Editing Bishop (section)

=== Seventh-day Adventists ===

According to the Seventh-day Adventist understanding of the doctrine of the church:

"The "elders" (Greek, {{transliteration|grc|presbuteros}}) or "bishops" ({{transliteration|grc|episkopos}}) were the most important officers of the church. The term elder means older one, implying dignity and respect. His position was similar to that of the one who had supervision of the synagogue. The term bishop means "overseer". Paul used these terms interchangeably, equating elders with overseers or bishops (Acts 20:17,[[Acts 20:28|28]]; Titus 1:5, 7).

"Those who held this position supervised the newly formed churches. Elder referred to the status or rank of the office, while bishop denoted the duty or responsibility of the office—"overseer". Since the apostles also called themselves elders (1 Peter 5:1; 2 John 1; 3 John 1), it is apparent that there were both local elders and itinerant elders, or elders at large. But both kinds of elder functioned as shepherds of the congregations.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ministerial Association, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists|title=Seventh-day Adventists Believe|date=1988|publisher=Review and Herald Publishing Association|location=Hagarstown, Maryland|pages=146, 147}}</ref>"

The above understanding is part of the basis of Adventist organizational structure. The world wide Seventh-day Adventist church is organized into local districts, conferences or missions, union conferences or union missions, divisions, and finally at the top is the general conference.  At each level (with exception to the local districts), there is an elder who is elected president and a group of elders who serve on the executive committee with the elected president.  Those who have been elected president would in effect be the "bishop" while never actually carrying the title or ordained as such because the term is usually associated with the episcopal style of church governance most often found in Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and some Pentecostal/Charismatic circles.