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What is an ARP? Like other Presbyterians, the Associate
Reformed Presbyterian church developed from the Church of Scotland. In 1733 the
Associate Presbytery was organized in Scotland to assure a more Protestant and
democratic church. Ten years later the Reformed Presbytery was organized by
other Scots mainly over the issue of who was the head of the Church. They
emphasized that Christ was the head of the church, not the national monarch. Members of these two branches entered America
in the middle 1700s mainly in Pennsylvania, New York, and South Carolina. In
1782 these groups merged to form the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (the
first church merger in the United States). Distance and travel limitations in the early
1800s led to a decision to establish northern and southern Synods of the church.
The northern Synod has since merged with other Presbyterian bodies. The present
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church continues in what was the southern Synod.
However, since the advent of modern technology and vast improvements in travel,
our “southern Synod” is no longer southern. Although predominately in the Southeast, the ARP Church has over 200 churches from Arkansas and Missouri in the Midwest, California, and Texas in the West to Canada, New York, Maryland, and Pennsylvania in the North. Among our churches are churches whose services are in Korean and Spanish. We do not limit our sphere of ministry to North America. We have reached out beyond our borders to Mexico, Pakistan, and many other foreign countries. The miracle of air travel enables our entire
denominational leadership to come together for the meeting of General Synod each
year on our denominational conference grounds, Bonclarken, located in Flat Rock,
North Carolina. Here they strive to keep the focus of our church on Christ and
what He would have us do.
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