Presbytery Meetings
161st Stated Meeting
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
at

2025 Presbytery Meetings
Saturday, February 8th – Zoom Only
Tuesday, May 13th – Emmanuel, Fourth United and Shiloh will host together at Emmanuel, Knoxville
Saturday, August 9th – Farragut Presbyterian Church, Farragut
Tuesday, November 18th – Second Presbyterian Church, Chattanooga
2024 brought joy and excitement as well as grief and challenge in our work together in the presbytery. Churches called pastors after sometimes long searches. Other churches continue to search for an installed pastor or are beginning to imagine new types of leadership for themselves. As a presbytery, we had more opportunities for fellowship, study, and worship together. We also saw a change in leadership at John Knox Center. While some things may seem to fall neatly into moments for joy and excitement or grief and challenge, all our experiences are a bit of both. As we move into 2025, my prayer is that we will be open to the movement of the Spirit and God’s call among us to lean into possibilities for mission and ministry, for partnership and collaboration, for proclaiming the Gospel in Word and Deed in faithfully new ways.
I look forward to working with you as we dream, imagine and vision together this year. I hope more of you will feel called to join in the work of the presbytery and give financially what you are faithfully able to do as we share the hope, peace, joy, and love of Christ with our congregations and communities.
Grace and peace,
Wendy
General Presbyter
Who Attends Presbytery Meetings?
The presbytery is the council serving as a corporate expression of the church within a certain district and is composed of all the congregations and ministers of the Word and Sacrament within that district. The presbytery shall adopt and communicate to the sessions a plan for determining how many ruling elders each session should elect as commissioners to presbytery, with a goal of numerical parity of ministers of the Word and Sacrament and ruling elders. (G-3.0301).
How Many Elders?
The Presbytery’s formula for determining how many elder commissioners attend from each congregation is based on the size of the congregation.
- Membership of 1001 to 1500 members = 3 commissioners.
- Membership of 201 to 1000 members = 2 commissioners.
- Membership of 1 to 200 members = 1 commissioner.
- Additionally, elders serving on the Coordinating Committee not serving as church commissioners, Commissioned Lay Pastors, and a representative from the Presbyterian Women of the Presbytery all are given a voice and vote at each meeting.
Who Can Vote?
All elder commissioners, those additional elders noted above, and all minister members of the Presbytery have privilege of voice and vote. Ministers serving within the Presbytery, but whose membership is in a different presbytery are recognized as Corresponding Members and have privilege of voice, but not vote.
A Very Brief Guide To Parliamentary Procedure
The presbytery is responsible for the government of the church throughout its district, and for assisting and supporting the witness of congregations to the sovereign activity of God in the world, so that all congregations become communities of faith, hope, love, and witness. As it leads and guides the witness of its congregations, the presbytery shall keep before it the marks of the Church (F-1.0302), the notes by which Presbyterian and Reformed communities have identified themselves through history (F-1.0303) and the six Great Ends of the Church (F-1.0304) (G-3.0301).