The Reformed Presbyterian churches are presbyterian in polity; members of each congregation elect elders who must be male, as they believe the Biblerequires, and who must also be members of the congregation. These elders, along with a minister or pastor, make up the "session" governing a congregation. Ministers are known as "teaching elders"; other elders are known as "ruling elders." The teaching elder is not in authority over the ruling elders, nor are the ruling elders in authority over the teaching elder.
The Reformed Presbyterian churches are a communion. All churches in the communion descend from the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. The member churches of the communion are:[3]
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America has jurisdiction over the Japan Presbytery, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland has a mission in the French city of Nantes. All of the communion's members form the RP Global Alliance.[4] The RP Global Alliance refers to itself as a "consultative community of Reformed Presbyterian Churches worldwide."[4]
Several denominations and individual churches not part of this group use the term "Reformed Presbyterian" in their names. While the Reformed Presbytery in North America (General Meeting) uses the name because of its claim to be the only true continuation of the RPCNA,[5] most of these other churches are more distantly related and use the term for other reasons.
Reformed Presbyterian churches describe their theology as apostolic, Protestant, Reformed (or Calvinistic), and evangelical. Members of the communion follow a historical-grammatical interpretation of the Bible, which is reflected in many of their stances on moral issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and gambling laws. Reformed Presbyterians place particular emphasis on the kingship of Christ. Specifically, they believe that the state is under obligation, once admitted but now repudiated, to recognise Jesus Christ as its king and to govern all its affairs in accordance with God's will. Words from Colossians 1:18 express the core of Covenanter theology: "that in everything he [Christ] might be preeminent."[8]
The communion adheres to the regulative principle of worship, which holds that worship must consist only of elements affirmatively found in Scripture, or implied logically by good and necessary consequence.[7][9] In keeping with their view of the regulative principle, Reformed Presbyterian churches only sing Psalms during service (a practice known as exclusive psalmody), unaccompanied by instruments and to the exclusion of hymns, as they believe this is the only form of congregational singing evidenced in and therefore permitted by the Bible.[10][11][12]
History
Reformed Presbyterians have been referred to historically as "Covenanters" because of their identification with public covenanting in Scotland, beginning in the 16th century. In response to Charles I of England's attempts to change the liturgy and form of government in the churches, which the free assemblies and the English Parliament had previously agreed upon, a number of ministers affirmed those previous agreements by signing the "National Covenant" of February 1638 at Greyfriars Kirk in Edinburgh. Many signed in their own blood.[13] Their cause is reflected in the Blue Banner associated with Reformed Presbyterianism; it proclaims "For Christ's Crown and Covenant," as the Covenanters saw the King’s attempt to revise the liturgy and government of the Church as an attempt to claim its headship from Christ.
During the First English Civil War (1642–1646), English Parliamentarians defying Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers, feared that Charles would secure the support and intervention of the Roman CatholicConfederate Ireland, as the latter in turn feared invasion by the Parliamentarians. The Parliamentarians sought the aid of the Scots, with whom they negotiated a treaty, called the "Solemn League and Covenant." This covenant obligated the Parliamentarians to reform the Church of England "according to the Word of God, and the example of the best reformed Churches"—i.e., to reform the Church of England along Presbyterian lines.[14] In exchange, the Covenanters agreed to support the Parliamentarians against Charles I and the Cavaliers in the Civil War. The Solemn League and Covenant also asserted the "crown rights" of Christ as king over both Church and state, and the Church's right to freedom from coercive state interference.
