Who We Are

History

Presbyterian Middle Eastern Americans trace their Reformed roots to Presbyterian missions in the Middle East in the mid-19th century. Here in the United States, Middle Eastern Christian immigrants started to join the Presbyterian Church more than a century ago.

In 1898, the Armenian Presbyterian Mission of West Hoboken was organized to minister to refugees from the 1895 Turkish massacres and was officially recognized by the Jersey City Presbytery. The Mission later became the Armenian Presbyterian Church in New Jersey.

In 1899, a small group of Lebanese immigrants met regularly for worship in an apartment in Fall River, Massachusetts. The group eventually became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church, first as a mission and in 1934 as a church.

The first Assyrian Presbyterian Church in the United States was established in Chicago in 1910 as the Carter Memorial Persian Assyrian Presbyterian Church.

Today, there are more than 60 Presbyterian congregations and fellowships throughout the United States worshiping in different languages, including Persian, Assyrian, Armenian and Arabic. This, indeed, is a reflection of the work of the Holy Spirit among us and a testament to the enduring witness of Middle Eastern Christians in Diaspora.