Presbyterian denominations

[WrittenFromUtopia]

The PCA has many bulwarks of the Reformed faith, but in my experience, finding one near you is not always possible. So, for someone looking for a "sure thing" anywhere in the country, I'd suggest the other denominations first.

 

[Me Died Blue]

Originally posted by JOwen
If memory serves, there are less than 40 communicant members _worldwide_ in the RPNA. Their last Communion Season in Edmonton had folks fly in from various corners of the continent for the "event". At this time they have one TE (Greg Price) and two RE's (Dohms and Barrow). To say that this is a denomination is almost as funny as saying it is a presbytery! Price lives in NY and Barrow and Dohms in Alberta. There is not even a "session" to speak of in the settled state. As far as I know there is not, nor hs there ever been a single deacon either. Their website is misleading if they are trying to pass off these 7 places as Churches when in actual fact they are at most, "society meetings" with no officers at all.

Thanks for mentioning this information, Jerrold. On their site, they do indeed list no more than three elders, and say "Below is a listing of all the churches and societies in the Presbytery where more than one family is meeting together," thus admitting to the true status of many of their congregations as mere "societies."

 

[Me Died Blue]

Originally posted by WrittenFromUtopia
The PCA has many bulwarks of the Reformed faith, but in my experience, finding one near you is not always possible. So, for someone looking for a "sure thing" anywhere in the country, I'd suggest the other denominations first.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're referring to by "the other denominations," but regarding the five additional ones you mentioned above, the PCA has more congregations than any of them.

 

[JohnV]

Chris:

How many Continental Reformed denominations are there in North America? And how many are offshoots from pre-existing North American denominations? ( E.g., URC comes out of the CRC; HRC from NRC, etc. ) And how would you classify the CanRC, which began a new denomination, but not out of an existing North American ( Canadian ) denomination? This set of questions just hit me last night, and got me wondering.

 

[Mike]

Originally posted by Me Died Blue

Originally posted by WrittenFromUtopia
The PCA has many bulwarks of the Reformed faith, but in my experience, finding one near you is not always possible. So, for someone looking for a "sure thing" anywhere in the country, I'd suggest the other denominations first.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're referring to by "the other denominations," but regarding the five additional ones you mentioned above, the PCA has more congregations than any of them.

I think he was not trying to claim that there are few PCA churches, but that finding one that is a bulwark of the Reformed faith was hard, even though finding one at all might not be.

I first read it like you did, but this way would have it make sense with a view that is at least under many opinions consistent with reality.

[Edited on 1-5-2006 by Mike]

 

[Me Died Blue]

Ahh, got it. From what I've heard from many people's experience, I unfortunately couldn't disagree with that to too great an extent, even though my own experience with PCA churches in the two cities in which I ever reside at the moment has fortunately been completely different.

 

[Mike]

Originally posted by Me Died Blue
Ahh, got it. From what I've heard from many people's experience, I unfortunately couldn't disagree with that to too great an extent, even though my own experience with PCA churches in the two cities in which I ever reside at the moment has fortunately been completely different.

I'd imagine it depends in large part with what your're looking for.

 

[Me Died Blue]

Originally posted by Mike

Originally posted by Me Died Blue
Ahh, got it. From what I've heard from many people's experience, I unfortunately couldn't disagree with that to too great an extent, even though my own experience with PCA churches in the two cities in which I ever reside at the moment has fortunately been completely different.

I'd imagine it depends in large part with what your're looking for.

Well, if it's weekly occurence of both faithful expository preaching from whole books of the Bible and topical preaching on issues like the five points and Covenant Theology, both types of weekly preaching being experimental, a high view of the sacraments, worship that is faithful to the Regulative Principle provided one is not EP, an eldership that regularly meets with all members in designated groups, and educating classes on Scripture, the confessional standards and other Reformed issues, a definite priority for missions, as well as a body of members that are eager to serve each other on a constant basis, I've certainly found what I'm looking for in my home PCA church in Memphis - as well as the PCA church I attend whenever I visit back in Cincinnati, actually.