The majority of the English Long Parliament were amenable to these terms; many MPs were Presbyterians, while others preferred allying with the Scots to losing the Civil War. On 17 August 1643, the Church of Scotland (the Kirk) accepted it and on 25 September 1643 so did the English Parliament and the Westminster Assembly.[15] Pursuant to the Solemn League and Covenant, the Westminster Assembly drew up the Westminster Standards, including the influential Westminster Confession of Faith, to define and implement Reformed standards of doctrine in the Church of England.[16]
The Parliamentarians defeated Charles in June of 1646. A brief Second Civil War from February to August of 1648 ended with Charles' defeat, trial, and execution. In the period of the Commonwealth (1649–1660) that followed the Civil Wars, Oliver Cromwell put Independents in power in England, signalling the end of the reforms promised by the Parliament. When the Stuart monarchy was restored in 1660, some Presbyterians were hopeful; the new king, Charles II, had sworn to the covenants in the Treaty of Breda (1650), in exchange for the Covenanters' aid in restoring him to the throne. These hopes were quickly dashed, and the Covenant repudiated. Likewise, the Westminster Standards were revoked as standards for the Church of England.[17] Soon after the Restoration, Parliament (the so-called "Cavalier Parliament" of 1661–1679) passed the Sedition Act 1661, declaring that the Solemn League and Covenant was unlawful, and that anyone who asserted that that Covenant continued to impose obligations on any person would be liable to a charge of praemunire.[18]
Covenanters in a Glen by Alexander Carse; an illegal field assembly or Conventicle.
While the majority of the population participated in the established Church following the Restoration, the Covenanters refused to conform, instead holding worship services called conventicles in the countryside. The conventicles were proscribed by the Conventicle Act 1664 and the Conventicles Act 1670.[19][20] Nevertheless, the Covenanters continued to assemble and preach at conventicles, and suffered greatly from persecution during the reigns of Charles II and James VII. The height of the persecution, from roughly 1679 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, has subsequently become known as the Killing Time.[21] Between 1660 and 1690, tens of thousands of Scottish Covenanters fled persecution to the Irish province of Ulster, where they eventually formed the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland.
The Church of Scotland was re-established along wholly Presbyterian lines in 1691, three years after the Glorious Revolution, and the great majority Covenanters and Covenanter ministers were readmitted. A dissenting minority, however refused to re-enter the Kirk of this "Revolution Settlement." They objected that the settlement was forced upon the Church and did not adhere to the previously-agreed Solemn League and Covenant, insofar as the state continued not to acknowledge the kingship of Christ. These dissenters formed into "United Societies" which eventually constituted the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Scotland.
Because Covenanter ministers re-joined the established Church after the Revolution Settlement, the United Societies were without any ministers for sixteen years, until 1706. For those sixteen years, the Dissenting Covenanters maintained their Societies for worship and religious correspondence. There were about twenty such Societies, with a general membership of about seven thousand. In 1706, Rev. John M'Millan (or McMillan) (c. 1669–1753), previously a minister of the established Church of Scotland in the parish of Balmaghie, was offered, and accepted, the officer of minister to the Dissenting Societies.[22] M'Millan had been deposed from the established Church for persistent "protestation against all the corruptions, defections, errors, and mismanagements in the Church government of Scotland, as then established." He had also condemned the oath of allegiance to Queen Anne (r. 1702–1714), cousin and successor to William III.[23] In 1743, another minister, Rev. Thomas Nairn (c. 1680–1764), who had left the established Church and joined the Associate Presbytery, came over to the Societies, which were then constituted the Reformed Presbytery.
The Reformed Presbytery increased in numbers, and in 1810 it was divided into three bodies—the Eastern, Northern, and Southern Presbyteries—which met the following year as the first Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland. In that same year, the Irish and North American Reformed Presbyterian churches, daughters of the Scottish church, each formed their first synod. Since then, the Australian, Cypriot, Filipino, and South Sudanese Reformed Presbyterian churches have been established.
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church. Presbyterian churches derive their name from the presbyterian form of church government by representative assemblies of elders. Many Reformed churches are organised this way, but the word Presbyterian, when capitalized, is often applied to churches that trace their roots to the Church of Scotland or to English Dissenter groups that formed during the English Civil War.
