continue the affirmation of Scottish Presbyterianism.

Murray made the initial proposal for the establishment of the new church and authored the constitution that served as a basis of union. The constitution affirmed the authority of the Bible, which is seen as the infallible word of God; the Westminster Confession of Faith as the best summary of Christian belief; and worship keynoted by simplicity of style. Adherence to the Westminster Confession is done in a strict and literal fashion. Worshipers use the psalms set to music and singing is done without the aid of musical instruments. The presbyterian form of church government was affirmed as the most true to Scripture, though congregations were to be the owners of their property rather than the presbytery. Women are not admitted to the ordained ministry.

The two congregations constituted the original presbytery, which has been extended to include additional congregations in the United States and a mission in England.

Membership: Not reported. There are six congregations in North America and one mission in the United Kingdom.

Periodicals: Presbyterian Reformed Magazine, c/o Dan McGinn, 1209 Larkridge Ct., Waxhaw, NC 28173.

Sources:

Presbyterian Reformed Church. http://www.prcpresbytery.org/. 19 March 2002.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co., 1999.

★444 ★

Reformation Presbyterian Church

8210 Schrade
Rowlett, TX 75088

The Reformation Presbyterian Church was formed in 1994 by several congregations, most formerly related to the Presbyterian Church in America. Among the important leaders in the new denomination is Dr. Richard Bacon, pastor of the church in Rowlett, Texas. Its members do not see themselves as part of a separatist or a protest movement, because of common agreement over the manner in which they interpret the teachings of the Bible. Basic to the denomination is a common understanding of the authority of the church. Such authority in matters of doctrine, government, and worship are carefully laid out in the Bible. As a result, the doctrine prescribed by the church is limited to what is clearly taught; its government to that which can be found described in the Bible; and worship to that commanded by God.

The church accepts the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms as the most complete and accurate summaries of biblical truth. In that light it rejects the idea that God is gracious to all people, holding instead that God's grace is particular and effectual to his chosen people only. It does not accept the notion of human free will having any efficacious role in salvation. It rejects the belief that those whom God has elected may finally fall away.

The church rejects all modern methods of evangelicalism that assume the autonomy of humans. They believe that humans live in total depravity (and hence unable to do anything about their salvation). In the end, God chooses the elect based entirely on His own sovereign will.

The "Presbyterian" in the name denotes their belief that the Bible teaches the principle of church government by elders (presbyters) in a graded series of church courts.

Membership: There are several congregations including those in Rowlett, Texas; Columbus, Indiana; Hendersonville, North Carolina; Brookfield, Wisconsin; and Parker, Colorado.

Periodicals: Blue Banner.

Sources:

First Presbyterian Church Rowlett. http://www.fpcr.org/fpcr.htm. 20 March 2002.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co., 1999.

★445 ★

Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly

c/o Dr. Bill Higgins, Office of the Stated Clerk
PO Box 356
Lookout Mountain, TN 37350

The Reformed Presbyterian Church began in 1983 when several congregations in Georgia stayed out of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod's merger into the Presbyterian Church in America. They originally took the name Covenant Presbytery, later changed to Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (1985) and Reformed Presbyterian Church in the America (1990). However, in 1990-91, the church underwent a severe internal disruption in which one of its four synods was dissolved and a second became independent as the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery). The two remaining synods reorganized in 1991 as the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly.

As its name implies, the highest legislative body in the church is the General Assembly, which consists of representatives of the two synods to which the local congregations belong. The church has a presbyterial organization and accepts the reformed faith as expressed in the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Westminster Confession of Faith, to which its gives a strict conservative interpretation. For example, all church officers must subscribe to the inerrancy of Scriptures and the notion of a literal six-day creation of the earth as described in the Book of Genesis. It opposes charismatic theology, Arminian "free will" theology, and dispensationalism. It denounces abortion, homosexuality, and the women's liberation movement.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church requires its member congregations to remain unincorporated. They view the church as the presbytery and local churches as parts of it.

Membership: Not reported. While most congregations remain in the America south, there are a few in other parts of the country and at least one in Canada.

Educational Facilities: Whitefield Theological Seminary, Lake-land, Florida.

Sources:

"History of the Presbyterian Church up to the RPCGA." http://www.covenantreformed.com/Authority/history.shtml. 20 March 2002.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co., 1999.

★446 ★

Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery)

PO Box 10015
5928 H Cloverdale Way
Alexandria, VA 22310-5432

The Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery) traces its origin to 1983 and the congregations in Georgia that refrained from following the merger of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod into the Presbyterian Church in America. The congregations reorganized as the Covenant Presbytery, which later became the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (1985) and Reformed Presbyterian Church in the Americas (1990). However, in 1990-91, one of the new church's four synods disassociated itself as the independent Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Synod).

The Presbytery is a conservative body that accepts the Reformed faith as expressed in the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Westminster Confession of Faith, to which its gives a strict interpretation. It maintains a fraternal relationship with the Presbyterian Church in America, the Bible Presbyterian Church, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and shares the Christian Observer as a denominational periodical. The highest legislative body in the church is the synod that meets annually. It does not admit females to the ordained ministry.

Membership: In the mid-1990s, the Synod reported 400 members in 4 congregations.

Periodicals: Christian Observer, 9400 Fairview Ave., Manassas, VA 20110.

Sources:

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co., 1999.

★447 ★

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America

℅ Louis D. Hutmire, Stated Clerk
7408 Penn Ave.
Pittsburgh, PA 15208

The eighteenth-century Reformed Presbyterian Church was the embodiment of the Covenanter tradition in North America, those adhering to the Scotch Presbyterians' Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. In 1782 the majority of the Covenanter tradition merged with the Seceder Church, originally formed in Scotland in 1743 as a group seceding from the established Church of Scotland. The 1782 merger of Covenanters and Seceders resulted in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which is now a constituent part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

However, some Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) did not join the 1782 merger. They remained Reformed Presbyterians, and in 1833 they split over the issue of participation in government, specifically, over whether members would vote and hold office. The New Lights, those who allowed such participation, formed the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod, which merged with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1965. The merged church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod recently merged into the Presbyterian Church in America, discussed above. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America is the continuing old school body, the group opposed to the New Lights in the 1833 split.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is the standard of doctrine. Worship is centered on the reading and exposition of the Bible. Hymns are limited to Psalms and there is no instrumental accompaniment. Organization is presbyterian. The synod meets annually. Foreign missions are conducted in Cyprus and Japan.

Membership: In 1993, the church reported 5,657 members in 70 churches being served by 131 ministers.

Educational Facilities: Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Periodicals: The Covenanter Witness. Send orders to 7408 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15208.

Sources:

Adventures in Psalm Singing. Pittsburgh: Christian Education Office, 1970.

★448 ★

Synod of the Canada, Presbyterian Church

(Defunct)

(The Synod of the Canada Presbyterian Church no longer exists as a separate entity. It is now a constituent part of the United Church of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada.) The Synod of the Canada Presbyterian Church (1861-1875) can be traced to 1832 with the arrival of three missionaries into Western Canada as representatives of the independent United Associate Synod of Scotland, one of the factions of Scotish Presbyterianism not connected with the established Church of Scotland. The church offered the missionaries the opportunity to join one of the two existing synods (the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland or the United Synod of Upper Canada). However, the missionaries turned down the offer upon discovering that these already existing synods were quite willing to accept government support for their work, a position directly opposing that of the United Associate Synod. Therefore, in 1834 the ministers formed the Missionary Presbytery of the Canadas. In 1843 the Presbytery split into three presbyteries and organized the Missionary Synod of Canada.

In 1843, twenty-six ministers of the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland left the church to found the Synod of the Free Church of Canada. This was done in reaction to ministers in the Church of Scotland who, in protest of governmental influence in clerical matters, resigned from the established church to form the Free Church of Scotland. In 1861 the Synod of the Free Church of Canada and the Missionary Synod of Canada merged to become the Synod of the Canada Presbyterian Church.

In 1875 the Synod of the Canada Presbyterian Church merged with three other Presbyterian churches to form the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The majority of the Presbyterian Church in Canada merged with the Methodist Church, Canada and the Congregational Union of Canada, forming the United Church of Canada.

Sources:

Reed, R. C. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1912.

Silcox, Claris Edwin. Church Union in Canada. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1933.

★449 ★

Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland

(Defunct)

(The Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland no longer exists as a separate entity. It is now a constituent part of the United Church of Canada and the Presbyterian Church of Canada.) The Synod of the Canada Presbyterian Church (1861-1875) began with the arrival of Presbyterians in the eighteenth century into that part of Canada which was termed the Western Provinces (presently Quebec and Ontario). As early as 1796, Rev. John Bethune organized a Presbyterian congregation in Montreal. However, it was not until 1818 that enough growth and development had occurred to organize a presbytery. In that year the Revs. Robert Easton, William Stuart, William Bell, and William Taylor organized the Presbytery of the Canadas. These ministers were associated with the Burgher faction of Scottish Presbyterians who had seceded from the established Church of Scotland. Within a few years the Presbytery reorganized and took a new name, the United Presbytery of Upper Canada, which grew into the United Synod of Upper Canada in 1831.

As the United Synod was taking shape, ministers associated with the established church formed the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland. In 1840 these two groups merged to become the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland. In 1875 the Synod of the Presbyterian Church in Connection with the Church of Scotland merged with three other Presbyterian Churches to form the Presbyterian Church in Canada. The majority of the Presbyterian Church in Canada merged in 1925 with the Methodist Church, Canada and the Congregational Union of Canada to become the United Church of Canada.

