The Old Side-New Side Controversy

The Old Side–New Side Controversy occurred within the Presbyterian Church in Colonial America and was part of the wider theological controversy surrounding the First Great Awakening. The Old and New Side Presbyterians existed as separate churches from 1741 until 1758. The name of Old Side–New Side is usually meant as specifically referring to the Presbyterian Church. When one is referring to the debate as a whole, Old and New Light is usually used.

As the first Presbyterian colonists began arriving in the Middle Colonies in the late-17th and early-18th centuries, the Presbyterian Church was organized from the ground up. America's first presbytery, the Presbytery of Philadelphia, was created in 1706, and initially consisted of seven congregations.

As Scottish and Scotch Irish immigrants to the American colonies in the early 18th century swelled the number of Presbyterians in the colonies, the number of congregations grew rapidly throughout this period, and it soon became apparent that all the congregations could not be accommodated within a single presbytery. As such, in 1717, at a meeting at Southampton, New York, the colonies' first synod, designated the Synod of Philadelphia, was formed. The Synod of Philadelphia was initially divided into four presbyteries: the Long Island Presbytery; the Presbytery of Philadelphia; the New Castle Presbytery; and the Presbytery of Snow Hill (which actually never met).

It is unclear when the trouble and differences arose in the Synod of Philadelphia. What is agreed is that by 1737 trouble was undeniable. That year the Synod passed several acts of importance. The first was one forbidding the practice of itinerant preaching by requiring permission from the governing presbytery to agree to the traveling minister. The second was the requiring of a college diploma prior to a candidate being taken on trials for the ministry. For those unable to go to college two committees were set up who would examine the candidate and certify them as ready for trials or not. These first two acts seem aimed at those who supported the First Great Awakening. Gilbert Tennent specifically thought the act about college diplomas was directed at his father, who founded William Tennent’s Log College from which the majority of early Awakening supporters graduated. The third act of that year created the Presbytery of New Brunswick. This presbytery was controlled by pro-Awakening men, who would be called the New Side. It was the first presbytery controlled by the New Side. Those who opposed the Awakening would come to be called the Old Side.

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