Our historical roots go back to Scotland where in 1733 the Associate Presbytery was organized followed by the Reformed Presbytery ten years later. These two groups eventually came to this country and in 1782 they united to form the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. Distance and travel limitations in the early 1800’s led to a separation of the northern and southern branches of the church, the northern branch having since merged with other Presbyterian bodies. The present ARP church, with over 200 churches, although no longer geographically limited to the American south, is the continuation of the southern branch.
We have a written history of our church published in 1986 (our sesquicentennial edition) and there is also a history of the denomination written in 1966 by Ray King who was then a professor at Erskine Seminary in Due West, South Carolina. The title of this publication is “A History of the ARP Church”. For more information about the Associate Reformed Synod, please visit their website at: http://www.arpchurch.org/Site/ARP_History.html