The Springfield Presbytery was an independent presbytery that became one of the earliest expressions of the Stone-Campbell Movement. It was composed of Presbyterian ministers who withdrew from the jurisdiction of the Kentucky Synod of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America on September 10, 1803. It dissolved itself on June 28, 1804, with the publication of a document titled the Last Will and Testament of The Springfield Presbytery, marking the birth of the Christian Church of the West.

History

The immediate cause of withdrawal by the ministers was that the Synod of Kentucky had censured the Washington Presbytery for the following:

  • appointing Richard McNemar, after having previously examined his doctrine and condemning it as "dangerous to the souls of men, and hostile to the interests of all religion;"
  • refusing a petition to examine the doctrine of a second minister, John Thompson; and
  • refusing to reexamine the doctrine of McNemar. It is estimated that the Christian Church numbered about 12,000<!-- twelve thousand members, or twelve thousand churches? --> by 1830.