The

Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped by John Knox, in the Scottish Reformation, Reformation of 1560, when it split from t ...

has a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

structure, which means it is organised under a hierarchy of courts. Traditionally there were four levels of courts: the

Kirk Session A session (from the Latin word ''sessio'', which means "to sit", as in sitting to deliberate or talk about something; sometimes called ''consistory'' or ''church board'') is a body of elected elders governing each local church within presbyteria ...

(at congregational level), the Presbytery (at local area level), the

Synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...

(at a regional level) and the

General Assembly A general assembly or general meeting is a meeting of all the members of an organization or shareholders of a company. Specific examples of general assembly include: Churches * General Assembly (presbyterian church), the highest court of presby ...

(the Church's highest court). However, the synods were abolished in the early 1990s. Scottish local government was reorganised in 1975, creating a new system of regions and districts to replace the long-standing counties and burghs. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland also ordered a major reorganisation of presbyteries in the mid-1970s, redrawing presbytery boundaries to make them broadly contiguous with the then-new local government boundaries. An example was the union of the former Presbyteries of Cupar and St Andrews, creating a new Presbytery of St Andrews (which also included the Parishes of Newport-on-Tay, Wormit and Tayport, previously in the Presbytery of Dundee). This new Presbytery's boundaries mirrored the North East Fife District Council. Following further local government reorganisation in the 1990s (replacing regions and districts with a single-tier system of councils), it was proposed to further considerably reduce the number of Presbyteries (possibly to as few as seven). This proposal was rejected by the General Assembly. Since 2003 several presbyteries have voluntarily sought permission to merge, as described below. Despite these mergers the existing Presbytery numbering system is being retained, albeit now with some gaps. It is the presbyteries which have oversight of parishes and pastoral responsibility for parish ministers, and the Kirk Sessions of the individual parishes are subordinated to them. A parish minister is answerable to the Presbytery, not to the Kirk Session. The following is a list of presbyteries, arranged according to historical synod, and with the presbytery code number from the ''Church of Scotland Yearbook''. The Church of Scotland is currently in a process of consultations with the aim of reducing the number of presbyteries to around 12. The current completed mergers, as at February 2021, are as follows: On 1 June 2020 the presbyteries of Aberdeen and Shetland merged to form the Presbytery of Aberdeen and Shetland ( with Shetland reducing its parishes to one ) On 1 September 2020 the presbyteries of Dumbarton and Greenock and Paisley merged becoming the Presbytery of The Clyde. On 1 January 2021 the presbyteries of St Andrews, Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline merged becoming the Presbytery of Fife.

Synods

Synod of Lothian

*1.

Presbytery of Edinburgh The Presbytery of Edinburgh was one of the presbyteries of the Church of Scotland, being the local presbytery for Edinburgh.Church of Scotland Yearbook, 2010-2011 edition, Its boundary was almost identical to that of the City of Edinburgh Counci ...

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*2. Presbytery of West Lothian *3. Presbytery of Lothia

Synod of The Borders

*4. Presbytery of Melrose and Peeble

*5. Presbytery of Dun

*6. Presbytery of Jedburgh

Synod of Dumfries and Galloway

*7. Presbytery of Annandale and Eskdal

*8. Presbytery of Dumfries and Kirkcudbrigh

*9. Presbytery of Wigtown and Stranraer

Synod of Ayr

*10. Presbytery of Ay

*11. Presbytery of Irvine and Kilmarnoc

*12. Presbytery of Ardrossa

Synod of Clydesdale

*13. Presbytery of Lanar

*14. Presbytery of The Clyde. *15.

Presbytery of Glasgow The Presbytery of Glasgow is one of the 46 Presbyteries of the Church of Scotland The Church of Scotland ( sco, The Kirk o Scotland; gd, Eaglais na h-Alba) is the national church in Scotland. The Church of Scotland was principally shaped ...

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*16. Presbytery of Hamilto

Synod of Argyll

*17. Presbytery of Argyl

created by the 2004 merger of: **Presbytery of South Argyll **Presbytery of Dunoon **Presbytery of Lorn and Mull

Synod of Forth

*18. Presbytery of Falkir

*19. Presbytery of Stirlin

Synod of Fife

* 20. As of 1 January 2021 there is only one presbytery covering the whole of Fife.

Synod of Perth and Angus

*21. Presbytery of Dunkeld and Meigle *22. Presbytery of Pert

*23. Presbytery of Dunde

*24. Presbytery of Angu

Synod of Grampian

*25.

Presbytery of Aberdeen The Presbytery of Aberdeen and Shetland is one of the forty-two presbyteries of the Church of Scotland, being the local presbytery for the city of Aberdeen. The current moderator is the Rev Hutton Steel who is minister of High Hilton Paris ...

and Shetlan

*26. Presbytery of Kincardine and Deesid

*27. Presbytery of Gordo

*28. Presbytery of Buchan *29. Presbytery of Mora

Synod of The Southern Highlands

*30.

Presbytery of Abernethy The Presbytery of Abernethy is one of the forty-six presbyteries of the Church of Scotland, being the local presbytery for the area of Abernethy. The current clerk is the Rev. Catherine Buchan, who is minister of Kingussie linked with Newtonmor ...

*31. Presbytery of Invernes

*32. Presbytery of Lochabe

Synod of Ross, Sutherland and Caithness

*33. Presbytery of Ros

*34. Presbytery of Sutherland *35. Presbytery of Caithnes

*36. Presbytery of Lochcarron and Skye *37. Presbytery of Uist *38. Presbytery of Lewis

Presbyteries not formally part of any Synod

*39. Presbytery of Orkne

*40. Presbytery of England *41.

International Presbytery The International Presbytery (officially, the Presbytery of International Charges) covers the Church of Scotland's congregations in continental Europe, Sri Lanka and the Caribbean. Until 2016 it was called the Presbytery of Europe. In October 2014 ...

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(known as Presbytery of Europe until 2016) *42. Presbytery of Jerusalem

External links

* {{Lists of churches in Scotland Church of Scotland, Scotland, Church of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...