Sources:

Reed, R. C. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1912.

Silcox, Claris Edwin. Church Union in Canada. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1933.

★450 ★

Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America was formed in the United States in 1922 by Ukrainian Protestants of several denominations. The purpose of the Alliance was to spread the gospel among Ukrainians in both North America and the Ukraine. The Alliance was thus a missionary organization, and was not meant to be a separate denomination. However, over time the Alliance established mission congregations and in that sense has become a separate denomination. The member congregations typically retain their Ukrainian culture and language and are located in large cities. Most of the Ukrainian Reformed congregations in North America have become members of the larger Presbyterian bodies but two congregations of post-war immigrants, one in Detroit and one in Toronto, carry on the independent tradition and are under the direct guidance of the Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America.

In 1925, the Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America, with the aid of Several Reformed and Presbyterian churches, organized a Ukrainian Reformed Church in what was at that time Polish territory in the Western Ukraine. This church was virtually destroyed by the Communist take-over in World War II.

The Alliance is interdenominational in scope and has passed a resolution declaring denominational missions obsolete and unrealistic in their approach to Ukrainian-Russian relations, especially in their neglect of the native language. The Alliance wishes to be invited to cooperate in all missionary efforts. It has as a major part of its mission, the publication of Ukrainian literature which it distributes in both North America and the Ukraine.

Membership: At last report there were only two congregations solely attached to the Alliance, though congregations consisting of Ukrainian-Russian immigrants of the Reformed faith can be found in several of the larger Presbyterian bodies.

Periodicals: News Bulletin.

★451 ★

Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church

172 CR 1564
Cullman, AL 35055-1426

The Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formed in 1955 by Rev. H. C. Wakefield, Rev. W. M. Dycus, Lum Oliver, and laymen from Sanderson's, Russell Hill, Pleasant Grove and Poston's Cumberland Presbyterian Churches, all of the Cooksville Presbytery in Tennessee. At the 1950 General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Board of Missions and Evangelism reported its application for membership in the Home Missions Council of the National Council of Churches. This application raised the issue of support of the "liberal" social activist theology imposed by the National Council of Churches, and strong opposition to the application developed within the church. In 1952 a Fellowship of Conservative Presbyterians was formed which included Reverend Wakefield and Reverend Dycus. In assembly in the following year, the Fellowship elected a moderator and a stated clerk, urged organization on a presbyterial level, and objected to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible newly issued by the National Council of Churches. Reverend Dycus and Reverend Wakefield were deposed from the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1955 they formed the Carthage Presbytery of the Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church at a session with the Russell Hill Congregation in Macon County, Tennessee. Thus the Upper Cumberland Presbyterians came into existence. At the first session Lum Oliver was ordained.

The Upper Cumberland Presbyterians adopted the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, with the addition of questions on the virgin birth of Christ and his visible return to the church covenant. Ministers must use the King James Bible.

Membership: In 1970 there were 9 churches and 300 members in the Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

★452 ★

Westminster Biblical Fellowship

Current address not obtained for this edition.

Following the 1969 meeting in which Dr. Carl McIntire was removed from his responsibilities with the American Council of Christian Churches (ACCC), several former leaders of the McIntireled Bible Presbyterian Church also withdrew support from him. These included J. Phillip Clark, former General Secretary of the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions and pastor of Calvary Bible Presbyterian Church in Glendale, California. After the 1969 ACCC meeting, Clark announced the formation of the Westminster Biblical Felllowship in order to provide a vehicle for Bible Presbyterians to remain with the ACCC. Other Bible Presbyterian leaders-Richard E. Smitley, Jack Murray and Arthur Steele-joined Clark. The Westminster Biblical Fellowship continues the faith of the Bible Presbyterian Church in general, but it objects to the strong crusading stance of Carl McIntire.

Membership: Not reported.

Sources:

McIntire, Carl. A Letter to Bible Presbyterians. Collinwood, NJ: Bible Presbyterian Church, 1969.

Presbyterian

American Presbyterian Church

American Reformation Presbyterian Church

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

Bible Presbyterian Church

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Free Presbyterian Church

General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian Church

Korean American Presbyterian Church

Orthodox Presbyterian Church

Presbyterian Church in America

Presbyterian Church in Canada

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Presbyterian Reformed Church

Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly

Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery)

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America

Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America

Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church

American Presbyterian Church

1647 Dyre St., Philadelphia, PA 19124-1340

The American Presbyterian Church was founded in 1977 by persons who withdrew from the Bible Presbyterian Church then under the domination of Dr. Carl McIntire (1906–2002). In that year, McIntire had directed the dissolution of the Bible Presbyterian Church’s Philadelphia Presbytery. Three congregations took the opportunity to reorganize separately as the American Presbyterian Church. The dispute was organizational, not doctrinal, and the new church retained the very conservative stance of the Bible Presbyterian Church, acknowledging the authority of the Heidelberg Catechism and the Westminster Confession of Faith. The church sings only with a psalter (the Psalms set to music) and demands that members refrain from imbibing alcohol. The church does not ordain women to the ministry.

The church has open relations with other small Presbyterian groups (such as the Reformed Presbyterian Church–Hanover Synod and the Presbyterian Reformed Church) with whom they share a basic outlook.

Membership

Not reported. In the 1990s there were some 60 members in three congregations.

Periodicals

Katartizo.

Sources

American Presbyterian Church. www.americanpresbyterianchurch.org.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns, 1999.

American Reformation Presbyterian Church

6702 Dalrock Rd., Ste. 126 PMB 214, Rowlett, TX 75089-2662

The Reformation Presbyterian Church was formed in 1994 by several congregations, most formerly related to the Presbyterian Church in America. Among the important leaders in the new denomination is Dr. Richard Bacon, pastor of the church in Rowlett, Texas. Its members do not see themselves as part of a separatist or a protest movement, because of common agreement over the manner in which they interpret the teachings of the Bible. Basic to the denomination is a common understanding of the authority of the church. Such authority in matters of doctrine, government, and worship are carefully laid out in the Bible. As a result, the doctrine prescribed by the church is limited to what is clearly taught; its government to that which can be found described in the Bible; and worship to that commanded by God.

The church accepts the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms as the most complete and accurate summaries of biblical truth. In that light it rejects the idea that God is gracious to all people, holding instead that God’s grace is particular and effectual to his chosen people only. It does not accept the notion of human free will having any efficacious role in salvation. It rejects the belief that those whom God has elected may finally fall away.

The church rejects all modern methods of evangelicalism that assume the autonomy of humans. They believe that humans live in total depravity (and hence unable to do anything about their salvation). In the end, God chooses the elect based entirely on His own sovereign will.

The “Presbyterian” in the name denotes their belief that the Bible teaches the principle of church government by elders (presbyters) in a graded series of church courts.

When the Reformation Presbyterian Church met in its eleventh presbytery on November 17, 2001, the denomination’s name was changed to American Reformation Presbyterian Church. This move was taken as a demonstration of their sister church status with the Myanmar Reformation Presbyterian Church.

Membership

There is one congregation in Texas, which is led by Bacon.

Periodicals

The Blue Banner

Sources

American Reformation Presbyterian Church. www.fpcr.org/arpc.htm.

Faith Presbyterian Church Reformed. www.fpcr.org/fpcr.htm.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing Co., 1999.

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church

c/o Associate Reformed Presbyterian Center, 1 Cleveland St., Ste. 110, Greenville, SC 29601-3646

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church traces its origin to the preaching of Reformer John Knox in Scotland and the establishment of the Scottish Church as the official church of all Scotland in 1560. Under King William II, in 1688 the Church of Scotland was reorganized into the Established Presbyterian Church of Scotland. In 1733 a pastor, Ebenezer Erskine (1680–1754), led a group of Christians in forming a separate Associate Presbytery. Ten years later another group of Christians who had come into conflict with the established church organized the Reformed Presbytery.

Both churches spread first to Ireland and then the United States, where the first Associate and Reformed Presbyteries were formed in the mid-eighteenth century. Formal negotiations between the Associates and Reformeds looking toward union began in 1777 and reached fruition five years later. Although some congregations did not join the union, the new church included congregations scattered from Georgia to New York.

In 1790 the Associate Reformed Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia was formed in Abbeville County, South Carolina, followed some years later (1803) by the division of the entire church into four synods (Carolinas, Pennsylvania, New York, and Scioto) and one General Synod. Headquarters was established in Philadelphia. In 1822 the Synod of the Carolinas was granted independent status, and by the end of the century it was the sole remaining body of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church because the remaining synods had been absorbed through several mergers into the former United Presbyterian Church U.S.A.

The remaining Associate Reformed Presbyteries in the Southeast continued as the Synod of the South, becoming the General Synod in 1935. In 2008 there were nine presbyteries in the United States—First (North Carolina), Second (Western South Carolina and Georgia), Northeast, Virginia, Tennessee and Alabama, Mississippi Valley, Catawba, Florida, and Pacific.

The church holds to the Westminister Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechism. The General Synod is the church’s highest authority. It is composed of all teachings elders (ministers) and least one ruling elder (lay leader) from each church. The church supports mission work in Mexico, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, and the Middle East; several retirement centers; and an assembly grounds, Bonclarken, at Flat Rock, North Carolina.

Membership

In 2008 the church reported 34,000 members in more than 200 churches. APR World Witness programs are active in Mexico, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, Turkey, Wales, and the Persian world, as well as internationals in the United States. In addition, cooperative missionaries serve in Africa, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, in Bible translation and international student ministries in the United States.

Educational Facilities

Erskine College, Due West, South Carolina.

Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, South Carolina, and in various other locations.

Periodicals

ARP Magazine.

Sources

Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. www.arpchurch.org/.

King, Ray A. A History of the Associate Reformed PLresbyterian Church. Charlotte, NC: Board of Christian Education, ARPC, 1996.

Bible Presbyterian Church

1115 Haddon Ave., Collingswood, NJ 08108

HISTORY

The Rev. Carl McIntire (1906–2002) had been a student at Princeton Theological Seminary when J. Gresham Machen left to found the independent Westminster Theological Seminary. McIntire graduated from Westminster in 1931 and became the pastor of the Presbyterian congregation in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In September 1933 he became pastor of the Presbyterian congregation in Collingswood, New Jersey. He was suspended from the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. along with Machen, and left with him and others to establish what became the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. In 1937, after the death of Machen, the church divided on three points. The Orthodox Presbyterians refused to take a stand against intoxicating beverages, rebuffed attempts to become distinctly premillennial in its eschatology, and declined further support of the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions in favor of a church-controlled board. (A premillennial eschatology refers to the belief that before the millennium—Christ’s predicted thousand-year reign on earth with his saints—Christ will return to earth to fight the battle of Armageddon and bind Satan.) In 1938 McIntire and his supporters formed the Bible Presbyterian Church.

At times, the personality of Mclntire seemed to have been a more significant factor in the formation of the Bible Presbyterian Church than any of his three objections to the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He led a zealous crusade against modernism, communism, and pacifism, and called for what he termed a “twentieth-century reformation” to root out apostasy and build true churches. Prime targets were the National Council of Churches and its sister organization, the World Council of Churches. McIntire called all true Christians to separate themselves from the apostasy of members of these councils.

McIntire provided followers with a variety of alternative organizations to support. In 1937, along with others, he founded Faith Theological Seminary. Four years later he was active in organizing the American Council of Christian Churches (ACCC) to bring together separatist churches from across the country. Separatist churches refuse to deal with liberal churches or with conservative churches that cooperate with liberal churches in any way. Just before the Amsterdam meeting of the World Council of Churches in 1948, McIntire joined with others to organize the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC). Because of criticism by some outstanding conservative Presbyterian leaders, the ACCC and ICCC lost much support, and in 1956 they were repudiated by some who had been close followers of McIntire. In that same year, a faction of the synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church terminated its support of Faith Theological Seminary, the Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions, the ACCC, and the ICCC. The seminary and board, though largely supported by Bible Presbyterians, were both separate corporations. The ICCC and ACCC were both interdenominational and had been criticized for some of their activities in the early 1950s, such as the Bible balloon project to send religious literature behind the Iron Curtain by balloon. In repudiating these organizations, some of the churches also repudiated McIntire, who had been instrumental in founding the organizations as well as the church. The Bible Presbyterian Church then split into two factions. The larger group, those objecting to McIntire and the organizations, soon changed its name to Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. It is now a constituent part of the Presbyterian Church in America.

The smaller group, the supporters of McIntire, included the presbyteries of New Jersey (of which he was moderator), California, and Kentucky-Tennessee. They declared themselves independent and free of the 1956 synod. At a meeting in Collingswood they created the new synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church. They returned support to ACCC, ICCC, Faith Theological Seminary, the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, and the Independent Board for Presbyterian Home Missions. In 1969, however, McIntire was removed from the board of ACCC, and he then helped form the American Christian Action Council, now the National Council of Bible-Believing Churches in America.

BELIEFS

Doctrinally, the Bible Presbyterian Church accepts the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger and Smaller Westminster Catechisms. Church members are premillennial, which means that they believe Christ will return before the millennium. Premillennialists also look for Christ to come unexpectedly in the near future to fight the battle of Armegeddon and bind Satan, thus ushering in the millennium. The Bible Presbyterians also have taken strong stands against intoxicating beverages, the new evangelicalism, the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, evolution, civil disobedience, and the United Nations.

ORGANIZATION

The polity is presbyterial, but there is a strong assertion of congregational autonomy. The church supports the Friends of Israel Testimony to Christ; the Five Civilized Tribes Ministry in Oklahoma; Reformation Gospel Publications; the Twentieth-Century Reformation Hour, a radio broadcast; the Christian Admiral Bible Conference; and the Cape Canaveral Bible Conference in Florida, all independent corporations. The church also supports the Bible Presbyterian Home in Delanco, Florida.

Membership

In 2008 the Bible Presbyterian Church included more than 40 local churches. There are more than 130 ministers listed on the roll. For overseas missions, the church supports work done by the Presbyterian Missionary Union and the the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions.

Educational Facilities

Western Reformed Seminary, Tacoma, Washington.

Periodicals

The Christian Observer. Available from 9400 Fairview Ave., Manassas, VA 22110.

Sources

Bible Presbyterian Church. www.bpc.org/.

Carl McIntire’s 50 Years, 1933–1983. Collingswood, NJ: Bible Presbyterian Church, 1983.

The Constitution of the Bible Presbyterian Church. Collingswood, NJ: Independent Board of Presbyterian Foreign Missions, 1959.

Harden, Margaret G. Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies. N.p. 1965.

McIntire, Carl. Modern Tower of Babel. Collingswood, NJ: Christian Beacon Press, 1949.

———. Servants of Apostasy. Collingswood, NJ: Christian Beacon Press, 1955.

———. Twentieth Century Reformation. Collinswood, NJ: Christian Beacon Press, 1944.

Cumberland Presbyterian Church

1978 Union Ave., Memphis, TN 38104

Before the American Revolution, most of the colonies had state churches, some Congregational, many Episocpal (Anglican). All the colonists supposedly belonged to the state church established by their colony. Immediately after the American Revolution, when state churches no longer existed in America, only 15 percent of the new nation chose to belong to a church. The remaining 85 percent had no religious affiliation. Around the turn of the nineteenth century, this situation ushered in a great drive to “save the nation,” a wave of revivalism usually called the Second Great Awakening. One revivalist was the Rev. James McGready (1763–1817), who worked in Kentucky. While preparing to be a Presbyterian minister, he had a mystical conversion experience and became a strong evangelist. He was licensed by the Redstone Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church and moved to Logan County, Kentucky, where he began to preach regeneration, faith, and repentance. Through his work, revivals flourished and by 1800 spread beyond McGready’s congregations. The Great Awakening in Kentucky became ecumenical, including Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists. Among the new practices that developed were the group meeting and the anxious seat or mourner’s bench. Those in attendance at the revivals exhibited signs of emotional excess, loud, spontaneous behavior, and what today would be called altered states of consciousness (such as trances).

Religious bodies confronted the issue of using unordained men educated in alternate routes to fill leadership posts in the growing church. Some of these men were ordained by the Cumberland Presbytery, which had been formed in 1802 from the Transylvania Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church. Critics of the Great Awakening protested the ordination of ministers who were not trained at Princeton or some other seminary, and also complained that ministers did not believe in the Westminister Confession. In 1805 the Kentucky Synod judged against the ordinations of the Cumberland Presbytery and decided to examine those irregularly licensed and ordained and to judge their fitness. The Cumberland Presbytery, however, refused to submit to the Kentucky Synod’s judgment. In 1806 the Synod dissolved the Cumberland Presbytery, but McGready and the ministers continued to function while appeal was made to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. The efforts for appeal went unresolved and finally in 1810, in Dickson, Tennessee, three ministers—Finis Ewing (1773–1841), Samuel King (1175–1842), and Samuel McAdow (1760–1844)—constituted a new presbytery, again called the Cumberland Presbytery. In 1813, those still unable to find reconciliation with the Kentucky Synod formed two more presbyteries, Elk and Logan, and created the Cumberland Synod.

Growth was quick and the Cumberland Synod spread in every direction from its Tennessee and Kentucky base. By 1829, when the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church was organized, the church had reached into eight states.

Post-Civil War efforts at reunion came to fruition in 1906 when the main body of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church reunited with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, now an integral part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). From the Cumberland point of view, though, the union was not altogether a happy one. The union carried by only a slight majority of 60 presbyteries to 51, and a large segment of the church refused to go into the united church. They reorganized themselves as the continuing Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and took that name.

The theology of Cumberland Presbyterianism is derived from the Westminster Confession and is described as the middle ground between Calvinism and Arminianism, a theology that defends free will and opposes the belief in strict pre-destination. The Cumberland Presbyterians deny the five points of Calvinism with the exception of the perseverance of the saints. (The other four points of Calvinism, which this church rejects, are the utter depravity of man, total predestination, limited atonement, and irresistible grace.) The Cumberland Presbyterians have a presbyterian polity. Their General Assembly meets annually.

After 1906 Cumberland Presbyterian missions emerged in Colombia, Hong Kong, Liberia, and Japan. These missions developed into five presbyteries that exist as integral parts of the church. Domestic work includes a Choctaw Indian mission in Oklahoma, and new church developments, some of which are union congregations with the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). The church participates in ecumenical Christian education curriculum development.

Membership

In 2006 the church reported 81,034 members, 721 churches, and 831 ministers in the United States. There were an additional 7,980 members in Colombia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea, and affiliated work in Brazil and Zambia.

Educational Facilities

Bethel College, McKenzie, Tennessee.

Memphis Theological Seminary, Memphis, Tennessee.

Periodicals

The Missionary Messenger. • The Cumberland Presbyterian.

Sources

Cumberland Presbyterian Denominational Headquarters. www.cumberland.org.

Barrus, Ben M.; Milton L. Baughn; and Thomas H. Campbell. A People Called Cumberland Presbyterians. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1970.

