I was wondering what exactly does a denomination that calls it self Reformed mean.
It depends, but basically it’s the same thing as “Calvinist.” The “Reformed” were originally basically those Protestants who did not entirely agree with Luther (especially on the Real Presence). They are also known as “Calvinists” because Calvin was the first major systematic theologian of their tradition–he pulled together ideas from earlier Reformers, including Luther.
The Reformed tradition, like other Protestant traditions, spans a spectrum from liberal to conservative. The “mainline” Reformed denominations in America are the
Reformed Church in America, the
Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A., and the
United Church of Christ. The first of these is the American counterpart of the Dutch Reformed Church; the second corresponds to the Protestant state church of Scotland and its English, Welsh, and Irish “dissenting” counterparts; and the third is a merger of several different groups, mainly the German Reformed and the Congregationalists (the latter being English dissenters with a more radical ecclesiology than the Presbyterians, who came to America early on and functioned as the “Puritan” state church of New England during the colonial era). The UCC is by far the most liberal of the three, and the RCA the most moderate/conservative.
All three major branches of the Reformed tradition in the U.S. (Dutch, Presbyterian, and Congregationalist) have more conservative representatives, though not very many in the case of the Congregationalists. The Dutch tradition is represented by the moderately conservative Christian Reformed Church and some more extreme conservative groups such as the Protestant Reformed Church. The conservative Presbyterians are divided into a bewildering variety of denominations (as Scott Hahn pointed out, they are often dubbed the “split P’s”). From most moderate to most conservative these would be:
The Cumberland Presbyterians (descended from very revivalistic Presbyterians in the 19th century who softened their Calvinist beliefs; these are basically a “mainline” denomination, but a fairly conservative one)
The Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians (these are the newest Presbyterian denomination, having just split away from the PCUSA over homosexuality)
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church (an older splitoff from the PCUSA; they ordain women, unlike the more conservative groups that follow)
The Presbyterian Church in America (this is the biggest conservative Presbyterian denomination, originally splitting off from the Southern Presbyterians just before the latter reunited with the Northern Presbyterians to form the PCUSA; the PCA spans a spectrum from extremely conservative Calvinists who don’t use musical instruments and only sing Psalms, to evangelicals who use contemporary worship and play down the distinctively Calvinist elements of their theology)
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church (this is the original conservative splitoff, originating in the North in the early 20th century)
The Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (descending from Scottish dissenters who rejected the compromises made by the state Presbyterian Church)
The Bible Presbyterian Church (fundamentalists with Calvinist soteriology)
The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America (only sing psalms)
There are also several denominations of Baptists which are explicitly Calvinist, and many members of other Baptist groups who hold Calvinist beliefs (particularly among the Southern Baptists). There are many Anglicans who also hold Calvinist beliefs (our 39 Articles are basically Reformed, though the majority of Anglicans don’t consider themselves Calvinists today), and a couple of small conservative Anglican denominations (such as the Reformed Episcopal Church) which are explicitly Reformed. And finally, there are independent churches and small denominations which identify themselves as “Reformed” (in a very conservative sense) without having any historic organizational decent from the Reformed churches of hte Reformation era.
