131 Question. What is the name given to the governing court over a congregation?
Answer. The governing court over a congregation is called a Kirk Session.
132 Q. Who are the members of a Kirk Session?
A. The members of the Kirk Session are the minister with the ruling elders (elected by members of the congregation in full communion).
133 Q. What is a representative elder?
A. A ruling elder who represents the Kirk Session in the Presbytery and Synod is called a representative elder and requires a commission from his Kirk Session in order to attend these courts.
134 Q. What other courts besides Kirk Sessions are recognised in a Presbyterian Church?
A. Apart from Kirk Sessions, most Presbyterian Churches have Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies.
135 Q. Who are the members of Presbytery?
A. All the ministers in charges, with a representative elder from each congregation within the bounds of jurisdiction set by the higher courts, are members of Presbytery (Acts 15:2, 4, 6; 1 Tim. 4:14).
136 Q. Who are members of Synod in the Free Presbyterian Church?
A. In the Free Presbyterian Church all members of each Presbytery – the ministers with all the representative elders of Kirk Sessions – are members of Synod (Acts 15:22, 23).
137 Q. What is a General Assembly?
A. A General Assembly is the supreme court of the larger Presbyterian Churches.
138 Q. Who are members of a General Assembly?
A. A General Assembly is made up only of a certain proportion of ministers and elders from Presbyteries whose number is regulated by laws passed by the General Assembly.
139 Q. Has the Free Presbyterian Church a General Assembly?
A. Up to the present date the Free Presbyterian Church has not had a General Assembly, one Synodical Court being sufficient for Church business.
140 Q. What is its Supreme Court of the Free Presbyterian Church?
A. The Synod is the Supreme Court of the Free Presbyterian Church and regulations for its affairs, and those of all the other Church courts, are to be found in the Church’s Manual of Practice.