List of Church of Scotland synods and presbyteries

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The Church of Scotland has a Presbyterian structure, which means it is organised under a hierarchy of courts. Traditionally there were four levels of courts: the Kirk Session (at congregational level), the Presbytery (at local area level), the Synod (at a regional level) and the General Assembly (the Church's highest court). Synods were abolished in 1993.

Contents

It is the presbyteries which have oversight of parishes and pastoral responsibility for parish ministers, and the Kirk Sessions of the individual parishes are subordinated to them. A parish minister is answerable to the Presbytery, not to the Kirk Session.

History and mergers before 2020

Scottish local government was reorganised in 1975, creating a new system of regions and districts to replace the long-standing counties and burghs. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland also ordered a major reorganisation of presbyteries in the mid-1970s, redrawing presbytery boundaries to make them broadly contiguous with the then-new local government boundaries. An example was the union of the former Presbyteries of Cupar and St Andrews, creating a new Presbytery of St Andrews (which also included the Parishes of Newport-on-Tay, Wormit and Tayport, previously in the Presbytery of Dundee). This new Presbytery's boundaries mirrored the North East Fife District Council.

Following further local government reorganisation in the 1990s (replacing regions and districts with a single-tier system of councils), it was proposed to further considerably reduce the number of Presbyteries (possibly to as few as seven). This proposal was rejected by the General Assembly. However, the synods were abolished in the early 1990s.

The following is a timeline of the mergers that took place before 2020:

Mergers from 2020 to 2024

From 2020 to 2024 the Church of Scotland engaged in a process of consultations with the aim of reducing the number of presbyteries to around 12. [12] [13] The completed mergers went as follows:

Therefore, the total number of presbyteries now stands at 14. [14] In Scotland there are eleven: the nine marked above by bold type, plus the presbyteries of Lewis and Glasgow which as yet have been unaffected by mergers.

Presbyteries

  1. Presbytery of Edinburgh and West Lothian (merger of West Lothan and Edinburgh)
  2. Presbytery of Lothian and Borders (merger of: Lothian; Melrose and Peebles; Duns; and Jedburgh)
  3. Presbytery of the South West (merger of: Annandale and Eskdale; Dumfries and Kirkcudbright; Wigtown and Stranraer; Ayr; Irvine and Kilmarnock; and Ardrossan)
  4. Presbytery of Clyde (merger of: Greenock and Paisley, and Dumbarton)
  5. Presbytery of Glasgow
  6. Presbytery of Forth Valley and Clydesdale (merger of: Lanark, Hamilton, and Falkirk)
  7. Presbytery of Fife (merger of: St Andrews, Kirkcaldy, and Dunfermline)
  8. Presbytery of Perth (merger of: Angus, Dundee, Dunkeld and Meigle, Perth, and Stirling)
  9. Presbytery of the North East and Northern Isles (merger of: Aberdeen and Shetland; Buchan; Gordon; Kincardine and Deeside; Moray; and Orkney)
  10. Clèir Eilean ì (merger of: Argyll, Abernethy, Inverness, Lochaber, Ross, Sutherland, Caithness, Lochcarron-Skye, and Uist)
  11. Presbytery of Lewis
  12. Presbytery of England
  13. International Presbytery (known as Presbytery of Europe until 2016)
  14. Presbytery of Jerusalem

Former presbyteries

Presbyteries and parishes in 2024

From the Church of Scotland. [15]

Synods, presbyteries and parishes in 1930

From the Scottish National Archives. [16]

Synod of Aberdeen

Synod of Angus and Mearns

Synod of Argyll

Synod of Caithness and Sutherland

Synod of Dumfries

Synod of England

Synod of Fife

Synod of Galloway

Synod of Glasgow and Ayr

Synod of Glenelg

Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale

Synod of Merse and Teviotdale

Synod of Moray

Synod of Orkney

Synod of Perth and Stirling

Synod of Ross

Synod of Shetland

Synods, presbyteries and parishes in 1825

From the Arrowsmith Map. [24]

Synod of Aberdeen

Synod of Angus and Mearns

Synod of Argyle

Synod of Dumfries

Synod of England

Synod of Fife

Synod of Galloway

Synod of Glasgow and Ayr

Synod of Glenelg

Synod of Lothian and Tweeddale

Synod of Merse and Teviotdale

Synod of Moray

Synod of Orkney

Synod of Perth and Stirling

Synod of Ross

Synod of Shetland

Synod of Sutherland and Caithness

Dioceses, deaneries and parishes in the medieval period

From the Scottish Place-Name Society. [25]

Diocese of Aberdeen

Diocese of Argyll

Diocese of Brechin

Diocese of Caithness

Diocese of Dunblane

Diocese of Dunkeld

Diocese of Galloway

Diocese of Glasgow

Diocese of the Isles

Diocese of Moray

Diocese of Orkney

Diocese of Ross

Diocese of St Andrews

See also

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References

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  13. Scotland, The Church of (2 March 2020). "Church reform timeline". The Church of Scotland. Retrieved 4 June 2024.
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