Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod
| Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod | |
|---|---|
| Classification | Protestant |
| Orientation | Calvinist |
| Polity | Presbyterian polity |
| Origin | 1965 |
| Merger of | Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod and Evangelical Presbyterian Church |
| Merged into | Presbyterian Church in America (1982) |
| Congregations | 145 in 1977 |
| Members | 25,448 in 1977 |
| Ministers | 385 in 1977 |
The Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod was a Reformed and Presbyterian denomination in the United States and Canada between 1965 and 1982.
The RPCES was formed in 1965 with the union of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (formerly the Bible Presbyterian Church-Columbus Synod) at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, TN held joint Synod meeting. The uniting service was held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 6, 1965, and this service was followed by sessions of the 143rd General Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod. The business of the united synods was concluded on April 8, 1965. The denomination experienced immediate growth.
The denomination subscribed to the 1647 version of the Westminster Confession of Faith; however, the plan of union to form the denomination, in a concession to the largely premillennial Evangelical Presbyterian Church, called for modifications to the Larger Catechism to make it more hospitable to those who held to a premillennial eschatology. It practiced traditional worship and was conservative in its theology. The RPCES had also planned to include resolutions warning members against the evils of dancing, liquor, television, gambling and tobacco, again, in a concession to the Evangelical Presbyterian Church's Bible Presbyterian heritage, yet these resolutions, despite being a basis for the merger, had no binding legislative power.
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church invited the RPCES to organic union third time (OPC had fraternal relation with the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (1961) The OPC had extensive contact with this latter group already since 1945, when a committee was established to investigate the possibility of union with them 2 times, in 1949, and in 1959 unsuccessful.) The 42nd General Assembly of the OPC voted 95-42 in favour of the proposed union, but the vote in the RPCES failed to gain the two-thirds majority required to approve the plan.
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