Campbell, Thomas J. Good News on the Frontier. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1965.

Confession of Faith for Cumberland Presbyterians. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1984.

Hughey, John H. Lights and Shadows of the C. P. Church. Decatur, IL: Author, 1906.

Irby, Joe Ben. This They Believed. Memphis, TN: Cumberland Presbyterian Resource Center, 1997.

Reagin, E. K. We Believe So We Speak. Memphis, TN: Department of Publication, Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 1960.

Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America

1978 Union Ave., Memphis, TN 38104

In the early years of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, ministers of the church established a mission to African Americans in the South, many of whom were slaves. Many congregations had black members, and some all-black congregations were formed. By the time of the Civil War, there were some 30,000 black members on the roll of the church. After the war, steps were taken to train black ministers, and separate synods were established as a means of organizing (and segregating) African Americans. Between 1871 and 1874 synods were set up in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Texas.

On May 14, 1874, black members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church met at Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and organized separately what was for many years called the Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church. For many years, the Cumberland Presbyterian continued some financial support of the new denomination.

Over the years, the church spread across the South and into the Midwest. During the early 1980s it completed a process of revising its statement of faith and church polity, which it originally had inherited from its parent body. That process was finished in 1984, and a new Confession of Faith was issued at that time. Soon after, it entered into merger negotiations with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, but in 1991 voted against the plan of union.

The church is organized into four synods and 16 prebyteries. The general assembly meets annually. The church is a member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches.

Membership

In 2008 the church listed 19 congregations on its Web site. The denomination also listed churches in Brazil, China, Colombia, Hong Kong, Japan, Liberia, and Macau.

Educational Facilities

Bethel College, McKenzie, Tennessee.

Memphis Theological Seminary, Memphis, Tennessee.

Periodicals

The Cumberland Presbyterian.

Sources

Cumberland Presbyterian Church in America. www.cumberland.org.

Burrus, Ben M.; Milton L. Baughn; and Thomas H. Campbell. A People Called Cumberland Presbyterians. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1972.

Campbell, Thomas H. Good News on the Frontier. Memphis, TN: Frontier Press, 1965.

Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Office of the General Assembly, 17197 N Laurel Park Dr., Ste. 567, Livonia, MI 48152-7912

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), established in March 1981, in St. Louis, Missouri, is a conservative denomination of 11 geographical presbyteries (10 in the United States and one in Argentina). From its inception with 12 churches, the EPC has grown to more than 200 churches. In 1991 the General Assembly approved the formation of the newest presbytery, the Presbytery of Mid-America, located in the heartland of the nation. It held its first meeting in October 1991.

Planted firmly within the historic Reformed tradition, presbyterian in polity, evangelical in spirit, the EPC places high priority on church planting and development along with world missions. Missionaries serve in 20 countries. Working together with the Presbyterian Church of Brazil (IPB), a Joint Committee on Missions was established in 1986. It meets annually in November in alternating sites to formulate strategies for supporting each other in mission outreach and theological preparation.

Based on the truth of Scripture and adhering to the Westminster Confession of Faith and its own Book of Order, the denomination is committed to the “essentials of the faith.” Its historic motto, “In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity,” illustrates the spirit of the EPC, along with the New Testament theme of “truth in love.” The EPC is made up of churches where worship styles range from traditional to contemporary to charismatic (but not Pentecostal). Some churches choose to ordain women as ruling elders, others do not. The particular church owns and governs its own property.

The EPC does not advocate taking political positions, but does believe that the church has an obligation to speak its mind on matters of importance. The General Assembly has adopted position papers on the subjects of abortion, the value of and respect for human life, homosexuality, capital punishment, the ordination of women, and the Holy Spirit.

The Evangelical Presbyterian Church is a member of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, National Association of Evangelicals, World Evangelical Fellowship, and the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability. In addition, observers annually attend the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Churches (NAPARC), though they are not members.

Membership

According to their Web site, in 2008 the EPC had more than 200 churches and 85,000 members. Missionaries are serving in about 20 countries.

Sources

Evangelical Presbyterian Church. www.epc.org/.

Free Presbyterian Church

Current address not obtained for this edition.

The Free Presbyterian Church, popularly identified with conservative Presbyterian minister Ian Paisley (b. 1926), began in 1951 when a group of Presbyterians at Crossgar (County Down) in Northern Ireland came into conflict with the leadership of the local Presbyterian congregation. A decision that prohibited them from using the church for a gospel mission became the occasion for their withdrawal from a church they felt had departed too much from what they saw as traditional gospel standards. At that time, Paisley was already pastor of an independent congregation, and the group in Crossgar called him to assist in their forming a new congregation. With the assistance of George Stears, a former missionary in Brazil, a new denomination emerged, the Free Presbyterian Church. Within a few months two other congregations joined the new effort. Over the next decades, the church would become identified with opposition to the Roman Catholic community in Northern Ireland.

The church is presbyterian in theology and organization and holds to the Reformed positions articulated in the sixteenth century. The church basically holds to the Westminster standards (Confession of Faith and the Larger and Shorter Catechisms) but also has its own Articles of Faith. It accepts a conservative interpretation of traditional Presbyterian beliefs but differs at two main points. It allows both views on baptism, namely one that allows infant baptism and one that limits it to confessing adults. Second, it allows divergent views on eschatology, issues regarding last things.

It views true Presbyterianism as focused on the all-sufficiency of Christ and refuses to deal with such philosophical topics as predestination, particular redemption, or human moral responsibility. It accepts these as an element of God’s revelation in the Bible and does not find value in speculation as to how they operate. The church attempts to keep a theology that is evangelically warm as well as biblically orthodox.

The Free Presbyterian Church has called for conservative Protestants to separate from liberal and ecumenical ideals. While recognizing the history of Protestant participation in interdenominational activities, the Free Presbyterians believe that such movements have evolved into an effort to create a single church and eventually lead all Protestants back into the Roman Catholic Church. Present-day participation in the ecumenical movements, especially the World Council of Churches, necessarily involves one in a compromise of faith.

Based upon its conservative reading of the Bible, the church maintains a variety of opinions that set it apart from many of the larger church bodies. It believes that no women may be appointed to or ordained for any preaching, pastoral, or governmental office in the church. It has determined that males should not attend to worship with their heads covered, and females without their heads being covered. It also holds that no divorced person or anyone married to a divorced person can be elected to the office of deacon or elder in the church. It prohibits the use of any Free Presbyterian church building for a marriage service that includes a divorced person and does not allow any Free Presbyterian minister to officiate at such a ceremony.

Through the 1960s the Free Presbyterian Church spread across Northern Ireland, and its conservative stance found support in other parts of the world. Many identified with Paisley’s political activities through the last decades of the twentieth century in the conflicts that beset Northern Ireland. In the 1980s separatist congregations began to appear in North America that identified with his work. They are now found across the continent.

Although the church has no central headquarters, the list of local congregations and contact persons is posted on its expansive Web site. Let the Bible Speak is the worldwide radio broadcast ministry of the Free Presbyterian Church.

Membership

In 2002 the church reported 15 congregations in the United States and 10 in Canada. It also has churches in India, Jamaica, Kenya, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, and Spain.

Educational Facilities

Whitefield College of the Bible, Banbridge, Northern Ireland, with extensions in Greenville, South Carolina, and Toronto, Canada.

Geneva Reformed Seminary, Theological Seminary of the Free Presbyterian Church of North America, South Carolina.

Periodicals

The Burning Bush. Available from www.ivanfoster.org/main.asp.

Sources

Free Presbyterian Church. www.freepres.org/main.asp.

General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian Church

17200 Clark Ave., Bellflower, CA 90706

The General Assembly of the Korean Presbyterian church was founded in 1976. It grew out of the migration of numerous Koreans to the United States, especially since the end of the Korean War. Many of these Koreans were Presbyterians, and many chose to align themselves with one of the older American Presbyterian denominations. However, still others found themselves unwilling to affiliate, either because of the barrier created by language or their conservative theology. The General Assembly represents one such group that specializes in serving the Korean American community.

It is conservative in theology and accepts the Westminster Confession as its doctrinal standard. It has a presbyterian form of government.

Membership

In 2003 the church reported 302 churches, 55,000 members, and 583 ministers.

Educational Facilities

KPCA Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Santa Fe Springs, California.

Sources

Association of Religion Data Archives. www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_930.asp.

Korean American Presbyterian Church

8500 Bolsa Avenue, Westminster, CA 92683

Many of the Koreans who migrated to the United States in the years following the Korean War were conservative Presbyterians. Once in America, they began to form independent Korean-speaking presbyteries. In 1978 five such presbyteries that had formed in California, the Midwest, New York, Pennsylvania, and Canada came together to create the Korean American Presbyterian Church. The meeting that formed the church was held on February 8–9, 1978, at Westminster Theological Seminary (the school of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church), in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Thirty-two ministers attended, and the eldest among them, Rev. Jae Lee, was elected to the office of moderator. Immediate needs were the formation of a seminary and the establishment of relationships with both the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea and contact with the numerous unaffiliated congregations of Korean Presbyterians known to exist throughout the Western Hemisphere. The church grew quickly from both the adherence of previously formed congregations and the organization of new ones.

The church is staunchly conservative in its theological perspective. It acknowledges an inerrant Bible, the authority of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and both the Larger and Shorter Westminster Catechisms as the most correct interpretations of scripture.

The church is organized into regional presbyteries. A general assembly of the whole church meets annually.

Membership

In 1990 there were 186 ordained ministers serving approximately 12,000 communicant members in the United States and Canada. There is also a Presbytery of Central South America with congregations in Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, and Chile.

