The Church of Scotland has a Presbyterian structure, which means it is organised under a hierarchy of courts. Traditionally there were four levels of courts: the Kirk Session (at congregational level), the Presbytery (at local area level), the Synod (at a regional level) and the General Assembly (the Church's highest court).
It is the presbyteries which have oversight of parishes and pastoral responsibility for parish ministers, and the Kirk Sessions of the individual parishes are subordinated to them. A parish minister is answerable to the Presbytery, not to the Kirk Session.
Scottish local government was reorganised in 1975, creating a new system of regions and districts to replace the long-standing counties and burghs. The General Assembly of the Church of Scotland also ordered a major reorganisation of presbyteries in the mid-1970s, redrawing presbytery boundaries to make them broadly contiguous with the then-new local government boundaries. An example was the union of the former Presbyteries of Cupar and St Andrews, creating a new Presbytery of St Andrews (which also included the Parishes of Newport-on-Tay, Wormit and Tayport, previously in the Presbytery of Dundee). This new Presbytery's boundaries mirrored the North East Fife District Council.
Following further local government reorganisation in the 1990s (replacing regions and districts with a single-tier system of councils), it was proposed to further considerably reduce the number of Presbyteries (possibly to as few as seven). This proposal was rejected by the General Assembly. However, the synods were abolished in the early 1990s.
The following mergers took place before 2020:
In 1974 the presbyteries of North Europe, South Europe, and Spain and Portugal merged to become the Presbytery of Europe.
In 1976 the presbyteries of Melrose and Peebles merged to become the Presbytery of Melrose and Peebles.
In 2004 the presbyteries of South Argyll, Dunoon, and Lorn and Mull merged to become the Presbytery of Argyll.
The Church of Scotland is currently in a process of consultations with the aim of reducing the number of presbyteries to around 12.[1][2] The current completed mergers are as follows:
On 1 June 2020 the presbyteries of Aberdeen and Shetland merged to form the Presbytery of Aberdeen and Shetland (with Shetland reducing its parishes to one).
On 1 September 2020 the presbyteries of Dumbarton, and Greenock and Paisley (itself a recent merger of Greenock and Paisley presbyteries) merged becoming the Presbytery of Clyde.
On 1 January 2021 the presbyteries of St Andrews, Kirkcaldy, and Dunfermline merged becoming the Presbytery of Fife.
On 1 January 2022:
the presbyteries of West Lothian and of Edinburgh merged to become the Presbytery of Edinburgh and West Lothian.
the presbyteries of Lanark and Hamilton merged to become the Presbytery of the Forth Valley and Clydesdale.
On 1 June 2022 the Presbytery of Falkirk merged into the Presbytery of the Forth Valley and Clydesdale.
On 30 September 2022 the presbyteries of Ardrossan; Irvine and Kilmarnock; Ayr; Wigtown and Stranraer; Annandale and Eskdale; and Dumfries and Kirkcudbright merged to become the Presbytery of the South West.
On 1 January 2023:
the newly formed Presbytery of Perth united the former presbyteries of Angus, Dundee, Dunkeld and Meigle, Perth, and Stirling.
the presbyteries of Lothian; Melrose and Peebles; Duns; and Jedburgh merged becoming the Presbytery of Lothian and Borders.
the presbyteries of Aberdeen and Shetland; Buchan; Gordon; Kincardine and Deeside; Moray; and Orkney merged becoming the Presbytery of the North East and Northern Isles.
On 1 January 2024 a new presbytery covering all of the Highlands and Hebrides (except Lewis) was created: the presbyteries of Argyll, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross, Inverness, Abernethy, Lochaber, Locharron-Skye, and Uist merged into Clèir Eilean ì (the Presbytery of the Island of Iona).
Therefore, the total number of presbyteries now stands at 14.[3]
Presbytery of Edinburgh and West Lothian (merger of West Lothan and Edinburgh)
Presbytery of Lothian and Borders (merger of: Lothian; Melrose and Peebles; Duns; and Jedburgh)
Presbytery of the South West (merger of: Annandale and Eskdale; Dumfries and Kirkcudbright; Wigtown and Stranraer; Ayr; Irvine and Kilmarnock; and Ardrossan)
Presbytery of Clyde (merger of: Greenock and Paisley, and Dumbarton)
