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PreviewAdvancedSpecial charactersHelpHeadingLevel 2Level 3Level 4Level 5FormatInsertLatinLatin extendedIPASymbolsGreekGreek extendedCyrillicArabicArabic extendedHebrewBanglaTamilTeluguSinhalaDevanagariGujaratiThaiLaoKhmerCanadian AboriginalRunesÁáÀàÂâÄäÃãǍǎĀāĂ㥹ÅåĆćĈĉÇçČčĊċĐđĎďÉéÈèÊêËëĚěĒēĔĕĖėĘęĜĝĢģĞğĠġĤĥĦħÍíÌìÎîÏïĨĩǏǐĪīĬĭİıĮįĴĵĶķĹĺĻļĽľŁłŃńÑñŅņŇňÓóÒòÔôÖöÕõǑǒŌōŎŏǪǫŐőŔŕŖŗŘřŚśŜŝŞşŠšȘșȚțŤťÚúÙùÛûÜüŨũŮůǓǔŪūǖǘǚǜŬŭŲųŰűŴŵÝýŶŷŸÿȲȳŹźŽžŻżÆæǢǣØøŒœßÐðÞþƏəFormattingLinksHeadingsListsFilesDiscussionReferencesDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getItalic''Italic text''Italic textBold'''Bold text'''Bold textBold & italic'''''Bold & italic text'''''Bold & italic textDescriptionWhat you typeWhat you getReferencePage text.<ref>[https://www.example.org/ Link text], additional text.</ref>Page text.[1]Named referencePage text.<ref name="test">[https://www.example.org/ Link text]</ref>Page text.[2]Additional use of the same referencePage text.<ref name="test" />Page text.[2]Display references<references />↑ Link text, additional text.↑ Link text==History== After the Westminster Confession was signed by its drafters in 1643, the "Covenanters," a Presbyterian group, left the Church of Scotland for the New World to avoid signing an oath to the monarch. These early believers seceded from the [[Church of Scotland]] over doctrinal differences. Some ministers stayed in the Church of Scotland to work out their differences. By 1739, a Scottish Presbyterian pastor [[Ebenezer Erskine]] led a group of ministers to leave the [[Church of Scotland]] who formed a separate group, the [[Seceders]], which again opposed the main group and had doctrinal differences. Ebenezer Erskine and his brother Ralph Erskine preached sermons that later became the inspiration for the Associate Reformed Church in the American colonies. The monarch moved some of Ebenezer Erskine's followers to the northern Irish province of [[Plantation of Ulster|Ulster]] to quell religious disputes among Catholics and Protestants. These Ulster Scots Seceders and the Catholics continued to battle and some of the Scots later emigrated to the American colonies with Seceder ministers from Scotland in the mid-1700s. They settled with the Covenanters in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.{{cn|date=April 2023}} Some churches of the Covenanter tradition and the Seceder tradition came together officially in [[Philadelphia, Pennsylvania]], in 1782. The Synod of the South was formed consisting of churches in North and South Carolina and Georgia in 1803 and still another in Texas. Each tradition put aside doctrinal differences to come together as long as oath-signing to a central government could be avoided. For decades, the Associate Reformed Church denounced slavery; however, in 1831, the church passed a resolution that members must free their slaves immediately or be denied communion. This led to a severance of churches in the Southern Synod--particularly in the Carolina presbytery--from the Northern Synod.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carrol |first=H.K. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JPLQAAAAMAAJ |title=The Religious Forces of the United States: Enumerated, Classified, and Described on the Basis of the Government Census of 1890 |publisher=The Christian Literature Co. |year=1893 |location=New York |pages=306–307}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Lathan |first=Robert |url=http://library.logcollegepress.com/Lathan%2C+Robert+R.%2C+History+of+the+Associate+Reformed+Synod+of+the+South.pdf |title=History of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South |year=1882 |location=Harrisburg, PA |pages=300–301}}</ref> In 1858, the Northern Synod of the Associate Reformed Church merged with the [[First Secession|Associate Presbyterians]] to form the [[United Presbyterian Church of North America]]. ===Southern synod=== The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church of today traces its roots to the Synod of the South, formed in 1803. Almost immediately after forming the Synod of the South, the ministers looked into forming a seminary closer to home for the education of the ministry and the growth of the church. Many of the ministers were traveling for more than thirty days on horseback to attend Synod meetings in the North. While they were gone, the churches and the congregations suffered in their absence.{{cn|date=April 2023}} The solution they agreed to work towards was an academy called the Clarke and Erskine Seminary, which later became known as [[Erskine College|Erskine College and Seminary]]. ===Western synod=== While the larger Presbyterian Church was a mix of Scottish and English Presbyterians, several smaller Presbyterian groups were almost entirely Scottish Seceders, and they displayed the process of assimilation into the broader American religious culture. Fisk (1968) traces the history of the Associate Reformed Church in the Old Northwest from its formation by a union of Associate and Reformed Presbyterians in 1782 to the merger of this body with the Seceder bodies to form the [[United Presbyterian Church of North America|United Presbyterian Church]] in 1858. It became the Associate Reformed Synod of the West and remained centered in the Midwest. It withdrew from the parent body in 1820 because of Confessional disagreements regarding the administration of sacraments.<ref>Associate Reformed Synod of the West, John Steele, "A Statement of the Grievances, on Account of Which, that Section of the Church Now Called the 'Associate Reformed Synod of the West,' Separated From, and Declared Themselves Independent of: The 'Associate Reformed Synod of North America.'," 1823</ref> The Associate Reformed Synod of the West maintained the characteristics of an immigrant church with Scottish roots, emphasized the Westminster Standards, used only the Psalms in public worship, was Sabbatarian and was strongly abolitionist and anti-Catholic. In the 1850s however, it exhibited evidence of assimilation. It showed greater ecumenical interest, greater interest in the evangelization of the West and of the cities, and a declining interest in maintaining the unique characteristics of its Scotch-Irish past.<ref>William L. Fisk, "The Associate Reformed Church in the Old Northwest: A Chapter in the Acculturation of the Immigrant," ''Journal of Presbyterian History,'' 1968 46(3): 157–174.</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page