Tidewater Presbytery

The Tidewater 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.

The presbytery now consists of fifteen organized churches, two mission churches, and RUF ministries at College of William and Mary and Christopher Newport University and joint works at Lynchburg (Liberty, Sweet Briar, Lynchburg College, Central Virginia Community College CVCC, Randolph College); University of Virginia; Virginia Commonwealth University; Virginia Tech; and Washington and Lee University.