Georgia Church Joins EPC

First Presbyterian Church of Bainbridge, Ga., was received by the Presbytery of the Southeast at its January 2025 stated meeting. Bainbridge is in southwest Georgia, 40 miles north of Tallahassee, Fla. The church was chartered in 1852 by the Presbytery of Florida in the old Southern Presbyterian Church. First Presbyterian of Bainbridge is transferring into the EPC from Flint River Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). After a long process that ended in December 2024, the congregation paid the Flint River Presbytery $99,000 as part of a severance arrangement.

Stephen Poitevint, FPC Ruling Elder, said getting back to “the foundation of the Bible and the authority of Scripture” was a key element in the church’s decision to leave the PC(U.S.A.) and join the EPC. He described the church elders studying the Westminster Confession and moving to the EPC as “the congregation having its own Protestant Reformation.”

Poitevent said several other relatively new EPC churches in south Georgia and north Florida have been most helpful to the Bainbridge Session in navigating the transition from the PC(U.S.A.) to the EPC. He added that the church is “very thankful” to have retained its property and will not have to worry about that any longer within the EPC’s polity. The church currently has an interim pastor and will be forming a pastor search committee in the near future.