Presbyterian Turf War Erupts In South Carolina
Published August 14, 2024
Sexual assault allegations against a Palmetto State pastor threaten to bring down a 224-year-old church body…
"According to official ARP documents (.pdf) posted online, Wilson was accused of engaging in a 'pattern of verbally, physically, and sexually abusive behavior toward (his daughters) from the time of their early childhood and continuing into their teenage and young adult years.'”The Second Presbytery of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian (ARP) church was founded in 1800, “formed by the division of the Associate Reformed Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia,” according to the denomination.
“The beginnings of Second Presbytery remain so interwoven into the history of the ARP Church,” the group’s website declares.
As of this writing, Second Presbytery – the oldest Presbytery in the entire denomination – includes congregations in “the state of Georgia and the Western South Carolina counties of Abbeville, Aiken, Allendale, Anderson, Barnwell, Edgefield, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Pickens, Saluda, Spartanburg and Union.”
Assuming nothing changes over the next two weeks, though, the Presbytery’s 224-year run will come to an abrupt end on September 1, 2024 – with its roughly three dozen churches being folded into two of the ARP church’s other Presbyteries (and its assets absorbed by those entities).
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