History

Carolina Presbytery, our parent presbytery, was organized on February 15, 1974, in the Northside Presbyterian Church in Burlington, N.C., by four ministers and six ruling elders from five churches in central and eastern North Carolina that had recently withdrawn from the Presbyterian Church in the United States. The presbytery was organized as a provisional presbytery of the National Presbyterian Church at the first General Assembly of that denomination in Birmingham, Ala. The second General Assembly of that denomination, meeting on September 17-20, 1974, in Macon, Ga., officially received Carolina Presbytery and approved its boundaries as encompassing eastern and central North Carolina west to and including the counties of Surry, Yadkin, Iredell, Catawba, Lincoln, and Gaston. The second General Assembly of the National Presbyterian Church also changed the name of the denomination to the Presbyterian Church in America.

Within four years, Carolina Presbytery grew from five to eighteen churches and two missions. Eastern Carolina Presbytery (ECP) was organized from Carolina Presbytery in June 1978, by an action of the Sixth General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, after Carolina Presbytery voted to divide the presbytery on April 22, 1978.  Carolina Presbytery became known as Central Carolina Presbytery.

On May 28, 1983, ECP released the Northside Church in Burlington and Westminster Church in High Point to Central Carolina Presbytery with the approval of General Assembly. ECP then encompassed the counties that were east of and including Person, Orange, Chatham, Wake, Johnston, Sampson, Bladen, and Columbus.

On January 27, 2007, ECP approved the transfer to James River Presbytery of the northeastern North Carolina 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, to facilitate more rapid and effective establishment of PCA congregations in these areas. The 2007 General Assembly approved this change.

The 2009 General Assembly approved a change in the boundaries of Eastern Carolina Presbytery and Central Carolina Presbytery so as to include Harnett County within the bounds of Eastern Carolina Presbytery.  There was a church that was was received as a member church of Eastern Carolina Presbytery at that time, but the church has since left the PCA.