Presbyteries
The presbytery is a church court in the presbyterian system of church government, and its role is to superintend ministers, Kirk Sessions and all spiritual matters within its bounds and to elect annually the ministers and elders to sit on the higher church courts. Presbyterian church government is based on a hierarchy of church courts: kirk session, presbytery, synod and general assembly are the four main courts, but some presbyterian churches omit synods and some smaller presbyterian churches only have one synod and therefore do not need a general assembly.[1]
Presbyteries are formed by the relevant General Assembly, which has the power to unite, disjoin and erect presbyteries and to change their boundaries. Each presbytery consists of ministers and elders. The ministers may include ordained missionaries, chaplains and retired ministers. A representative elder is elected by each kirk session within the bounds of the presbytery. Additional elders are elected by the presbytery in order to ensure that the number of ministers and elders in the presbytery are equal.
Presbyteries elect a moderator from amongst their membership, to hold office for a year. Until 1996, Church of Scotland presbyteries were required to elect an ordained minister as their moderator, but from then an elder or deacon could be elected.[2]
Ministers are subject to discipline through presbyteries and what might loosely be termed employment matters are normally dealt with by presbyteries, including calls, demissions, resignations, admission of candidates for ministry, the diaconate and the readership, ordination and trials for licence. Presbyteries carry out quinquennial visitations of congregations and examine their records. They also consider matters referred to them by Synods and General Assemblies, consider petitions and overtures including matters of public interest, and act as a court of appeal from kirk sessions.
The records of presbyteries of the Church of Scotland are held by National Records of Scotland (NRS) or by local archives under the charge and superintendence of NRS. NRS also holds some presbytery records for other presbyterian churches in Scotland. Further details can be found in the NRS online catalogue by searching for records beginning with the reference code CH and with the word presbytery in the description.
Compiler: Elspeth Reid (2023)
Related Knowledge Base entries
Bibliography
Cox, James T., Practice and Procedure in the Church of Scotland (Church of Scotland, 1934, 1948, 1964, 1976)
MacLean, Marjory A. (ed), Legal Systems of Scottish Churches (Edinburgh University Press, 2010)
United Free Church of Scotland. General Assembly, Manual of practice and procedure of the United Free Church of Scotland (Offices of the United Free Church, 1905, 1916, 1927)
Weatherhead, James L., The constitution and laws of the Church of Scotland (Board of Practice and Procedure, Church of Scotland, 1997)
References
[1] Marjory A MacLean, ‘Presbyterian Governance’ in Legal Systems of Scottish Churches ed. by Marjory A. MacLean, (Edinburgh University Press, 2010) pp. 1-12.
[2] James L Weatherhead, The constitution and laws of the Church of Scotland (Board of Practice and Procedure, Church of Scotland, 1997) p. 97