Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

This is the authorized website of the
Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church (CRPC),
a Reformed and Presbyterian denomination organized in 1998.

This denomination originated from four meetings that took place over a year's period of time with representatives from a small group of churches committed to the historical Reformed faith and basic presbyterial polity.  Some had left other small denominations and others had begun as independents.  We began these meetings after independently concluding that larger "conservative" Reformed and Presbyterian denominations of North America were composed of a far broader spectrum of doctrinal tolerance than we believed consistent with the Bible and their confessional standards (both Westminster and Three Forms of Unity).  While many good churches exist in these various denominations, each of our churches decided that the battles being fought among the various factions within each of these larger denominations were tending in the direction of lesser rather than greater adherence to their confessional standards.  Other smaller denominations of the same general theological persuasion that might have been options, were either too parochial, ethnic or centered around one particular prominent leader.  While not wishing to add to the number of small Reformed and Presbyterian denominations, we concluded that while we continued our search for a denomination or federation with which we could conscientiously identify or merge, we would form a denomination on a interim basis and continue our search as a group of churches.  Thus began the CRPC. Click here for a more thorough introduction to the CRPC.

While the search continues, the CRPC has developed a unique Constitution composed of the Westminster Confessional Standards of the Westminster Confession of Faith (1647), Larger Catechism (1648) and Shorter Catechism (1648), along with the Three Forms of Unity; and added to it virtually unalterable doctrines of polity and worship gleaned from the Westminster Form of Government (1645) and Directory for Publik Worship (1645). This is intended to be a rather static document with many requirements to be met before it can be altered. An additional church document was added entitled By-Laws: Principles and Practices of Church Life (also known as the Book of Church Government). These help bring to expression the Scriptural principles found in the Constitution and thus is secondary to it. There are three documents contained in the By-Laws—the Directory of Church Order (DCO), the Directory of Church Discipline (DCD), and the Directory of Church Worship (DCW)—form a manual of practice for the denomination. Since the forming of the Constitution in 2005, the American Presbytery is in the process of revising these three directories to bring them into full conformity with the new Constitution and to eliminate some inconsistencies. As of December 29, 2005, the Directory for Church Worship (DCW) has been fully revised. If there is any contradiction between the By-Laws and the Constitution, the Constitution supercedes the By-Laws. (For more CRPC download information, see table below.)

It should be noted that the CRPC holds to the ORIGINAL Westminster Confession and Catechisms and not one of the various American versions (which made substantive changes from 1788 onwards yet kept the same name with various revision dates up into the 1900's) which, in our opinion, watered down the Lordship of Christ over civil magistrates in the original as well as some other doctrines (click here for more information).

The CRPC, in its July 2008 American Presbytery established some important Introductory Principles which are enumerated immediately below and are self-explanatory.

Brief Introductory Principles of the Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

In the following statement of introductory principles,
1) the term “Presbytery” is intended to mean that body of church officers gathered in assemblies broader than the local church government
and 2) Session is the term used for the local church presbytery.

1. We exist as a Presbytery for the “well-being” of churches and not for the “essence” of the church.
2. We exist to give evidence of the spiritual unity we have in Christ (cf. John 17:20-23). We do not create it, Christ does. Nor do we seek to have a working relationship whereby we “rule over” one another.
3. Each local church is a church in her own “right” and has her headquarters in heaven rather than in Presbytery.
4. We exist to seek and give mutual advice when asked, to be a place of appeals, and to establish courts for trials as these become necessary.
5. We exist to be a help to the local Sessions for the purposes of examination of candidates for the Ministry and, if so requested, also for Elders.
6. Presbytery is a servant to the local Session rather than that Session is a servant to the Presbytery.
7. We hold to the principle that, “No church/Minister/Session may lord it over another church/Minister/Session”. It is not the prerogative of Presbytery to legislate how each particular church/Session ought to do things which go beyond what we have covenanted to do in the Book of Church Government.
8. We have no standing committees and no budgets, other than what a given meeting of Presbytery might deem necessary for a specific period of time and/or purpose.
9. We bring together what we consider to be the best of “Presbyterian Church Polity” and “Reformed Church Polity”. For example:
   (a) We have church courts but not standing courts (they exist by creation of Presbytery and for a specific case/trial).
   (b) Our Ministers are members of the local church and are under the authority of the local Session in regards to their ethical conduct but their ministerial credentials are held by the Presbytery.
10. When we gather as Presbytery, we do so as delegates of the local sessions and not as church. Therefore, we do not hold worship services at Presbytery.
11. We trust God to grant wisdom to each governing church body as they deal with each situation. This affects our Book of Church Government, in that we do not seek to establish laws for each situation and scenario.
12. We believe that these principles ought to govern the motives for a given church to seek to join our Presbytery and/or to separate from our Presbytery.
13. We seek unity with all true churches which are governed by Christ through men of good faith, who love the biblical truth and desire to defend it and promote it with us. Therefore, we call ourselves Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church because:
    (a) Covenant reminds us of God’s unfailing commitment to His people and our bond to one another in Christ so as to capture the heart of both the Scriptures and these covenant documents and not their mere words alone;
    (b) Reformed reminds us that our theology is that rooted and grounded in the Scriptures and revived through the Protestant Reformation and that our polity contains the best of that found in churches of Reformed polity;
    (c) Presbyterian reminds us that our church government is by Christ ruling through a plurality of elders with equal votes though differing gifts and contains the best of that found in churches of Presbyterian polity;
    (d) Church reminds us again of our covenanted and spiritual unity with Christ’s one church. It is not intended to convey the hierarchical concept of one overarching central denominational church government. While we are essentially governed by Christ at the local church level, we do not call ourselves churches because we wish to demonstrate our distinction from those of an essentially historical congregational polity.

