Romans 15:25-27
We owe it to them!
Our spiritual heritage in America is rooted in the land of the United Kingdom and formed by the English Reformation. Today, the UK has transitioned into a thoroughly secular society where the light of the gospel has grown very dim. In 1662, the Puritan Movement came to an end with the ejection of 2,000 ministers from the Church of England because they refused to sign the Oath of Conformity. The crowning achievement of this 100 year movement was the Westminster Confession of Faith. In 1643, the English Parliament called together ministerial leaders from the Anglican, Presbyterian, and Congregational churches. The purpose of the meeting was to produce an agreement for the reformation of worship. The end result was the production of the Westminster Confession of Faith. Although the WCF has become one of the most influential confessions of faith in church history, the WCF was never accepted by the Church of England. Nonetheless, the WCF is the confessional standard for Presbyterian churches all over the world and continues to be the confessional standard for the PCA. Furthermore, the WCF became the formative confessional standard used by the Baptist to establish their historical confession in 1689 which would later become the Philadelphia Confession of Faith for the Baptist in America.
In 1792, William Carey preached a message casting a vision for world missions. He challenged a group of Baptist ministers to ‘Expect great things from God, Attempt great things for God”! Thus, the modern missionary movement was born in Kettering, England. These two events are just two of the many great historical gospel moments of church history which occurred in the United Kingdom. We literally owe our American Christian heritage to those from English soil and the WCF.
What Are We Doing?
In 2013, Carolina, PCA began a missions partnership with Josh and Gina Reiger and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of England and Wales for Church planting and revitalization of the Presbyterian Church in the United Kingdom. As a result of this partnership, The EPCEW and the Session of East Hull Presbyterian Church has invited Perry over to preach for E. Hull in view of a call as an interim pastor for a year. The pastor for E. Hull will retire this summer after 15 years of service. The Church and the presbytery have great concerns for the congregation because the last pastoral transition took 7 years before filling the pulpit. Therefore, Perry and Robin will be traveling back to the UK June 23-July 8 of 2014 to explore this possibility. The budget for this summer 2014 trip is $4,500. Please prayerfully consider supporting us through the UK Heritage Project.