Educational Facilities

International Reformed University & Seminary, Los Angeles.

Sources

Korean American Presbyterian Church. www.kapc.org/gb/.

Orthodox Presbyterian Church

607 N Eastern Rd., Bldg. E, Box P, Willow Grove, PA 19090-0920

In the early years of the twentieth century the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America became a major focus of the fundamentalist-modernist controversy. Conservatives felt that liberals were leading the church into compromise with the world and away from the witness to the gospel. Conservatives traced liberalism to the Plan of Union of 1801 between Presbyterians and Congregationalists. The Conservatives said the plan aligned Presbyterians with Congregationalists infected with the “New School” theology of Samuel Hopkins (1721–1803). Late in the nineteenth century the issues of compromise with the world and lack of witness to the gospel were raised anew by the heresy trials of Professors Charles Briggs and Henry Preserved Smith. In 1903 doctrinal standards were revised to facilitate the merger with the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

In reaction against the liberal Baptist Harry Emerson Fosdick’s (1878–1969) preaching in First Presbyterian Church in New York City, a group of conservatives drew up a document presented to and passed by the 1923 General Assembly calling for the ministry to uphold the essentials of the faith, namely the five fundamentals: the infallibility of the scriptures, the virgin birth of Christ, the substitutionary atonement, Christ’s bodily resurrection, and Christ’s miracles. Although the assembly passed the conservative document, many of the church leaders were liberals and held key positions on the boards and agencies of the church. In protest of the assembly’s vote, they joined with the 1,300 ministers who signed the Auburn Affirmation. This signpost of liberal faith created a storm of controversy, and the two sides were locked in battle.

The 1932 publication of Re-Thinking Missions by William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) began the final stage of the church’s liberal-conservative battle. Hocking asserted, among other controversial opinions, that missionaries should not take conversions as their only goal but should provide social services and do medical missionary work in addition to preaching the gospel. J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937), a theology professor at Princeton Theological Seminary, opposed Hocking’s suggestion. With other conservative Presbyterians, Machen charged in 1932 that the board of Foreign Missions approved, sent, and supported missionaries who did not teach that Christ is the exclusive, unique way of salvation. The church countered with a mandate comparing nonsupport of the church boards with refusal to take communion. The fundamentalists replied with charges against other boards, and they condemned participation in the Federal Council of Churches. Machen was tried and convicted of disturbing the peace of the church. Machen and his supporters then left the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and formed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Doctrine of the new church is the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Westminster Larger and Shorter Catechisms to which all officers are required to subscribe. A general assembly meets annually. Over the years support for the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions was dropped and a denominational board created. Great Commissions Publications produces a complete line of church school materials in cooperation with the Presbyterian Church of America. The church participates in the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC) and for many years belonged to the Reformed Ecumenical Synod. It has more recently joined the International Conference of Reformed Churches (ICRC).

Membership

In 2003 the church reported 27,582 members, 241 congregations, and 437 ministers. Missionary work is supported in China, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Haiti, Japan, Kenya, Korea, Quebec, Suriname, and Uganda.

Periodicals

New Horizons. • Ordained Servant.

Educational Facilities

Ministerial Training Institute of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. It has no campus.

Sources

Orthodox Presbyterian Church. www.opc.org.

Association of Religious Data Archives. www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1307.asp.

Cohen, Gary G. Biblical Separation Defended. Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 1977.

Dennison, Charles G. The Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1936–1986. Philadelphia: Committee for the Historian of the OPC, 1986.

Galbraith, John P. Why the Orthodox Presbyterian Church? Philadelphia: Committee on Christian Education, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1965.

The Standards of Government, Discipline, and Worship of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. Philadelphia: Committee on Christian Education, Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1965.

Presbyterian Church in America

1700 N Brown Rd., Ste. 105, Lawrenceville, GA 30043-8122

HISTORY

During the 1960s tensions began to rise between liberals and conservatives within the Presbyterian Church in the United States. Conservatives protested denominational support of the National Council of Churches and involvement in social issues, possible union with the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (which would put the conservatives in an even smaller minority position and which eventually occurred in 1983), liberal theology in The Layman’s Bible published by the church, the ordination of women, support of abortion on demand for socioeconomic reasons, and liberal churchmen in positions of authority in the denomination.

In 1972 to 1973 several presbyteries were formed by some 260 congregations with a combined communicant membership of more than 41,000 that had left the denomination. These presbyteries were the Warrior Presbytery in Alabama, the Westminster Presbytery in Virginia and East Tennessee, and the Vanguard Presbytery at large. In December 1973 delegates from the presbyteries gathered at Briarwood Presbyterian Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and organized the National Presbyterian Church. Rev. Frank Barker, pastor of the Briarwood Church, hosted the gathering.

Organized at a constitutional assembly in December 1973, this church was first known as the National Presbyterian Church, but changed its name in 1974 to Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). It separated from the Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS) (Southern) in opposition to the developing theological liberalism that denied the deity of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy and authority of Scripture. The PCA held to the traditional position on the role of women in church offices: The PCUS had not only permitted women to serve in offices, but had begun to force all churches to comply. The PCA also oppposed the PCUS affiliation with the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches, which the conservatives felt supported radical Left political and social activism. And they opposed the movement toward merger with the more liberal United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. (Northern).

In 1982 the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, merged into the Presbyterian Church in America. The Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, had been formed in 1965 by a merger of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod.

Evangelical Presbyterian Church was the name taken by the larger segment of the Bible Presbyterian Church following the split in that church in 1956. (See the discussion of the split in the entry on the Bible Presbyterian Church.) The name for the larger group had been adopted in 1961 to avoid confusion with Dr. Carl McIntire’s smaller group. At the time of the split, the synod, controlled by the larger group, had voted to establish an official periodical, the Evangelical Presbyterian Reporter; a synod-controlled college and seminary, Covenant College and Covenant Seminary in St. Louis; and its own mission board, World Presbyterian Missions. Immediate efforts were directed toward healing the rift with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and opening correspondence with the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America General Synod. In 1960 the constitution was amended to allow any view of eschatology, not just premillennialism.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, was of the Covenanter tradition, the church that adhered to the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, which spelled out the doctrine and practices of Scottish Presbyterians. The General Synod (as the church was often called) dated to 1833, when the Reformed Presbyterian Church split over the issue of participation in civic affairs. One group within the church took the name Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, and allowed its members to vote and hold office. The General Synod also adopted the practice of allowing hymns as well as psalms to be sung at services, and allowed instrumental music to be used in worship. Those who did not allow members to vote or hold office, and opposed hymns and instrumental music, are known today as the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. In 1965 the Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America, General Synod, merged with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. The merged body became known as the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod.

BELIEFS

The PCA has made a firm commitment to the doctrinal standards that have been significant in presbyterianism since 1645, namely the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms. These doctrinal standards express the distinctives of the Calvinistic or Reformed tradition.

Among the distinctive doctrines of the Westminster Standards and of Reformed tradition is the unique authority of the Bible. The reformers based all of their claims on the philosophy of sola scriptura (“scriptures alone”). This included the doctrine of their inspiration, a special act of the Holy Spirit by which He guided the writers of the books of scriptures (in their original autographs) to convey the thoughts He wished conveyed, and so they were kept free from error of fact, doctrine, and judgment, to be an infallible rule of faith and life.

ORGANIZATION

The church is organized presbyterially. The PCA maintains the historic polity of Presbyterian governance, namely, rule by presbyters (elders) and the graded courts (the session governing the local church), the presbytery for regional matters, and the general assembly at the national level. It has taken seriously the position of the parity of elders, making a distinction between the two classes of elders, teaching and ruling. In addition, on presbyterian governance, it has self-consciously taken a more democratic position (rule from the grassroots up) in contrast to a more prelatical (rule from the top assemblies down). The General Assembly meets annually. The church conducts mission work in 56 countries and is a member of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Membership

In 2006 the church reported more than 335,443 communicant members, 1739 churches and missions, and 3,430 clergy. The PCA has approximately 600 career missionaries, 150 two-year missionaries, and more than 6,800 short-term summer missionaries working through its Mission to the World (MTW). The organization also has more than 150 military and civilian chaplains, and more than 100 campus ministers.

Educational Facilities

Covenant College, Lookout Mountain, Georgia.

Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri.

Other schools supported by the church and/or its constituent presbyteries include:

Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, Mississippi, Orlando, Florida, and Charlotte, North Carolina.

Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Escondido, California.

Birmingham Theological Seminary, Birmingham, Alabama.

Greenville Thelogical Seminary, Greenville, South Carolina.

Sources

Presbyterian Church in America. www.pcanet.org.

The Book on Church Order of the Presbyterian Church in America. Atlanta, GA: Committee on Christian Education and Publications, 1983.

MacNair, Donald J. Hallmarks of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. St. Louis, MO: Presbyterain Missions, n.d.

Richards, John Edwards. The Historical Birth of the Presbyterian Church in America. Liberty Hill, SC: Liberty Hill Press, 1987.

Smallman, Stephen E. What Is a Reformed Church? Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2003.

Smith, Frank J. The History of the Presbyterian Church in America: The Continuing Church Movement. Manassas, VA: Reformation Education Foundation, 1985.

Presbyterian Church in Canada

50 Wynford Dr., Don Mills, ON, Canada M3C 1J7

The church today is the continuing Presbyterian body that in 1925 did not merge with the Canadian Methodists and Congregationalists to form the United Church of Canada (UCC). Approximately 30 percent did not enter the United Church. As such, the Presbyterian Church in Canada shares the heritage of Canadian Presbyterianism with the UCC.

