International Presbyterian Church


The International Presbyterian Church is a Reformed church in the United Kingdom, the European Union and South Korea, that holds to the Presbyterian confession of faith, with common commitments, purpose, accountability and governance.

Origin

The church was founded by Francis Schaeffer as a missionary of the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States. Schaeffer and his wife, Edith, began L'Abri and then started the International Presbyterian Church. They moved from Switzerland to England, bringing the church with them. The first congregation started in Ealing in 1969. They also created congregations among Korean-speaking people, including the London Korean Church.
Missionaries for the church worked in Timișoara, Targu Jiu, Verona, Italy, Ghent, Belgium and Baku, Azerbaijan.
In the 2010's, some dissatisfied evangelical congregations from the Church of Scotland have joined the International Presbyterian Church, with former ministers, elders and members creating four new Scottish congregations out of existing Church of Scotland congregations. These movements to another denomination was especially due to the liberalisation of the Church of Scotland on matters of human sexuality in the twentieth century.

Organization

The IPC has four presbyteries, namely a British Presbytery, a European Proto-Presbytery, Korean Presbytery and a South-Korean Proto-Presbytery which all follow a common . The IPC website lists 48 congregations in total.
The British Presbytery comprises seventeen English-speaking congregations in the United Kingdom. They are:

England

Scotland

  • Aberdeen, Trinity Church
  • Inverness, Highland International Church
  • Larbert: Grace Church
Formerly, there was Grace Community Church, based in Kyle of Lochalsh, Scotland. It closed during 2020.
These Presbyteries form a synod.

Theology

The five statements of the Reformed doctrine: