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Presbyterian Church
A Presbyterian Church may be either an individual Congregation or a Denomination
which is
governed by Elders. The Church of Scotland is the largest such Denomination in
Scotland. It is also the national church and accepts responsibilities
towards all who live in Scotland. In other words, everyone in Scotland, irrespective whether or
not they are Church Members has the right to approach their Church of Scotland Parish
minister for help.Presbytery of Aberdeen
The Presbytery of Aberdeen is one of forty-six Presbyteries in Scotland. It
represents and supervises the work of forty-four Church of Scotland Congregations within
the civil bounds of the City of Aberdeen.
When functioning as "A Court of the Church" half of its members are
"Teaching Elders" (ie Ministers of its Congregations, Retired Ministers,
Chaplains, Professors or lecturers in Divinity). The other half are "Ruling
Elders" (ie either Elders appointed as their Congregation's representative
or Elders
appointed by Presbytery from those Congregations in order to provide a numerical
balance
to match the number of Retired Ministers, Chaplains, Professors or Lecturers in Divinity).
There may be more ruling Elders than teaching Elders but Clergy must not outnumber
Laity.
All members have an equal right to speak and vote. In addition, Aberdeen Presbytery
has invited others, eg representatives from other Denominations, to become
"Corresponding members" who also have the same right to speak but not to vote.
Moderator of Presbytery
A Moderator is the man or woman appointed to chair the meetings of Presbytery and on
occasion and in a variety of way to represent Presbytery during their year of office.
any full members of Presbytery may be appoint to the office.
[Current Moderator]
Clerk of Presbytery
The Presbytery Clerk is the person appointed by Presbytery to superintend the records of
Presbytery, prepare its business, provide necessary administration and be available to
offer guidance on church law and procedure. [contact
the Clerk]
Presbytery Business
Amongst other things, the business of Presbytery includes setting parish boundaries,
determining how many congregations and minister there may be with its bounds, dealing with
arrangements and services for ministers coming to or departing from its bounds. It
has supervisory responsibilities for Congregations, Minister and also for Students who
are in Training for the Ministry. Both as a Court and also through its various Committees it deals with a wide range of issues including
Education, Social Work, Church property, Inter-Church Relations and the Church's
mission in Aberdeen and Scotland and Overseas.
Kirk Session
A Kirk Session is the Court of the Church which rules and superintends the life, worship
and service of a Congregation and its Organisations. The Minister of the
Congregation is the Moderator (a kind of chair-person) of the Kirk Session. He/she
has the right to speak but not to vote. All the other members of the Kirk Session
are ruling Elders. With the exception of other Ministers and Deacons who may be
members of the Congregation all communicant members of the Congregation aged 18 years or
over are eligible to be ordained and admitted as an Elder.
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