Presbyteries back having local bishops The Layman Volume 35, Number 1 Posted February 8, 2002 A proposed amendment to the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church (USA) that calls for use of the word “bishop” to describe Presbyterian ministers is winning by a 2-1 margin in presbytery votes reported by the denomination. Known as Amendment 01-B, the measure says that as a minister “has oversight of the flock of Christ, he or she is termed bishop. As he or she feeds them with spiritual food, he or she is termed pastor. As a servant of Christ in the Church, the term minister is given.” Presbyterians in United States rarely have called their ministers bishops because the term suggests that the pastor alone has episcopal, or oversight, responsibilities. In the New Testament, the Greek term episcopos, is used interchangeably with presbuteros (elder) to describe oversight by a body of leaders, not a single bishop. Collectively, spiritual oversight of local congregations is the responsibility of ruling elders, who are lay people, and teaching elders, who are ministers. Commissioners to the General Assembly argued that calling Presbyterian ministers bishops would “be useful in ecumenical conversations.”

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