saturday, September 15, 2007

The Presbyterian Church U.S.A. (PCUSA) represents 11,100 Presbyterian congregations in the United States making it the largest Presbyterian denomination. Other Presbyterian bodies in the United States include the Pres-byterian Church in America (PCA), the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Bible Presbyterian Church (BPC), the Associate Reformed Presbyte-rian Church (ARP Synod), the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and the Reformed Presbyterian Church in the United States (RPCUS).

The General Assembly is made up of elected representatives and meets every two years to decide on matters of concern to the whole church, resolve controversies, set priorities, and serves as a symbol of unity for the church, according to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A.`s Web site.

A presbytery is a regional governing body made up of ministers and elders from member congregations. The Presbytery of Newark is made up of 45 churches from all of Essex County and parts of Bergen and Hudson counties.

A synod is a regional governing body made up of presbyteries, and generally covers a larger geographical area. New Jersey is within the Northeast Synod, which also includes New York and New England.

A session is the elected governing body of a particular congregation.

The Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) is a standing committee created by the General Assembly, and is part of the Social Justice Program Area of the National Ministries Division of the PCUSA. The MRTI purpose is to implement the General Assembly`s policies on socially responsible investing by engaging corporations in which the church owns stock. This is accomplished through correspondence, dialogues, voting of shareholder proxies, and occasionally filing shareholder resolutions. Issues are selected annually upon referral from the General Assembly, and in consultation with ecumenical partners.