The Presbyterian Church (USA), abbreviated PC (USA), is a mainline Protestant denomination in the United States. It is the largest Presbyterian denomination in the country. The Presbyterian Church (USA) was established with the 1983 merger of the Presbyterian Church in the United States, whose churches were located in the Southern and border states, with the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, whose congregations could be found in every state.
Presbyterianpolity is a method of church governance typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders. Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session or consistory, though other terms, such as church board, may apply. Groups of local churches are governed by a higher assembly of elders known as the presbytery or classis; presbyteries can be grouped into a synod, and presbyteries and synods nationwide often join together in a general assembly. Responsibility for conduct of church services is reserved to an ordained minister or pastor known as a teaching elder, or a minister of the word and sacrament.
The Solemn League and Covenant was an agreement between the Scottish Covenanters and the leaders of the English Parliamentarians in 1643 during the First English Civil War, a theatre of conflict in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. On 17 August 1643, the Church of Scotland accepted it and on 25 September 1643 so did the English Parliament and the Westminster Assembly.
The Church of Scotland is the national church in Scotland, and one of the country's largest, with over 270,000 members.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, or simply the Westminster Confession, is a Reformed confession of faith. Drawn up by the 1646 Westminster Assembly as part of the Westminster Standards to be a confession of the Church of England, it became and remains the "subordinate standard" of doctrine in the Church of Scotland and has been influential within Presbyterian churches worldwide.
The Westminster Assembly of Divines was a council of divines (theologians) and members of the English Parliament appointed from 1643 to 1653 to restructure the Church of England. Several Scots also attended, and the Assembly's work was adopted by the Church of Scotland. As many as 121 ministers were called to the Assembly, with nineteen others added later to replace those who did not attend or could no longer attend. It produced a new Form of Church Government, a Confession of Faith or statement of belief, two catechisms or manuals for religious instruction, and a liturgical manual, the Directory for Public Worship, for the Churches of England and Scotland. The Confession and catechisms were adopted as doctrinal standards in the Church of Scotland and other Presbyterian churches, where they remain normative. Amended versions of the Confession were also adopted in Congregational and Baptist churches in England and New England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The Confession became influential throughout the English-speaking world, but especially in American Protestant theology.
The Treaty of Breda (1650) was signed on 1 May 1650 between Charles II, exiled king of England, Scotland and Ireland, and the Scottish Covenanter government. Under its terms, they agreed to install Charles II as King of Scotland and Britain, while Charles undertook to establish a Presbyterian Church of England, and guarantee the rights of the Church of Scotland.
The Killing Time was a period of conflict in Scottish history between the Presbyterian Covenanter movement, based largely in the southwest of the country, and the government forces of Kings Charles II and James VII. The period, roughly from 1679 to the Glorious Revolution of 1688, was subsequently called The Killing Time by Robert Wodrow in his The History of the Sufferings of the Church of Scotland from the Restoration to the Revolution, published in 1721–22. It is an important episode in the martyrology of the Church of Scotland.
The Directory for Public Worship is a liturgical manual produced by the Westminster Assembly in 1644 to replace the Book of Common Prayer. Approved by the Parliament of England in 1644 and the Parliament of Scotland in 1645, the Directory is part of the Westminster Standards, together with the Westminster Confession of Faith, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, the Westminster Larger Catechism, and the Form of Church Government.
Calvinism originated with the Reformation in Switzerland when Huldrych Zwingli began preaching what would become the first form of the Reformed doctrine in Zürich in 1519.
Philip Nye was a leading English Independent theologian and a member of the Westminster Assembly of Divines. He was the key adviser to Oliver Cromwell on matters of religion and regulation of the Church.
A conventicle originally signified no more than an assembly and was frequently used by ancient writers for a church. At a semantic level conventicle is only a good Latinized synonym of the Greek word for church, and points to Jesus' promise in Matthew 18:20, "Where two or three are met together in my name."
