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Ecclesiastical polity is the government of a church. There are local (congregational) forms of organization as well as denominational. A church's polity may describe its ministerial offices or an authority structure between churches. Polity relates closely to ecclesiology, the theological study of the church.
Presbyterian (or presbyteral) polity is a method of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders.Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session (or consistory), though other terms, such as church board, may apply.
Presbyterianism is a Reformed (Calvinist) Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders. [2] Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word Presbyterian is applied to churches that trace their roots to the Church of Scotland or to English Dissenter groups that formed during the English Civil War.
Bishops are chosen from among priests in churches that adhere to Catholic usage. In the Catholic Church, bishops, like priests, are celibate and thus unmarried; further, a bishop is said to possess the fullness of the sacrament of holy orders, empowering him to ordain deacons, priests, and – with papal consent – other bishops.
Eusebius worked out this threefold classification, writing: "And we have been told also that certain of the prophets themselves became, by the act of anointing, Christs in type, so that all these have reference to the true Christ, the divinely inspired and heavenly Word, who is the only high priest of all, and the only King of every creature, and the Father’s only supreme prophet of prophets."
In them, a team of clergy is licensed to a group of parishes, and the senior priest is known as a team rector and other priests of 'incumbent status' are known as team vicars. A parish priest without secure tenure but holding a bishop's licence is termed a priest in charge, temporary curate or bishop's curate.
These hopes were seemingly fulfilled with the start of the Great Awakening, which was initiated by the preaching of George Whitefield, an Anglican priest who had preached revivalistic sermons to large audiences in England. He arrived in Boston in September 1740, preaching first at Brattle Street Church, and then visited other parts of New England.
That English should have only the single term priest to translate presbyter and sacerdos came to be seen as a problem in English Bible translations. The presbyter is the minister who both presides and instructs a Christian congregation, while the sacerdos , offerer of sacrifices , or in a Christian context the eucharist , performs "mediatorial ...