The RPCNA, like the other churches of the Reformed Presbyterian Global Alliance, descends from the
Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which formed in 1690. From the time of the Revolution Settlement in 1691, the foremost of Reformed Presbyterian "distinctive principles" was the practice of political dissent from the British government. The first Reformed Presbyterian congregation in North America was organized in Middle Octorara (
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) in 1738, but the first presbytery, organized by four immigrant Irish and Scottish Reformed Presbyterian ministers, was not formed until 1774. At this time, Reformed Presbyterians were mostly concentrated in eastern
Pennsylvania and northern
South Carolina, but small groups of Reformed Presbyterians existed in
Massachusetts,
Connecticut,
New York, western Pennsylvania,
North Carolina, and
Georgia. During the
American Revolution, most Reformed Presbyterians fought for
independence—the one minister who served in South Carolina was even arrested for insurrection and brought before
Lord Cornwallis in 1780. After the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, the denomination held the document (and therefore all governments under it) to be immoral, and participation in such a government to be likewise immoral, because the constitution contained no recognition of Christ as the King of Nations. Therefore, the RPCNA eschewed various civic rights, such as voting and jury service, and church courts disciplined members who exercised them. As few Americans held such principles, and as obedience sometimes caused difficulty (for example, oaths of allegiance were prohibited, preventing
foreign-born Reformed Presbyterians from becoming citizens, and preventing Reformed Presbyterians to make use of the
Homestead Act), many Reformed Presbyterians began to differ with the denomination's official position. Between 1774 and 1891, the denomination experienced four schisms, three of them involving members who deemed the denomination's position too strict. • In 1782, almost all of the church merged with the Associate Presbyterian Church (the
Seceders) to form the
Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, holding that the new situation of independence removed the reasons for political dissent. The few remaining members who refused to join the merger, including just two congregations, were reorganized into a presbytery in 1798. • In 1833, the church split down the middle, forming the New Light and Old Light RP Synods. The New Lights, who formed the
Reformed Presbyterian Church, General Synod and exercised political rights, grew for some years but suffered splits and went into decline, eventually merging in 1965 with the
Evangelical Presbyterian Church (formerly the Bible Presbyterian Church-Columbus Synod) to form the
Reformed Presbyterian Church, Evangelical Synod, which in 1982 merged with the
Presbyterian Church in America. • A third split, in 1840, resulted in two ministers and a few elders leaving to form the
Reformed Presbytery (nicknamed the Steelites, after
David Steele, their most prominent leader), which continues today. Unlike with the other splits, this was occasioned by the departed ministers and members holding that the denomination itself had fallen away from its covenants and "historical attainments" by allowing "
occasional hearing", political activity, and membership in "voluntary associations". • The main body of the RPCNA suffered another split, the "East End Split", in 1891, again on the matter of political activity and office-holding. Statistics reveal that denominational membership suffered a net loss of 11% in 1891, most of whom joined the
United Presbyterian Church. Despite such disagreements, the denomination held to its doctrines with few changes. Holding to the principle that covenants should continue to be updated and sworn, the RPCNA adopted the "Covenant of 1871" as their new church covenant in that year. Some members saw certain aspects of this covenant as major departures from historic Reformed Presbyterian positions, causing some to leave and join the Reformed Presbytery. Perhaps the most enduring change during the 19th century involved participation in social reform movements. One cause favored by the denomination was the
abolition of slavery, beginning officially in 1800, when members were prohibited from slave owning and from the slave trade. Enthusiastically supported by most members, the denomination took a strong stance against the
Confederacy and faithfully supported the North in the
Civil War, as Reformed Presbyterians enlisted to fight against the "slaveholders' rebellion". Abolition was a major factor in the decline of the denomination's South Carolina and
Tennessee congregations: most members there, finding it hard to be abolitionists in slave-owning societies, moved to southern
Ohio,
Indiana, and
Illinois; by the beginning of the
