The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC), as it exists today, is the historical descendant of the Synod of the South, a Synod of the Associate Reformed Church. The original Associate Reformed Church resulted from a merger of the Associate Presbytery (from the Seceder tradition of the 18th century) and most of the Reformed Presbytery (from the Covenanter tradition of the 17th century) in Philadelphia in 1782. The northern Synods eventually merged with the forebearers of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Because of its 1782 date of origin, it is one of the oldest of the United States' theologically and socially conservative denominations.