History…

          From the time of our Lord Jesus people have trusted in His message of salvation: “I am the way, the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me.”. As His followers put into practice His teachings the Christian Church was birthed and became organized. For a thousand years there was literally one Christian Church. However, in approximately 1100AD, this one church split into two branches; the Orthodox Church of the east (Constantinople) and the Roman Church of the west (Roman Catholic). Nearly five hundred years later the Roman Catholic Church split again. This time into dozens of small branches known collectively as the Protestant Church. You’ll note the word “protestant” sounds an awful lot like “protestor” for that is in fact what these first Protestants were. This major break in the Roman Church is known as the “Reformation” for it was the desire of the leaders of this movement to “reform” the church not leave it. Although they never intended to cause a split, the differences and disputes were simply too deep and severe to hold the church together. Thus the Protestant Church began and is now the third major branch of the Christian Church.

          Some of the more prominent people involved in the reformation were Martin Luther whose followers became known as Lutherans, John Calvin whose followers became known as the Reformed Churches (Dutch, CRC, RCA…), and John Knox whose followers were know as Presbyterian. These various branches or groups are known today as denominations. A denomination is a group of Christians who hold to the same beliefs and practices.

          The word “Presbyterian” comes from the Greek word “presbyteros”, which means elder and is in the Bible. Presbyterian churches are churches that are organized and operated by elders. A board of elders is known as a Session, which is in many respects a church court and the decision making body of that local church. A collection of Sessions or churches in a particular geographic area is called a Presbytery. Further, a collection of Presbyteries is called a Synod, and the collection of Synods is called the General Assembly, the highest governing body of the denomination.  

          Over the course of the 500 years since the reformation many branches of the protestant church have subdivided, including the Presbyterian branch. Today in America there are something like 10 or 12 different denominations that use the word Presbyterian; Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), Cumberland Presbyterian Church (CPC) and the denomination in which we belong the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), to name but a few.