Our History
Our origins are in the work of missionaries
Francis and Edith Schaeffer. The Schaeffer family moved to
Switzerland from the Reformed Presbyterian Church (USA) in 1948 and in
1955 established the community called
L'Abri (French for "the
shelter"). The first IPC church was established in
Switzerland in the mid 50's. The L'Abri mission established a base in
England and soon after started two churches to meet the need of
the people who came to Christ through their ministry: Ealing in
1969 and Liss in 1972. These churches were called
"International Presbyterian Church" and so the English IPC
denomination was started.
A few years later the IPC was extended through
the formation of a Korean IPC Presbytery following the first
Korean Church plant in London in the late 1970s. The
Korean IPC expanded rapidly and by 1994 five Korean churches
were established. At present there are seven Korean
churches in England: five in London and one each in Oxford and Reading. The
English speaking churches in Liss and Ealing were incorporated
into the First IPC Presbytery of England. It was not until
2003 that a third church in Culcheth, Warrington was planted and
became the first established IPC church in the North of England.
Today there are seven established English and European churches
in the First IPC Presbytery of England with another six churches
in various stages of development.
For more information see the article
The Past of the International Presbyterian Church.
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