The Presbyterian Church in Canada was constituted in 1875 by the Presbyterian Church of the Lower Provinces, the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of the Maritime Provinces, the Synod of Canada Presbyterian Church, and the Synod of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in connection with the Church of Scotland.

Those Presbyterians who disapproved of the merger into the United Church of Canada feared the loss of such Presbyterian distinctives as reformed theology and structures. Theology was being threatened by Methodism and a growing liberalism. Many also argued that most of the rewards to be gained from the union could be gained by a federated relationship.

Doctrinally, the church adheres to the Westminster Confession of Faith and both the Longer and Shorter Westminster Catechisms. In 1875, Article 23 of the Confession, concerning civil magistrates, had been explicitly deleted from the Confession accepted by the new church. This issue was resolved in 1955 by the adoption of a “Declaration of Faith Concerning Church and Nation.” In 1962 the church also recognized several of the European Reformed confessions, specifically the Belgic, the Second Helvetic, and the Gallican Confessions, as parallel to the Westminster and the Heidelberg Catechisms and permitted their teachings by church elders.

Though more conservative than the United Church of Canada, the Presbyterian Church in Canada has remained a vital part of the larger protestant ecumenical movement. It is a member of both the Canadian Council of Churches and the World Council of Churches. In 1966 it admitted women to the ordained ministry. Its International Ministries maintains connections with overseas partners in almost 30 countries as well as numerous ecumenical organizations. Presbyterian World Service & Development (PWS&D) is the development, relief, and refugee sponsorship agency of the Presbyterian Church in Canada.

Membership

The Presbyterian Church in Canada has nearly 1,000 member congregations across the country and one in Bermuda. The Canadian Census reports membership at 636,000.

Educational Facilities

Knox College, Toronto, Ontario.

Presbyterian College, Montreal, Quebec.

Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, British Columbia.

Periodicals

Presbyterian Record. • Glad Tidings. • The Presbyterian Message.

Sources

Presbyterian Church in Canada. www.presbyterian.ca.

Reed, R. C. History of the Presbyterian Churches of the World. Philadelphia: Westminister Press, 1912.

Religious Tolerance. www.religioustolerance.org/hom_prc.htm.

Silcox, Claris Edwin. Church Union in Canada. New York: Institute of Social and Religious Research, 1933.

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

100 Witherspoon St., Louisville, KY 40202

The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was formed in 1983 by the reunion of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States—the two largest Presbyterian bodies in the United States. It continues the beliefs and practices of the two churches, which originally had split over the same issues that divided the United States at the time of the Civil War.

HISTORY

The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was formed in 1958 by a merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America and the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America inherited the tradition of early Presbyterianism in the colonies and is in direct continuity with the first synod organized in 1706. In the 1700s the Presbyterians were split between the revivalism of the Methodist George Whitefield (1714–1770), who had influenced William Tennent (1673–1746) and his son, Gilbert Tennent (1703–1764), and the more traditional, creedal Calvinism with its ordered worship. The Tennents were the founders of a seminary that later became Princeton University. A split developed in the church in 1741 that lasted until 1758.

The church supported the Revolution and afterward reorganized for western expansion. On the heels of the cooperative Plan of Union of 1801 with the Congregationalists and the Second Great Awakening, the Presbyterians moved west and, in the 40 years after the Revolution, grew more than tenfold. The nineteenth century, an era of expansion westward, saw the development of an impressive educational system and large-scale schism over revivalism and slavery. Other schisms would grow out of the fundamentalist-modernist debates in the early twentieth century.

The United Presbyterian Church of North America was formed in 1858 by a merger of the Associate Presbyterian Church and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. These two churches continued the Scottish Covenanter and secession movements. The Covenanters were Scotch Presbyterians who seceded from the Church of Scotland, which was Reformed in theology but episcopal in government. The Covenanters formed their independent secession into a church in 1733. The Covenant to which the new church adhered was the Solemn League and Covenant ratified in 1643; it spelled out the doctrine and practices of Scotch Presbyterians.

People who followed the Covenant of 1643 found their way to the American colonies during the seventeenth century. These early Covenanters formed “societies” for worship because they had no minister. The first pastor was the Rev. Alexander Craighead (c. 1700–1766), a Presbyterian attracted to the Covenanters because of their passion for freedom. In 1751, John Cuthbertson landed and began long years of work on a large circuit of Covenanters. He was joined in 1773 by Matthew Linn and Alexander Dobbin, and the three constituted the Reformed Presbyterian Church.

The Covenanters represented one branch of the Scottish secession movement; the Seceders represented another. The Seceders developed from the revival movements of the 1700s in Scotland that attacked the patronage system of the established church and its lack of spiritual awareness. The Seceder Church was not formed in Scotland until 1743, although Seceders began to arrive in the colonies in the 1730s. In 1742 a congregation in Londonderry, Pennsylvania issued a plea for a minister. The Scottish split into Burgher and anti-Burgher factions, compounding the problem of providing leadership. The two parties resulted from the requirement of an oath to hold public office in Scotland. The anti-Burghers felt the oath legitimized episcopacy, and they therefore objected to it; the Burghers saw nothing wrong with taking the oath. Most of the Americans were anti-Burghers. Two anti-Burgher ministers, Alexander Gellatly and Andrew Arnot arrived and, in 1753, organized the Associate Presbyterian Church.

In 1782 the Associate Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church merged to form the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. A few members of both merging churches declined to enter the merger and continued to exist under the names of their respective churches before 1782. Then in 1822 the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church split into northern and southern branches. The southern branch continues today as the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (General Synod). The northern branch continued to be called the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. In 1858 this northern branch merged with the majority of the continuing Seceders, called the Associate Presbyterian Church. The new church formed in 1858 took the name the United Presbyterian Church of North America. In 1958, the United Presbyterian Church of North America united with the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America to form the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.

The Presbyterian Church in the United States arose out of the same controversies that had split the Methodists and Baptists in the years prior to the Civil War. Presbyterians were able, as a whole, to remain in the same ecclesiastical body until war actually broke. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, meeting in Philadelphia only days after the firing on Fort Sumter and devoid of most southern delegates, declared its loyalty to the United States. Presbyterians in the South claimed the Assembly had no such right to make such a political statement. One by one the Southern presbyteries withdrew, and in December 1861 they organized the Presbyterian Church in the Confederate States (later changed to the Presbyterian Church in the United States).

The war divided the North from the South and feeling created by the conflict did much to keep the churches apart. The two churches had little disagreement on either doctrine or church polity. The southern church tended to be more conservative in its doctrinal stance and adopted a more loosely organized structure. It had replaced the church boards created by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America with executive committees, unincorporated and devoid of permanent funds.

BELIEFS

In 1967 the United Presbyterian Church adopted a new confession of faith. The confession was a present-minded document, although it begins with a statement of continuity with the Reformed Confessional tradition. It is focused on the reconciling work of Christ through the grace of God. A significant section deals with the mission of the church, particularly in society, and has a vague eschatology. The Confession was published along with the Apostles’and Nicene Creeds, five Reformed Confessions, and the Shorter Catechism in a Book of Confessions. The Book of Common Worship contains the liturgical resources.

ORGANIZATION

The merger of 1983 left many of the important questions of merging geographically overlapping synods and presbyteries and national offices, boards, and agencies to be resolved in the future meetings of the annual General Assembly. In 1986 a structural Design for Mission was adopted by the General Assembly, and in 1988 most of the national offices were consolidated at the new headquarters building in Louisville, Kentucky.

Membership

In 2006, the church reported 2,267,118 members, 21,360 ministers, and 10,903 congregations. Partnership efforts in Christian mission exist with churches in 109 nations.

Educational Facilities

Theological seminaries:

Auburn Theological Seminary

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Austin, Texas.

Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia.

Dubuque Theological Seminary, Dubuque, Iowa.

Evangelical Seminary of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary, Atlanta, Georgia.

Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky.

McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois.

Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey.

San Francisco Theological Seminary, San Anselmo, California.

Colleges and Universities:

Agnes Scott College, Decatur, Georgia.

Alma College, Alma, Michigan.

Arcadia University, Glenside, Pennsylvania.

Austin College, Sherman, Texas.

Barber-Scotia College, Concord, North Carolina.

Belhaven College, Jacskon, Mississippi.

Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois.

Bloomfield College, Bloomfield, New Jersey.

Buena Vista College, Storm Lake, Iowa.

Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Centre College of Kentucky, Danville, Kentucky.

Coe College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

The College of Idaho, Caldwell, Idaho.

College of the Ozarks, Point Lookout, Missouri.

The College of Wooster, Wooster, Ohio.

Davidson College, Davidson, North Carolina.

Davis & Elkins College, Elkins, West Virginia.

Eckerd College, St. Petersburg, Florida.

Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania.

Hampden-Sydney College, Hampden-Sydney, Virginia.

Hanover College, Hanover, Indiana.

Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska.

Illinois College, Jacksonville, Illinois.

Jamestown College, Jamestown, North Dakota.

Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, North Carolina.

King College, Bristol, Tennessee.

Knoxville College, Knoxville, Tennessee.

Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania.

Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Illinois.

Lees-McCrae College, Banner Elk, North Carolina.

Lindenwood College, St. Charles, Missouri.

Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas.

Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Mary Baldwin College, Staunton, Virginia.

Maryville College, Maryville, Tennessee.

Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois.

Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Missouri.

Monmouth College, Monmouth, Illinois.

Montreat College, Montreat, North Carolina.

Muskingum College, New Concord, Ohio.