The CRPC, in addition to these Introductory Principles, has a number of distinctives that are found throughout its documents. Click here (DISTINCTIVES) to see an explanation of many of our distinctives and where they may be found in our Constitution and/or By-Laws.

The CRPC invites other churches which find themselves in similar circumstances to consider joining us in our search together.  Other denominations are invited to inquire on discussions that might lead to working relationships and even fraternal relations, in hopes of eventual unity if God so leads. See the Society of Presbyteries and Reformed Churches for more information on the efforts the CRPC has extended to promote such unity. (At the present time, we are in discussion with one other small denomination regarding fraternal relations. We have extended offers of discussions regarding the same to two others. We have submitted our reasons for not joining with one other denomination--see Short Report for October 19-21, 2004 for details.)

Next American Presbytery Meeting
Covenant Reformed Presbyterian Church

Interested parties and churches are invited. 
(Notice of attendance requested to help with facility arrangements. )

November 10-12, 2008
Meeting begins November 10 at 7 p.m. and adjourns on November 12 at 3 p.m.
Hosted by:  King's Reformed Presbyterian Church of Palm Bay, Florida
Presbytery Meeting Location: to be announced, but either in Fellsmere or Palm Bay, Florida.

Contact information for these meetings: For information about the location and arrangements for these meetings, contact
Geoffrey Donnan , Teaching Elder
13950 - 122nd St.
Fellsmere, Florida 32948-6411 U.S.A.
Phone:  772-571-8030; Fax: 772-571-8010
e-mail: gwd@reformation.edu

Contact information for the CRPC in General: Inquiries regarding the denomination should be directed to our Communication Secretary
whose function it is to route that inquiry to the appropriate church or person.

Communications Secretary
Geoffrey Donnan, Teaching Elder
13950 - 122nd St.
Fellsmere, Florida 32948-6411 U.S.A.
Phone:  772-571-8030
Email: CommSec@covref.org

Directory of CRPC CHURCHES

General Information on the CRPC, CLICK HERE
Distinctives of the CRPC, CLICK HERE
"Hot Topics" & position papers  of the CRPC, CLICK HERE
Short Reports & Picture Reports
from American Presbytery Meetings  of the CRPC, CLICK HERE

MORE BELOW

Download our Constitution
and/or By-Laws: Principles and Practice of Church Life
(also known as the Book of Church Government)

The CRPC Constitution is derived from the Westminster Standard's "The Form of Presbyterial Church-Government" (1645) and "The Directory for the Publick Worship of God" (1645) those things which are clearly "regulative" and thus doctrinal in the areas of polity and worship. These are intended to stay quite static (as they should).

Supplemental and subordinate to the Constitution are the CRPC By-Laws: Principles and Practice of Church Life which are "wisdom" or "administrative" matters (derived as much as possible from Scripture but not considered as regulative as those matters in the Constitution). These are called the Book of Church Government (BCG) and are composed of three directories: The Directory of Church Order (DCO), the Directory of Church Discipline (DCD) and the Directory of Church Worship (DCW). Along with their appendixes and the position papers, these are more subject to occasional changes.

Our church documents are downloadable below. Please be aware that these are in Adobe^® Acrobat^® format (.pdf).
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