Editing Presbyterian polity (section)

===Presbytery===
[[File:Presbytery flags.jpg|thumb|320px|Presbytery flags of the [[Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu]]]] 
In presbyterianism, congregations are united in accountability to a regional body called the ''presbytery, ''or, in Continental Reformed terminology, the ''classis'', which comes from the Latin word for "fleet". Presbyteries are made up of all the teaching and ruling elders in a particular geographic region. In some Dutch Reformed bodies, a classis serves as a delegated body, which ceases to exist in between meetings, whereas a presbytery exists perpetually.

The officers of a presbytery are a [[Moderators and clerks in the Church of Scotland#Moderators|moderator]] and a [[Moderators and clerks in the Church of Scotland#Clerks|stated or principal clerk]]. The moderator acts as chair of presbytery meetings. As with the moderators of synods and assemblies, the moderatorship is a [[primus inter pares]] position appointed by the presbytery itself. The moderator is addressed as "moderator" during meetings, but their position has no bearing outside of the presbytery meeting and affords him/her no special place in other courts, although typically the moderator (especially if a member of the clergy) will conduct worship and oversee ordinations and installations of ministers as a "liturgical" bishop, and other ordinances which are seen as acts of the presbytery.

The stated or principal clerk takes minutes and deals with the correspondence of the presbytery, and is often appointed for an indefinite term. Presbytery Clerks are the ecclesiastical administrators and generally regarded as substantially influential due to their greater experience of the governance of the church and their ordering of the business of the presbytery. They are thus very much more than secretaries and often in fact are the lynch pin of the organisation.

Presbyteries meet at a regularity between monthly and quarterly, some half-yearly.