Peace College, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Pikeville College, Pikeville, Kentucky.

Presbyterian College, Clinton, South Carolina.

Queens College, Charlotte, North Carolina.

Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee.

Rocky Mountain College, Billings, Montana.

St. Andrew’s Presbyterian College, Laurinburg, North Carolina.

Schreiner College, Kerrville, Texas.

Sheldon Jackson College, Sitka, Alaska.

Sterling College, Sterling, Kansas.

Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas.

Tusculum College, Greeneville, Tennessee.

Universidad InterAmericana de Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

University of Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa.

University of the Ozarks, Clarksville, Arkansas.

University of Tulsa, Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, North Carolina.

Waynesburg College, Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri.

Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania.

Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Whitworth College, Spokane, Washington.

Wilson College, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania.

Periodicals

Presbyterians Today • Church & Society Magazine • Call to Worship

Sources

Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). www.pcusa.org.

Balmer, Randall, and John R. Fitzmier. The Presbyterians. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994.

Jamison, Wallace N. The United Presbyterian Story. Pittsburgh: Geneva Press, 1958.

Miller, Park Hays. Why I Am A Presbyterian. New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1956.

Minutes of the 195th General Assembly, United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, 123rd General Assembly, Presbyterian Church in the United States, 195th General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Atlanta: Office of the General Assembly, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1983.

Study Draft, A Plan for Union of the Presbyterian Church in the United States and the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America. New York: Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, 1974.

Weston, William J. Presbyterian Pluralism: Competition in a Protestant House. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1997.

Presbyterian Reformed Church

PO Box 82, Chesley, ON, Canada N0G 1L0

The Presbyterian Reformed Church is a small conservative Presbyterian denomination founded in 1965 by two Canadian Presbyterian congregations in Ontario, Canada. Instrumental in the creation of the presbytery was John Murray, a professor at Westminster Theological Seminary (the seminary of the very conservative Orthodox Presbyterian Church). Murray had been associated with the congregations for several years and like them shared a Scottish and Scotch-Irish heritage. He wished to see the organization of a body that would continue the affirmation of Scottish Presbyterianism.

Murray made the initial proposal for the establishment of the new church and authored the constitution that served as a basis of union. The constitution affirmed the authority of the Bible, which is seen as the infallible word of God; the Westminster Confession of Faith as the best summary of Christian belief; and worship keynoted by simplicity of style. Adherence to the Westminster Confession is done in a strict and literal fashion. Worshipers use the psalms set to music and singing is done without the aid of musical instruments. The presbyterian form of church government was affirmed as the most true to scripture, though congregations were to be the owners of their property rather than the presbytery. Women are not admitted to the ordained ministry.

The two congregations constituted the original presbytery, which has been extended to include additional congregations in the United States and a mission in England.

Membership

Not reported. There are six congregations in North America and one mission in the United Kingdom.

Periodicals

Presbyterian Reformed Magazine. Available from Dan McGinn, 1209 Larkridge Ct., Waxhaw, NC 28173.

Sources

Presbyterian Reformed Church. www.presbyterianreformed.org.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing, 1999.

Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly

c/o Dr. Bill Higgins, Office of the Stated Clerk, PO Box 356, Lookout Mountain, TN 37350

The Reformed Presbyterian Church began in 1983 when several congregations in Georgia withdrew from the Presbyterian Church in America as a continuing church movement. They originally took the name Covenant Presbytery, later changed to Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (1985, resuming the name in 1992) and Reformed Presbyterian Church in the Americas (1990). However, in 1990–1991, the church underwent an internal disruption in which one of its four presbyteries was dissolved and a second became independent as the Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery). The two remaining presbyteries reorganized in 1991 as the Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly.

As its name implies, the highest legislative body in the church is the General Assembly, which consists of representatives of the three presbyteries (Westminster, John Knox, and Reformation) to which the local congregations belong. The church has a presbyterial organization and accepts the reformed faith as expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith of 1647, to which it gives a strict conservative interpretation. For example, all church officers must subscribe to the inerrancy of Scriptures and the doctrine of a literal six-day creation of the earth as described in the Book of Genesis. It opposes charismatic theology, Arminian “free will” theology, dispensational theology, liberal theology, neo-orthodox theology, and all forms of liberation theology. It denounces abortion, homosexuality, and the women’s liberation movement.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church requires its member congregations to remain unincorporated. They view the church as the presbytery and particular congregations as parts of it.

Membership

In 2008 the church reported 10 congregations in two synods. Although most congregations are located in the eastern United States, a few are in the Midwest.

Educational Facilities

Whitefield College and Theological Seminary, Lakeland, Florida.

Sources

Reformed Presbyterian Church General Assembly. www.rpcga.org/.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns, 1999.

Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery)

5928 H Cloverdale Way, PO Box 10015, Alexandria, VA 22310-5432

The Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery) traces its origin to 1983 and the congregations in Georgia that refrained from following the merger of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, into the Presbyterian Church in America. The congregations reorganized as the Covenant Presbytery, which later became the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (1985) and Reformed Presbyterian Church in the Americas (1990). However, in 1990–1991 one of the new church’s four synods disassociated itself as the independent Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Synod).

The Presbytery is a conservative body that accepts the Reformed faith as expressed in the Apostles Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Westminster Confession of Faith, to which its gives a strict interpretation. It maintains a fraternal relationship with the Presbyterian Church in America, the Bible Presbyterian Church, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, and shares the Christian Observer as a denominational periodical. The highest legislative body in the church is the synod that meets annually. It does not admit women to the ordained ministry.

Membership

In 2008 the synod reported seven congregations and two affiliated congregations. The jurisdiction now has congregations, missions, and preaching points in 11 states nationwide. A mission work in Burma is identified with the denomination.

Periodicals

Christian Observer. Available from 9400 Fairview Ave., Manassas, VA 20110.

Sources

The Reformed Presbyterian Church (Hanover Presbytery). www.rpchanover.org.

Bauswein, Jean-Jacques, and Lukas Vischner, eds. The Reformed Family Worldwide: A Survey of Reformed Churches, Theological Schools, and International Organizations. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmanns Publishing, 1999.

Presbyterians Weekly News. www.presweek.blogspot.com.

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America

c/o Louis D. Hutmire, Stated Clerk, 7408 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15208

The eighteenth-century Reformed Presbyterian Church was the embodiment of the Covenanter tradition in North America, those adhering to the Scottish Presbyterians’ Solemn League and Covenant of 1643. In 1782 the majority of the Covenanter tradition merged with the Seceder Church, originally formed in Scotland in 1743 as a group seceding from the established Church of Scotland. The 1782 merger of Covenanters and Seceders resulted in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, which is now a constituent part of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.).

However, some Reformed Presbyterians (Covenanters) did not join the 1782 merger. They remained Reformed Presbyterians, and in 1833 they split over the issue of participation in government, specifically, over whether members would vote and hold office. The New Lights, those who allowed such participation, formed the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod, which merged with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in 1965. The merged church, the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, later merged into the Presbyterian Church in America, discussed above. The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America is the continuing old school body, the group opposed to the New Lights in the 1833 split.

The Westminster Confession of Faith is the standard of doctrine. Worship is centered on the reading and exposition of the Bible. Hymns are limited to Psalms and there is no instrumental accompaniment. Organization is presbyterian. The synod meets annually. Over the years, Reformed Presbyterian missionaries have been active in Australia, China, Cyprus, Japan, Manchuria, Africa, France, and Syria.

Membership

In 2008 the church reported 82 congregations in North America and five in Japan.

Educational Facilities

Geneva College, Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania.

Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Periodicals

Reformed Presbyterian Witness. Available from 7408 Penn Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15208.

Sources

Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America. www.reformedpresbyterian.org.

Adventures in Psalm Singing. Pittsburgh, PA: Christian Education Office, 1970.

Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America

Current address not obtained for this edition .

The Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America was formed in the United States in 1922 by Ukrainian Protestants of several denominations. The purpose of the Alliance was to spread the gospel among Ukrainians in both North America and the Ukraine. The Alliance was thus a missionary organization and was not meant to be a separate denomination. However, over time the Alliance established mission congregations and in that sense has become a separate denomination. The member congregations typically retain their Ukrainian culture and language and are located in large cities. Most of the Ukrainian Reformed congregations in North America have become members of the larger Presbyterian bodies, but two congregations of postwar immigrants, one in Detroit and one in Toronto, carry on the independent tradition and are under the direct guidance of the Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America.

In 1925 the Ukrainian Evangelical Alliance of North America, with the aid of several Reformed and Presbyterian churches, organized a Ukrainian Reformed Church in what was at that time Polish territory in the western Ukraine. This church was virtually destroyed by the Communist takeover in World War II.

The Alliance is interdenominational in scope and has passed a resolution declaring denominational missions obsolete and unrealistic in their approach to Ukrainian-Russian relations, especially in their neglect of the native language. The Alliance wishes to be invited to cooperate in all missionary efforts. It has as a major part of its mission the publication of Ukrainian literature, which it distributes in both North America and Ukraine.

Membership

At last report there were only two congregations solely attached to the Alliance, though congregations consisting of Ukrainian-Russian immigrants of the Reformed faith can be found in several of the larger Presbyterian bodies.

Periodicals

News Bulletin.

Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church

172 CR 1564, Cullman, AL 35055-1426

The Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church was formed in 1955 by Rev. H. C. Wakefield, Rev. W. M. Dycus, Lum Oliver, and laymen from Sanderson’s, Russell Hill, Pleasant Grove, and Poston’s Cumberland Presbyterian Churches, all of the Cooksville Presbytery in Tennessee. At the 1950 General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the Board of Missions and Evangelism reported its application for membership in the Home Missions Council of the National Council of Churches. This application raised the issue of support of the “liberal” social activist theology imposed by the National Council of Churches, and strong opposition to the application developed within the church. In 1952 a Fellowship of Conservative Presbyterians was formed which included Reverend Wakefield and Reverend Dycus. In assembly in the following year, the fellowship elected a moderator and a stated clerk, urged organization on a presbyterial level, and objected to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible newly issued by the National Council of Churches. Reverend Dycus and Reverend Wakefield were deposed from the ministry of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1955 they formed the Carthage Presbytery of the Upper Cumberland Presbyterian Church at a session with the Russell Hill Congregation in Macon County, Tennessee. Thus the Upper Cumberland Presbyterians came into existence. At the first session Lum Oliver was ordained.

The Upper Cumberland Presbyterians adopted the Confession of Faith of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, with the addition of questions on the virgin birth of Christ and his visible return to the church covenant. Ministers must use the King James Bible.

Membership

In 1970 the church reported nine churches and 300 members.

Periodicals

The Bulletin. Available from: Editor, 1680 Welcome Rd., Cullman, AL 35058.

Sources

The Christian Observer. www.christianobserver.org/Church%20Directories/ucpc.htm.

Presbyterians

Sources

Beginnings. Among the earliest Puritan settlers in New England were many with a presbyterial orientation in which ministers and elders from congregations formed the governing body within a given district. When the Presbyterians gained ascendancy during the English Civil War, New England nearly adopted their view that church membership should be open to all who followed God’s commandments and that congregations should relinquish some of their authority to higher councils of ministers and elders in order to maintain standards and prevent unscriptural practices and theological errors from creeping into the church. When this did not come to pass, individual congregations quietly followed presbyterian practices under either a Congregational or Presbyterian minister.

Makemie. The Irish Presbyterian minister Francis Makemie is credited with joining these scattered congregations into an organized denomination. An inveterate traveler, he first arrived in 1683 to journey throughout the mainland colonies and Barbados, preaching and organizing churches as he went. His appeals to his English, Scottish, and Irish brethren for clergy attracted much-needed ministers to these new churches. In 1706 he organized the first presbytery in Philadelphia, attended by seven local ministers and their elders. Within ten years there were four presbyteries and a synod operating. A few months after the first presbytery meeting, Makemie became the center of attention when Edward Hyde, Viscount Cornbury, governor of New York, had him arrested for preaching without a license. His defense was that he had been granted a license as a dissenting minister in Barbados, which was valid in all British domains. The court acquitted him, but a vengeful Cornbury charged him to pay the entire cost of the trial. New Yorkers were so incensed that the assembly passed a law prohibiting such assessments and got Cornbury recalled in disgrace. By this time Makemie had died, but the publicity brought the infant Presbyterian Church to the favorable attention of many dissenters who moved into the Presbyterian fold.

Adopting Act. From its inception the Calvinist theology and presbyterial organization of the Presbyterian Church attracted Protestants of many flavors, and the church worked closely with other denominations in worship, ministerial education, and mutual support. Within its fold were people from Scotland, Ireland, England, Wales, Sweden, Germany, and France. Bringing such diverse elements into a consensus on the essentials of an American denomination was a great challenge. The most divisive issues of congregational autonomy and subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith found adherents settling into three identifiable positions. The Scots sat at one end of the spectrum, favoring a highly centralized government and strict adherence to the Westminster Confession; the New Englanders were poised at the opposite end, espousing more congregational autonomy and no subscription to any man-made creed; and the Irish occupied the middle ground. Debates raged from 1721 until 1729 when a compromise was reached in the Adopting Act. The synod adopted the Westminster Confession but required its members to subscribe only to the essential doctrines it contained and merely recommended the Westminster Directory as a guide to church government.

Growth. Presbyterians formed the fastest-growing religious group in the eighteenth century, primarily because of the large influx of Irish immigrants. As Dissenters these Presbyterians had endured religious persecution for decades in Ireland, but the eighteenth century also brought economic hardship. Waves of Irish Presbyterians flooded into the middle and southern colonies, which tolerated their religious beliefs, and flowed into the unoccupied western regions. Some were established congregations who brought their ministers with them; most immigrated as individuals or in small family groups and were followed by clergymen.

Congregations. Most of these immigrants dispersed into scattered farms and so had to travel some distance to attend services. They usually formed small congregations which had trouble supporting a minister. Before a congregation could call a minister, each family had to pledge what it could contribute to his salary in the form of money, firewood, food, or services. If this was not sufficient, two or three congregations shared a minister and conducted their own services when he was engaged at another church. Most clergymen had to find supplementary support and moonlighted as farmers, teachers, and physicians. The synod assigned settled ministers to hold services in the vacant congregations, but they often got lost trying to find them. Larger congregations relied on pew rents, with the more desirable pews going for a higher rent. Worship services were similar to those of the early Puritans and later Congregationalists in New England, except that several congregations might join in the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper, which sometimes lasted for two days. One minister would preach a sermon of preparation, after which the local clergy dispensed communion tokens to worthy members. These were their ticket to sit at the rough tables which were roped off to keep out the undeserving.

Revivals. Within this porous, multinational, and loosely organized denomination the one common denominator was a desire for conversion. About 1726 a young minister in New Jersey, Gilbert Tennent, became acquainted with Theodorus Frelinghuysen, a neighboring Dutch Reform clergyman who was preaching emotional sermons urging personal conversion. Tennent wanted to spark his own revivals and was soon joined by his brothers and a few others who had been tutored by Gilbert’s father in what later was known as the Log College. They began to intrude on other congregations and accuse the regular clergy of being unconverted and thus not able to lead others to regeneration. Several of Tennent’s followers could not meet the stringent education standard required of ministers by the Westminster Directory and fought to rescind it. There was some sympathy for their position, for lowering these standards would make more ministers available for all those vacant congregations. The synod compromised by passing an Examination Act in 1738, which served until it established an official seminary with the requisite course of study. Those ministerial candidates without a university degree were examined by a synod committee which could attest to their learning. When the supporters of revivals persisted and tried to repeal this act as well, the synod prepared to censor them.

Great Awakening. George Whitefield arrived in 1739, sparking his own revivals and lending legitimacy to the process. It grew and became more insistent on the irrelevancy of a settled and educated clergy. Eventually the synod split into the moderate Old Side Synod of Philadelphia and the revivalist New Side Synod of New York. After the emotions of the Great Awakening quieted, however, both of these synods maintained the standards and organization that had been set earlier: an educated ministry, adherence to the essential doctrines of the Westminster Confession of Faith, and a moderately centralized church government. They only remained separated until 1758 because of the hatreds engendered among local congregations who had split during the revivals.

Sources

Jon Butler, Power, Authority, and the Origins of American Denominational Order: The English Churches in the Delaware Valley, 1680–1730 (Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1978);

Elizabeth Nybakken, “New Light on the Old Side: Irish Influences on Colonial Presbyterianism,” Journal of American History, 68 (1982): 813–832;

Sally Schwartz, “A Mixed Multitude”: The Struggle for Toleration in Colonial Pennsylvania (New York: New York University Press, 1987);

Leonard J. Trinterud, The Forming of an American Tradition: A Reexamination of Colonial Presbyterianism (Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Library Press, 1949).

presbyterians were supporters of Calvinism, preaching the doctrine of the elect and advocating church government by a hierarchy of courts—the kirk session, the presbytery in a locality, the synod in a region, and the general assembly, consisting of ministers and elders, governing the whole church. Ultimate authority was the Bible and services gave great prominence to preaching. The leading exponent of presbyterianism in the Elizabethan church was Thomas Cartwright, responsible for the millenary petition to James I in 1603, which objected to surplices, bowing at the name of Jesus, and other ceremonies. They were in strong opposition to Archbishop Laud, and after his imprisonment dominated the Westminster Assembly called by Parliament in 1643 to reform the church. The Westminster Confession which they put forward and which was accepted by Parliament in 1648 was a presbyterian statement and the basis for their domination during the Commonwealth and Protectorate. Bishops were abolished, statues and pictures removed, ceremonies cleansed. In Scotland, presbyterianism, brought by John Knox from Geneva in 1559, made rapid progress and was the core of the Solemn League and covenant, adopted in 1643.

After the Restoration, the fortunes of English and Scottish presbyterianism diverged. In England, hopes of a compromise with the Church of England faded fast and many of the 2,000 ministers forced out by the Act of Uniformity in 1662 were presbyterians. Thereafter, presbyterianism formed a declining dissenting sect, vulnerable to socinian and unitarian arguments in the early 18th cent. and outdistanced by the methodists in the later 18th cent. The Presbyterian Church in England, re-established in 1844, was reported to have only 76 places of worship in 1851—one-fifth the number of quaker meeting-houses. After severe persecution in the reigns of Charles II and James II, the Scottish presbyterians emerged triumphant in 1690, when their church was recognized as the established Church of Scotland. Its special position was guaranteed by the Act of Union of 1707.

J. A. Cannon

pres·by·ter·y / ˈprezbəˌterē; ˈpres-; -bətrē/ • n. (pl. -ter·ies) 1. [treated as sing. or pl.] a body of church elders and ministers, esp. (in Presbyterian churches) an administrative body (court) representing all the local congregations of a district. ∎  a district represented by such a body of elders and ministers.2. the house of a Roman Catholic parish priest.3. chiefly Archit. the eastern part of a church chancel beyond the choir; the sanctuary.