| The Associate Reformed
Presbyterian Church as we know
it today comes to us across a
lengthy history of service in
two lands, the British Isles
and North America. It had its
beginnings in the preaching of
John Knox in Scotland when the
Scottish Church became the
official church of Scotland in
1560 A.D. As always the case
when the church and state
become too closely allied,
controversy and bitter strife
over control became a way of
life for church and state
alike. Things improved
somewhat under King William
III in 1688 A.D. as he
reorganized the Church of
Scotland into the Established
Presbyterian Church of
Scotland. In spite of the
improvement, however, a great
number of problems still
existed, and in 1733 a pastor
by the name of Ebenezer
Erskine led a group of
Christians in forming a
separate Associate Presbytery
(from thence comes the first
part of our name). Ten years
later, another group of
Christians who for years had
suffered problems with the
established church organized
themselves into the Reformed
Presbytery.
Both churches spread to
Northern Ireland as the Scots
were forced to emigrate and
both came to America with
those "Scots-Irish" folks. The
immigrants came to the
Pennsylvania area at first,
and it was there that both the
Associate and the Reformed
Presbyteries of Pennsylvania
were organized in the
1750-1770 time period.
It was a heady time in the
new world, and all the "old
alliances" were being called
into question. The new America
was emerging and at the same
time our forefathers were
seeking to create a new church
as well. Formal union talks
between the "Associates" and
the "Reformed" began in 1777
and by 1782 the Associate
Reformed Synod came to be in
Philadelphia. This Synod, even
though all "Associates" and "Reformeds"
did not join, included
churches in Pennsylvania, New
York, Ohio, North and South
Carolina and Georgia.
Eight years later, the
Associate Reformed Presbytery
of the Carolinas and Georgia
was formed in Abbeville
County, S.C., followed some
twenty years later (1803) by
the division of the entire
church into four Synods and
one General Synod. The Synods
were those of the Carolinas,
Pennsylvania, New York and
Scioto with the headquarters
of the church in Philadelphia.
In 1822 the Synod of the
Carolinas was granted separate
status, and by the end of the
century was the sole remaining
body of the Associate Reformed
Presbyterian Church as several
mergers over the years had
absorbed the rest of the
denomination into the old
United Presbyterian Church.
The remaining "A.R.P.s" in the
Southeast continued on as the
denomination we have today.
There are now
ten Presbyteries in North
America: Canada Presbytery,
the Presbytery of the
Northeast (Northeastern United
States), Virginia Presbytery
(Virginia and West Virginia),
First Presbytery (North
Carolina), Catawba Presbytery
(Eastern South Carolina),
Second Presbytery (Western
South Carolina and Georgia),
Florida Presbytery,
Tennessee-Alabama Presbytery
(Eastern Tennessee and
Alabama), Mississippi Valley
Presbytery (Arkansas,
Missouri, Western Tennessee,
Kentucky, and Mississippi),
and Pacific Presbytery
(Washington, Oregon, and
California).
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