Editing Presbyterian Church (USA) (section)

====Presbytery====
[[File:Presbyterian church.jpg|thumb|left|Third Presbyterian Church, [[Staunton, Virginia]]]]

A ''presbytery'' is formed by all the congregations and the Ministers of Word and Sacrament in a geographic area together with elders selected (proportional to congregation size) from each of the congregations. Four special presbyteries are "non-geographical" in that they overlay other English-speaking presbyteries, though they are geographically limited to the boundaries of a particular synod (see [[#Synod|below]]); it may be more accurate to refer to them as "trans-geographical." Three PC(USA) synods have a non-geographical presbytery for Korean language Presbyterian congregations, and one synod has a non-geographical presbytery for Native American congregations, the Dakota Presbytery. There are currently 166 presbyteries for the 8,572 congregations in the PC(USA).<ref>{{Citation | url = https://www.pcusa.org/news/2021/3/8/administrative-commission-mid-councils-approves-pr/ |publisher=PC(USA) | title = Administrative Commission on Mid Councils approves presbytery reorganization for New Jersey | date = March 8, 2021 | access-date = July 12, 2021 | archive-date = July 12, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210712014817/https://www.pcusa.org/news/2021/3/8/administrative-commission-mid-councils-approves-pr/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

Only the presbytery (not a congregation, session, synod, or General Assembly) has the responsibility and authority to ordain church members to the ordered ministry of Word and Sacrament, also referred to as a Teaching Elder, to install ministers to (or remove them from) congregations as pastors, and to remove a minister from the ministry. A Presbyterian minister is a member of a presbytery. The General Assembly cannot ordain or remove a Teaching Elder, but the Office of the General Assembly does maintain and publish a national directory with the help of each presbytery's stated clerk.<ref>{{Citation | url = https://oga.pcusa.org/section/churchwide-ministries/stats/online-minister-directory/ |publisher=PC(USA) | title = Online Minister Directory | access-date = June 30, 2021 | archive-date = July 21, 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210721170343/https://oga.pcusa.org/section/churchwide-ministries/stats/online-minister-directory/ | url-status = live }}</ref> This directory is also published bi-annually with the minutes of the General Assembly. A pastor cannot be a member of the congregation he or she serves as a pastor because his or her primary ecclesiastical accountability lies with the presbytery. Members of the congregation generally choose their own pastor with the assistance and support of the presbytery. The presbytery must approve the choice and officially install the pastor at the congregation, or approve the covenant for a temporary pastoral relationship. Additionally, the presbytery must approve if either the congregation or the pastor wishes to dissolve that pastoral relationship.

The presbytery has authority over many affairs of its local congregations. Only the presbytery can approve the establishment, dissolution, or merger of congregations. The presbytery also maintains a Permanent Judicial Commission, which acts as a court of appeal from sessions, and which exercises original jurisdiction in disciplinary cases against minister members of the presbytery.{{Sfn | General Assembly | 2009 | loc = The Rules of Discipline}}

A presbytery has two elected officers: a moderator and a stated clerk. The Moderator of the presbytery is elected annually and is either a minister member or an elder commissioner from one of the presbytery's congregations. The Moderator presides at all presbytery assemblies and is the chief overseer at the ordination and installation of ministers in that presbytery.{{Sfn | General Assembly | 2009 | loc = The Rules of Discipline W-4.4003}} The stated clerk is the chief ecclesial officer and serves as the presbytery's executive secretary and parliamentarian in accordance with the church Constitution and Robert's Rules of Order. While the moderator of a presbytery normally serves one year, the stated clerk normally serves a designated number of years and may be re-elected indefinitely by the presbytery. Additionally, an Executive [[Presbyter]] (sometimes designated as General Presbyter, Pastor to Presbytery, Transitional Presbyter) is often elected as a staff person to care for the administrative duties of the presbytery, often with the additional role of a pastor to the pastors. Presbyteries may be creative in the designation and assignment of duties for their staff. A presbytery is required to elect a Moderator and a Clerk, but the practice of hiring staff is optional. Presbyteries must meet at least twice a year, but they have the discretion to meet more often and most do.

''See "Map of Presbyteries and Synods"''.<ref>{{Citation |url=http://oga.pcusa.org/links/ |title=Oga |contribution=Links |publisher=PC(USA) |access-date=February 28, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120108224741/http://oga.pcusa.org/links/ |archive-date=January 8, 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>