Who we are...The mission of Tidewater Presbytery is to promote the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to every man, woman, and child within our bounds by shepherding and governing the regional church, planting churches, and spreading God’s Word.
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Our HistoryTidewater Presbytery has boundaries reaching from the Atlantic Ocean on the East to Southhampton County on the West. From the streets of Colonial Williamsburg on the north to the beautiful farmlands of southern Virginia to the northeastern tip of North Carolina on the South. Originally named Mid-Atlantic Presbytery in 1973, the boundaries of the presbytery encompassed all of North Carolina north to Maine, west to West Virginia and Pennsylvania. Since then many presbyteries were formed from this presbytery. In 1982 at the joining and receiving of the Reformed Presbyterian Church Evangelical Synod, the presbytery was again divided and renamed the James River Presbytery. In 2002 four of our churches transferred to the newly created Blue Ridge Presbytery. In 2007 the southern boundary of the James River Presbytery was extended into North Carolina to include all or part of nine counties with strong social and geographic ties to the southeastern cities in Tidewater Virginia. Our latest division was in October 2013 when thirteen of our churches were transferred to the newly created Tidewater Presbytery.
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Our ConvictionsWe acknowledge that Christ – and Christ alone – is Lord and Head of the Church, in all of her expressions (Colossians 1:18). We recognize that Jesus declared that He would build His Church (Matthew 16:18), and that He perfectly modeled the diverse aspects of His ministry through the exercise of three distinct offices: Prophet, Priest, and King. Tidewater Presbytery will seek to reflect our Lord’s headship by committing ourselves to holistic ministry, which values equally all three perspectives these offices represent, as defined by the Westminster Larger Catechism Questions 42-45 and Shorter Catechism Questions 23-26.
Our CompositionTidewater Presbytery is composed of the local churches of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), which are in the southeastern counties and cities of the Commonwealth of Virginia and in the northeastern counties of the State of North Carolina, including: (from Virginia) the counties of Surry, Southampton, James City, York, Gloucester, Mathews, Isle of Wight, Accomack, Northampton, and the cities of Williamsburg, Suffolk, Chesapeake, Franklin, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, and Virginia Beach; and (from North Carolina) the counties of Currituck, Camden, Perquimans, Pasquotank, Chowan, Gates, Hertford, Bertie, and the area of Dare County east of Croatan Sound and North of Oregon Inlet.
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