 

[NaphtaliPress]

Wow; I lost my breath reading this; hoping for a period.

Originally posted by Me Died Blue
Well, if it's weekly occurence of both faithful expository preaching from whole books of the Bible and topical preaching on issues like the five points and Covenant Theology, both types of weekly preaching being experimental, a high view of the sacraments, worship that is faithful to the Regulative Principle provided one is not EP, an eldership that regularly meets with all members in designated groups, and educating classes on Scripture, the confessional standards and other Reformed issues, a definite priority for missions, as well as a body of members that are eager to serve each other on a constant basis, I've certainly found what I'm looking for in my home PCA church in Memphis - as well as the PCA church I attend whenever I visit back in Cincinnati, actually.

 

[Me Died Blue]

I guess I got into a sort of Chesterton mode in my writing of that prose!

 

[CalsFarmer]

Mid Cities OPC
Mid Cities OPC
Mid Cities OPC
Mid Cities OPC
Mid Cities OPC



Wayne that IS Right...right?

 

[Me Died Blue]

Originally posted by JohnV
Chris:

How many Continental Reformed denominations are there in North America? And how many are offshoots from pre-existing North American denominations? ( E.g., URC comes out of the CRC; HRC from NRC, etc. ) And how would you classify the CanRC, which began a new denomination, but not out of an existing North American ( Canadian ) denomination? This set of questions just hit me last night, and got me wondering.

I'm not too familiar with the history of most of them in terms of what church they came from, other than the two basic ones you mentioned. Likewise, I don't know any more about the factors surrounding the CanRC's founding, I simply know it is a confessional Reformed church in North America that has not sold out or watered down.

Right now, the main Continental Reformed denominations in North America of which I am aware are those I mentioned in my initial post:

Canadian and American Reformed Churches (http://www.canrc.org)
Free Reformed Churches of North America (http://www.frcna.org)
Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations (http://www.hnrc.org/gr/Find_A_Church/find_a_church.html)
Hungarian Reformed Church in America (http://www.calvinsynod.org/church/location.htm)
Orthodox Christian Reformed Church (http://www.burlingtonocrc.com/directory.html)
Protestant Reformed Churches in America (http://www.prca.org)
Reformed Church in the United States (http://www.rcus.org)
Reformed Church of Québec (http://www.erq.qc.ca)
United Reformed Churches in North America (http://www.urcna.org)

I, too, would be interested in know about others.

 

[JohnV]

As I understand it, of the Continental Reformed in North America, the RCA was first, and oldest. Then the CRC. Of the ones you listed, only HNRC, URC, and OCRC are split-offs from other denominations, while the rest, as far as I know, are original. The CRC formed by one classis, deciding it did not want to be affiliated with the RCA, so instead of joining they formed what is now the CRC. So technically it is not a split-off, though effectively it amounts the same thing. The PRC split off the CRC in the Twenties, as I recall. That would make four, though I'm not sure about their present status. As I recall, some of them rejoined the CRC, and some merged with the FRC. ( I'm just going off memory on all these. )

The interesting thing is that over the past hundred years and more there have been relatively few new-found denominations formed from existing Continental Reformed churches. I'm sure there are more, but its not like they are split-happy. If you consider also that the Presbyterian churches are hundreds of years old, it would seem somewhat comparable. The splits of late, in the Twentieth Century, seem to be of a different sort. What the Dutch churches on the European Continent went through in the Nineteenth Century is what the Presbyterian churches went through in the early, mid, and later Twentieth Century. Its not, then, related to being Reformed as it is a cultural invasion all over the ecclesiastical map, some taking one course, some another in response to the changes introduced by cultural imbibing.

Just a rough impression from your list, Chris.

