Ecclesiastical polity

[1] The first act recorded after the Ascension of Jesus Christ was the election of Saint Matthias as one of the Twelve Apostles, to replace Judas Iscariot.

The session sends representatives[citation needed] to the next level higher council, called the presbytery or classis.

Hence higher level councils act as courts of appeal for church trials and disputes, and it is not uncommon to see rulings and decisions overturned.

[12] Additionally, the reformed classis is a temporary, delegated body, so the minister is firstly a member of his congregation as opposed to the standing presbytery.

The Episcopal Church in the United States of America arguably contains a kind of lay presbyterian polity.

Governance by bishops is paralleled by a system of deputies, who are lay and clerical representatives elected by parishes and, at the national level, by the dioceses.

Congregational churches dispense titles such as "Popes, Patriarchs, Cardinals, Arch-Bishops, Lord-Bishops, Arch-Deacons, Officials, Commissaries, and the like".

Broader assemblies formed by delegates from congregationally governed churches (e.g. the Southern Baptist Convention) do not have power to rule their constituents.

[15] Churches with congregational polity include Congregationalists, Baptists, Quakers and much of Non-denominational Christianity.

The term bishop may be used to describe functionaries in minor leadership roles, such as a leader of an individual congregation; it may also be used as an honorific, particularly within the Holiness movement.

Although a church's polity determines its ministers and discipline, it need not affect relations with other Christian organizations.

For example, among churches of episcopal polity, different theories are expressed: A plurality of elders is considered desirable in some (esp.

Advocates claim biblical precedent, citing that New Testament churches appear to all have had multiple elders.