with the Associate Synod to form the United Presbyterian Church of North America.
Thirty years earlier, the fourth
co-ordinate synod, the Synod of the Carolinas, had asked the Gen- eral Synod on April 3, 1821 to al- low them to become an indepen- dent synod. The General Synod permitted the action on May 19 of that same year. On April 1, 1822 the Associate Reformed Synod of the South organized by a unanimous vote. In 1912 it became known as the Associate Reformed Synod. In 1935 the Synod altered its name to the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church. All this had its beginning with the ministry of “the father of the Associ- ate Reformed Synod of the South,” Thomas Clark. ARPC minister and historian H.T. Sloan (1823-1894) wrote that two of the original mem- bers of the South Carolina (Lower) Long Cane ARP Church (established ca. 1771), William Robinson and his sister Ann McCracken, used to share their memories of Clark’s ministry with him. (H.T. Sloan, The Associate Reformed Presbyterian.)
Robinson
said, “People came far and near to hear [Clark], and on sacramental miles, and had his life been spared, it seemed that the whole country would have belonged to the church.” (Sloan.) Robinson’s hyperbolic senti- ment may be shaped by nostalgic re- Lathan commented that early ARP Church members remembered Clark pious, feared by sinners, and hated by new-light ministers.” (Robert Lathan, History of the Associate Re- formed Synod of the South: 1782-1882.) American Presbyterian historian George Howe (1802-1883) described Clark as “indefatigable in his la- bors.” (George Howe, History of the Presbyterian Church in South Caroli- na.) According to Irish Presbyterian
May/June 2022
historian Thomas Witherow (1824-1890), traditions of Dr. Clark, with his Scot- the country on horseback, and carrying the treasures of the Gospel with him to distant villages and hamlets, are still common (1879), and will be repeated part of the province. (Thomas Witherow, Historical and Literary Memorials of Presbyterianism in Ireland: Series One and Two.) Many of these people remembered Clark’s ministry with such esteem that they suggested his name be attached to the newly formed 1837 Associate Re- formed seminary in Due West, South Carolina. Located only thirty miles north of Clark’s home, the General Synod originally called the ministry school Clark and Erskine Seminary, with Clark’s name preceding his more well-known mentors Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine. As the school added a four-year liberal arts college to the seminary, an unrecorded decision occurred: the removal of Clark’s name from the institution. The school became Erskine College and Theological Seminary. The unfortunate “name-dropping” counters New York historian Asa Fitch’s (1809-1879) call for due tribute; he wrote, “Seldom has a church had a founder, a father, so able, so devoted to its service, and who had done such things for it, whereby he is entitled to have his memory respected by us, and his name preserved in perpetual remembrance.” (Asa Fitch, “The Old White Church in Salem, N.Y.” An address delivered at the Centennial Celebration of the First Pres- byterian Church in Salem, NY.) ARPC minister and historian J. S. Pressly (1793- 1863) would have agreed, concluding a brief article on Thomas Clark by asking, “Some may be ready to inquire, how it happened that a man of his antique habits, and plain manner of preaching, was made instrumental in doing so much good?” (John Strong Pressly, “Reminiscences of Dr. Thomas Clark,” The Christian Magazine of the South.) Pressly thought Clark’s “great secret” was that “his whole heart and soul were in the matter” of all he did. (Pressly.) What Clark did on his high errand as a fool for Christ and His Kingdom became the 1822 Associated Reformed Synod of the South and subsequently the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church that we know today.
Rev. John Paul Marr is the pastor of Troy ARP Church in Greenwood, SC.
Cedar Springs ARPC worship service celebrating 242 years (May 2021) 9
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