 

[fredtgreco]

Originally posted by Me Died Blue

Originally posted by WrittenFromUtopia
The PCA has many bulwarks of the Reformed faith, but in my experience, finding one near you is not always possible. So, for someone looking for a "sure thing" anywhere in the country, I'd suggest the other denominations first.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you're referring to by "the other denominations," but regarding the five additional ones you mentioned above, the PCA has more congregations than any of them.

To be more specific:

If one thought that the PCA was composed of 90% unattendable churches, the number of attendables would still be nearly double that of the combined number of all congregations of the other denominations.

I'm not exactly sure what Bobby wants from his original question - the thread has moved a bit since then - but it really does not do anyone practical good to say "well of course there is a good Presbyterian denomination. You simply have to move 1500 miles to be near one."

 

[Peter]

Fred, the same could probably be said of the PC-USA which is far larger than the PCA and has a strong confessional movement

 

[fredtgreco]

Originally posted by Peter
Fred, the same could probably be said of the PC-USA which is far larger than the PCA and has a strong confessional movement

Actually, Peter,

I don't think so. Even the strong Confessing Movement churches are far removed from the WCF, and do not really even attempt to subscribe to it.

I just don't think that is an analogy that works. My point is that evn though the PCA has some problematic churches, in general it is a Confessional denomination. Not perfect, but Confessional.

Again, I am not sure that the original intention was to say who is the "best" or "most Confessional" - that could be argued about ad nauseam. I took Bobby's intent as "where would you recommend to someone looking for a church." To that end, if a denomination has no churches in an entire state - often in a multiple state area - and I mean none, not no "good ones," what use is it to recommend it as a denomination for that purpose?

 

[rmwilliamsjr]

is the information from this thread posted as a webpage somewhere so we can refer people to it with questions?

i found another list at:
http://www.tateville.com/churches.html

but not this one.

there is a thread on the PCA at:
http://www.christianforums.com/t2824408-the-pca.html

that has me doing a little quick research on the splits in the conservative churches. can anyone point to a thread or webpage that discusses this issue? particularly interested in the right side PCA splits.

[Edited on 3-25-2006 by rmwilliamsjr]

 

[beej6]

FYI, see my webpage for a simple list of links. It's probably more inclusive than some of the suggestions above, but I had a specific purpose for putting this list together...

 

[calgal]

Originally posted by Me Died Blue

Originally posted by JohnV
Chris:

How many Continental Reformed denominations are there in North America? And how many are offshoots from pre-existing North American denominations? ( E.g., URC comes out of the CRC; HRC from NRC, etc. ) And how would you classify the CanRC, which began a new denomination, but not out of an existing North American ( Canadian ) denomination? This set of questions just hit me last night, and got me wondering.

I'm not too familiar with the history of most of them in terms of what church they came from, other than the two basic ones you mentioned. Likewise, I don't know any more about the factors surrounding the CanRC's founding, I simply know it is a confessional Reformed church in North America that has not sold out or watered down.

Right now, the main Continental Reformed denominations in North America of which I am aware are those I mentioned in my initial post:

Canadian and American Reformed Churches (http://www.canrc.org)
Free Reformed Churches of North America (http://www.frcna.org)
Heritage Netherlands Reformed Congregations (http://www.hnrc.org/gr/Find_A_Church/find_a_church.html)
Hungarian Reformed Church in America (http://www.calvinsynod.org/church/location.htm)
Orthodox Christian Reformed Church (http://www.burlingtonocrc.com/directory.html)
Protestant Reformed Churches in America (http://www.prca.org)
Reformed Church in the United States (http://www.rcus.org)
Reformed Church of Québec (http://www.erq.qc.ca)
United Reformed Churches in North America (http://www.urcna.org)

I, too, would be interested in know about others.

The Netherlands Reformed are another continental church. They are not the same as Joel Beeke's denomination.

[Edited on 4-9-2006 by calgal]

 

[beej6]

I don't believe the Netherlands Reformed have a website...

If I'm reading my issues of _Christian Renewal_ right, the CanRC and the URC are pursuing church union fairly seriously.