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America (RPCNA) is a Presbyterian church with congregations and missions throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, and Chile. Its beliefs—held in common with other members of the Reformed Presbyterian Global Alliance—place it in the conservative wing of the Reformed family of Protestant churches. Below the Bible—which is held as divinely inspired and without error—the church is committed to several "subordinate standards," together considered with its constitution: the Westminster Confession of Faith and Larger and Shorter Catechisms, along with its Testimony, Directory for Church Government, the Book of Discipline, and Directory for Worship.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Ireland is a Presbyterian church in Ireland. The church currently has forty-three congregations, of which thirty-five are located in Northern Ireland; the remaining eight are located in the Republic of Ireland. As of 2011, its total communicant membership is 1,952. The distribution of Reformed Presbyterians accords with the distribution of the Ulster Scots, with most congregations based in counties Antrim, Londonderry and Down. Several new congregations have, however, been formed recently in the Belfast area, along with fellowships in Galway and Dublin.
Under Charles I, the Puritans became a political force as well as a religious tendency in the country. Opponents of the royal prerogative became allies of Puritan reformers, who saw the Church of England moving in a direction opposite to what they wanted, and objected to increased Catholic influence both at Court and within the Church.
Covenanters were members of a 17th-century Scottish religious and political movement, who supported a Presbyterian Church of Scotland and the primacy of its leaders in religious affairs. The name is derived from covenant, a biblical term for a bond or agreement with God.
The Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland is a small, Scottish, Presbyterian church denomination. Theologically they are similar to many other Presbyterian denominations in that their office-bearers subscribe to the Westminster Confession of Faith. In practice, they are more theologically conservative than most Scottish Presbyterians and maintain a very traditional form of worship. In 1690, after the Revolution, Alexander Shields joined the Church of Scotland, and was received along with two other ministers. These had previously ministered to a group of dissenters of the United Societies at a time when unlicensed meetings were outlawed. Unlike these ministers, some Presbyterians did not join the reconstituted Church of Scotland. From these roots the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland was formed. It grew until there were congregations in several countries. In 1876 the majority of Reformed Presbyterians, or RPs, joined the Free Church of Scotland, and thus the present-day church, which remained outside this union, is a continuing church. There are currently Scottish RP congregations in Airdrie, Stranraer, Stornoway, Glasgow, and North Edinburgh. Internationally they form part of the Reformed Presbyterian Communion.
John Kennedy, 6th Earl of Cassilis, PC was a Scottish peer, the grandson of Gilbert Kennedy, 4th Earl of Cassilis, and nephew of John Kennedy, 5th Earl of Cassilis. He succeeded to the titles of 8th Lord Kennedy and 6th Earl of Cassilis on 25 July 1616. He was a non-sitting member of Cromwell's House of Lords, and was invested as a Privy Counsellor of Scotland on 13 February 1660/61. He held the office of Justice-general from 1649 to 1651 and of an Extraordinary Lord of Session for Scotland from June 1661 to July 1662.
Presbyterianism has had a presence in the United States since colonial times and has exerted an important influence over broader American religion and culture.
↑ "The Regulative Principle of Worship". Free Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Retrieved 12 April 2022. Those who adhere to the Regulative Principle by singing exclusively the psalms, refusing to use musical instruments, and rejecting "Christmas", "Easter" and the rest, are often accused of causing disunity among the people of God. The truth is the opposite. The right way to move towards more unity is to move to exclusively Scriptural worship. Each departure from the worship instituted in Scripture creates a new division among the people of God. Returning to Scripture alone to guide worship is the only remedy.
↑ "An Act for Safety and Preservation of His Majesties Person and Government against Treasonable and Seditious practices and attempts". Section III, act of 1661. Parliament of England.
↑ Lodge, Richard (1923). The History of England From the Restoration to the Death of William III (1660–1702). p.69. OCLC740976301.
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