Church Structure and Governance

The Church of Scotland is the national Church in Scotland with various decision making bodies. The General Assembly meets once a year to make national decisions. Local Presbyteries make decisions for a number of local parishes – Holy Trinity is part of Edinburgh Presbytery.

At the local level, Holy Trinity follows the Quoad Sacra (or “model constitution”) . This method of management of the affairs of a congregation makes the Kirk Session responsible for the spiritual matters of a congregation’s life and creates a Congregational Board to take on the management of the temporal aspects of the life of a congregation, like finance and property.

A proportion of the Congregational Board must comprise of Elders who have been duly ordained and elected to serve on the Kirk Session. Other members are elected at the Annual Stated Meeting of the Congregation for specific terms. The Minister is entitled to chair the Congregational Board, but may nominate someone to act in his or her stead. For more information have a look at the links below.

The Church of Scotland structures

Governance of the Church of Scotland

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