Presbyterianism

===Government===
{{Main|Presbyterian church governance}}
[[File:Lorimer, Ordination.jpg|thumb|right|The Ordination of Elders in a Scottish Kirk, by [[John Henry Lorimer]], 1891. [[National Gallery of Scotland]].|upright=1.2]]
Presbyterian government is by councils (still known as ''courts'' in some countries, as ''boards'' in others) of elders. Teaching and ruling elders are ordained and convene in the lowest council known as a [[Session (Presbyterianism)|''session'']] or ''[[Consistory (Protestantism)#Reformed usage|consistory]]'' responsible for the discipline, nurture, and mission of the local [[Wiktionary:congregation|congregation]]. Teaching elders (pastors or ministers) have responsibility for teaching, worship, and performing sacraments. Pastors or ministers are called by individual congregations. A congregation issues a call for the pastor or minister's service, but this call must be ratified by the local presbytery. The pastor or minister is a teaching elder, and Moderator of the Session, but is not usually a member of the congregation; instead, this person is a member of the Presbytery of which the given church is a member.

Ruling elders are elected by the congregation and ordained to serve with the teaching elders, assuming responsibility for the nurture and leadership of the congregation. Often, especially in larger congregations, the elders delegate the practicalities of buildings, finance, and temporal ministry to the needy in the congregation to a distinct group of officers (sometimes called deacons, which are ordained in some denominations). This group may variously be known as a "Deacon Board", "Board of Deacons" "Diaconate", or "Deacons' Court". These are sometimes known as "presbyters" to the full congregation. Since the 20th century, most denominations allow women to be teaching or ruling elders.

Above the sessions exist presbyteries, which have area responsibilities. These are composed of teaching elders and ruling elders from each of the constituent congregations. The presbytery sends representatives to a broader regional or national assembly, generally known as the [[General Assembly (presbyterian church)|General Assembly]], although an intermediate level of a ''[[synod]]'' sometimes exists. This congregation / [[Presbytery (presbyterian church)|presbytery]] / [[synod]] / [[General Assembly (presbyterian church)|general assembly]] schema is based on the historical structure of the larger Presbyterian churches, such as the [[Church of Scotland]] or the [[Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)]]; some bodies, such as the [[Presbyterian Church in America]] and the [[Presbyterian Church in Ireland]], skip one of the steps between congregation and General Assembly, and usually the step skipped is the Synod. The [[Church of Scotland]] abolished the Synod in 1993.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about_us/how_we_are_organised/historical_records |title=Church of Scotland – Historical Records |date=22 February 2010 |access-date=31 May 2016 |archive-date=6 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190506183027/http://www.churchofscotland.org.uk/about_us/how_we_are_organised/historical_records |url-status=live }}</ref>

Presbyterian governance is practiced by Presbyterian denominations and also by many other [[Reformed churches]].<ref>Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA): Part I: The Book of Confessions, p. 267.</ref>