Civil War, all of the old congregations in South Carolina and Tennessee were gone. The only congregations remaining in slave-holding territory were in
Baltimore, Maryland, and in Roney's Point, Virginia (now
West Virginia), near
Wheeling. Another area of social activism focused on
alcohol and tobacco. While drunkenness had always been prohibited, members were prohibited from the alcohol business in 1841, and by the 1880s, both church officers and ordinary members were prohibited from alcohol use. By 1886, tobacco use was strongly condemned as well, with ordination being prohibited to anyone who used it. As a result, the denomination explicitly supported the
Eighteenth Amendment and other
prohibition efforts for many decades. Immigration from Reformed Presbyterian churches in Ireland and Scotland provided sustained growth for the denomination. Some congregations, especially those on the
East Coast, saw rapid growth; over ninety members, many of them immigrants, joined the Baltimore, Maryland, congregation in a single three-year period. Meanwhile, members moved west and many congregations were organized. In 1840, there were four East Coast city congregations and zero congregations west of the
Mississippi River, the farthest west congregation being in
southwestern Illinois. In 1865, there were nine East Coast city congregations and eight congregations west of the Mississippi, as far west as
southwestern Iowa. In 1890, there were twelve East Coast city congregations and thirty-five congregations west of the Mississippi, as far west as
Seattle, Washington. More presbyteries were organized as well: in 1840, there were 5; in 1850, 5; in 1860, 6; in 1870, 8; in 1880, 10; in 1890, 11. During the middle decades of the 19th century, the denomination experienced widespread growth. Many congregations in
the East were organized in cities, while many others were countryside congregations. Farther west, however, most congregations were founded in the countryside. This is due in large part to the way of life of many Reformed Presbyterian settlers. Typically, a large group of settlers would gather and move to an area favorable for farming, where a congregation would soon be organized for them. Some congregations saw extremely fast growth in this way: the North Cedar (
Denison, Kansas) congregation did not exist in 1870 but had eighty-four members in 1872. Other growth came from different sources. Although American congregations had been governed by an American church since 1798, the Scottish and Irish synods continued to operate missions in
Canada. Over the years, several Scottish-synod congregations joined the North American synod, and with the blessing of the Irish synod, an entire presbytery ("New Brunswick and Nova Scotia") transferred in 1879. Few complete congregations have joined the RPCNA over the years, other than these, although the denomination has seen one merger: in 1969, the RPCNA merged with the remnants of the Associate Presbyterian Church, which by this point consisted of just four churches. After sixty years of nearly constant growth, the denominational split in 1891 led to a denomination-wide downturn. Although the departure of twelve hundred members in the split still left over ten thousand communicant members, nearly constant loss led to a total of just 3,804 communicant members by 1980. During this time, the large congregations in the big cities of the East gradually withered: while in 1891, there were two congregations in
Boston, Massachusetts, five in
New York City, three in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one in Baltimore, in 1980 there were only four in Boston, New York, and Philadelphia combined. Settlement and growth in the western United States continued for a time, with new presbyteries being organized in
Colorado, the
Pacific Coast, and the
Prairie Provinces of Canada. However, the countryside congregations also dwindled, from 83 in 1891 to 25 in 1980. Presbyteries, too, were disorganized and combined, with only seven presbyteries remaining in 1980. Perhaps the most drastic examples of both congregational and presbyterial decline involve New York: by 1980, four presbyteries (Philadelphia, New York, Vermont, and New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) had been combined into the New York Presbytery (since renamed Atlantic), while five New York City congregations with 1,075 communicant members had been reduced to one congregation of only about forty people. Although large numbers of losses were due to individuals leaving for other churches, some departures involved many people at once. For example, over 100 communicant members left First Boston congregation when their pastor left the denomination in 1912, while
Craftsbury, Vermont, and Second Newburg (
Newburgh, New York) congregations left the denomination as entire congregations, in 1906 and 1919 respectively. After the mid-1910s, even the founding of new congregations was uncommon, with only three each in the 1920s and 1930s, and none at all between 1937 and 1950. ==Beliefs and practices==