Centennial ARP Church

This church in downtown Columbia is named for the centennial of the founding of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Synod of the South in 1803 (then called the Synod of the Carolinas). It was organized by a minister of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian denomination, John Patterson Knox, who studied at Erskine Seminary.

The Associate Reformed Presbyterian denomination was formed in 1782 with the merger of the Associate Presbyterian Church and the Reformed Presbyterian Church. The denomination quickly spread to the Abbeville County area, where the Associate Reformed Presbytery of the Carolinas and Georgia was formed in 1790. The Associate Reformed Synod of the Carolinas organized in 1803, which included churches in Pennsylvania and New York. By 1822 the group wanted independence of the centralized church government in Pennsylvania and became the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Synod of the South. As the northern ARP churches left the denomination before the Civil War, the ARP Synod of the South dropped the last part of its name, becoming simply the Associate Reformed Presbyterian denomination.