First Presbyterian Church

Address: 505 Cayuga St, Lewiston, NY 14092

First Presbyterian Church of Lewiston

One of the next stops on our tour was the First Presbyterian Church in Lewiston. The Presbyterian church is a part of the early immigrants from the old world who moved to the colonies seeking religious refuge. These large groups almost immediately moved more inland and established some of the first congregations in the mid 1600’s. Since their establishment the congregation gained more and more popularity on the east coast up until the late 1700’s when the church split into a few different denominations like the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The church split even further when the debate over slavery and womens rights was at large wich created the PCA which was only allows strait men to be ordained and the PCUSA which does not have such restrictions.

Presbyterian churches are a form of Protestantism that differs from the other branches of christianity in a few ways. Presbyterians believe that you do not have to earn God’s grace and rather it is given to everyone freeley. The presbyterian church teaches based on the scriptures but does not believe in teaching reincarnation because the scriptures do not mention it. Worshipers do not pray to or ask for prayer from other saints and rather consider the act of prayer a form of worship and therefore prayer should only be offered and directed towards God. Another large deviation from other forms is that presbyterians do not tend to believe in the concept of hell and rather think of purgatory where God will eventually forgive the sins of the people that are not immediately brought to God’s kingdom.
The First Presbyterian Church of Lewiston was created in 1817 with its first Communion on June 12th. The membership of the church doubled in size by 1820 and the construction of the church began 1830. Needless to say that this church was one of the first and more influential Presbyterian churches in Western New York. The small church in Lewiston influenced the forming of 3 more churches in Niagara Falls, Youngstown and Lockport.

Works Cited:

History. First Presbyterian Church of Lewiston. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2022, from www.lewistonpres.org/history

History of the Church. Presbyterian Historical Society. (2022, August 1). Retrieved December 6, 2022, from www.history.pcusa.org/history-online/presbyterian-history/history-church

Webster, R. R., & Rensselaer, V. C. (1857). History of the Presbyterian Church in America. Wilson.

Written by: Clayton Hill

First Presbyterian Church Website