Structure
The PCA maintains the Presbyterian church government set forth in its Book of Church Order. Local church officers include teaching elders, ruling elders and deacons. Church government is exercised at three levels: the session, which governs the local church; the presbytery, a regional governing body, and the General Assembly, the highest court of the denomination. The PCA does not have Synods, which some other groups have either as the highest court or as an intermediate court between presbyteries and the general assembly.
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Famous quotes containing the word structure:
“Why does philosophy use concepts and why does faith use symbols if both try to express the same ultimate? The answer, of course, is that the relation to the ultimate is not the same in each case. The philosophical relation is in principle a detached description of the basic structure in which the ultimate manifests itself. The relation of faith is in principle an involved expression of concern about the meaning of the ultimate for the faithful.”
—Paul Tillich (1886–1965)
“Just as a new scientific discovery manifests something that was already latent in the order of nature, and at the same time is logically related to the total structure of the existing science, so the new poem manifests something that was already latent in the order of words.”
—Northrop Frye (b. 1912)
“What is the structure of government that will best guard against the precipitate counsels and factious combinations for unjust purposes, without a sacrifice of the fundamental principle of republicanism?”
—James Madison (1751–1836)