WPC Session

The "Presbyterian" form of church governance is a mixture of the episcopal and congregational forms. The primary body that governs a Presbyterian congregation is called the "Session." It is made up of Elders, who are elected and ordained by the congregation itself, and who serve for a period of three years. Further, congregations are constitutionally bound to elect and ordain Elders to the Session who are representative of the races, ethnicities, genders, socioeconomic tiers, etc. that are found within the congregation, in order to make the Session a truly representative body. Any installed Pastors are also members of the Session, and each holds one vote equal to any Elder on the Session. Many aspects of the life of our congregation are determined directly by this body. However, we are also a "connectional" church, and some governing functions are held by a regional governing body called a "Presbytery." This is a body that includes representatives from every congregation in the region, and includes both Ministers and Elders, in as close to a 50/50 balance as is possible. The Presbytery is the body responsible for overseeing ordination of Ministers and a number of other things, and as a body, performs much the same function as an individual bishop in an episcopal church structure.

This representative form of governance, and its balancing of trained clergy and lay leadership, stems from our theological belief that there is a need for specially educated and trained clergy, but that when too much church authority is vested in either a single specialized individual, or in a body of individuals with no specialized theological education at all, abuses and errors in any number of church life and governance are likely. We believe that while errors are still inevitable, discerning God's will properly is much more likely by way of God's Spirit moving through such a representative gathering of people.

Presbyterian church governance is intended to be transparent - meetings of the Session are open to all, other than rare times that it must meet in executive session. Members are always welcome to observe the work of congregational governance.