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Elder
[Church Offices]An elder is a church officer elected from among the members to care for and govern the church together with the pastor. In Presbyterian churches the term refers to the ruling elders who make up the session; the status and role of the office vary by denomination.
Honorary Elder
[Christian Life]An honorary elder is a person who bears the title of elder without currently serving on the session. The term refers either to a retired elder who is honored after reaching the mandatory retirement age or to a person granted the title alone in recognition of service.
Term of Office for Elders
[Christian Life]The term of office for elders is the period during which an elder holds and exercises office in the church. Korean Presbyterian churches often regard the eldership as a lifelong office, with elders serving until a mandatory retirement age. Some churches also hold periodic votes of confidence in which the congregation decides whether an elder should continue in active service.
Election of Elders
[Christian Life]The election of elders is the process by which a church chooses candidates to be set apart as elders. In Presbyterian churches, after the session passes a resolution and the presbytery grants permission, the congregational meeting holds a vote; those elected then pass a presbytery examination and are installed as elders at an ordination service.
Kim Dae-hyun
[People]Kim Dae-hyun (金大鉉, 1873 or 1876–1940) was a Korean Presbyterian elder during the period of Japanese colonial rule in Korea. As an elder of Seungdong Church in Seoul, he donated a large sum that laid the foundation for Chosun Theological Seminary, the predecessor of Hanshin University, and he served as its first president.
Titus 1:5–9
[Bible Verses]In this passage Paul instructs Titus, whom he had left in Crete, to ordain elders in every city, and he lists the qualifications of an elder or overseer (bishop). It is frequently cited in discussions of the relationship between elders and overseers and of the qualifications for church officers.
1 Peter 5
[Bible]The final chapter of 1 Peter exhorts the elders to tend the flock and the younger members to be humble. The letter closes with a charge to resist the devil, a doxology, and final greetings that mention Silvanus and Mark.
Cheonbugyo
[Heresies & Cults]Cheonbugyo is a religious organization founded in 1955 by Park Tae-seon, a former elder in the Presbyterian Church in Korea. Formerly called the Korean Jesus Church Evangelical Hall Revival Association, it was widely known as Jeondogwan ("Evangelical Hall"). In 1956 the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Korea declared it heretical.
Jeong Yak-jong
[People]Jeong Yak-jong (1760–1801) was a Catholic lay leader in late Joseon Korea. He wrote the Jugyo yoji (Essentials of the Lord's Teaching), regarded as the first catechism written in Hangul, served as the first president of the Myeongdohoe, and was martyred during the Sinyu Persecution of 1801.
Presbytery
[Organization & Polity]A presbytery is a governing court in Presbyterian churches in which the ministers and ruling elder representatives of a given region meet to govern the churches of that region. It is the intermediate court between the session and the general assembly.
Acts 24
[Bible]Acts 24 is the chapter in which Paul stands trial before the governor Felix at Caesarea. The accusation brought by the high priest's party is followed by Paul's defense, and the chapter ends with Felix deferring judgment and keeping Paul in custody for two years.
Louis Severance
[People]Louis Henry Severance (1838–1913) was an American businessman and Presbyterian layman. He served as treasurer of Standard Oil and is known as the benefactor who funded the construction of Severance Hospital in Seoul.
Ordination Offering
[Organization & Polity]An ordination offering is an offering made by a person receiving a church office, such as elder, kwonsa (a female lay office), or ordained deacon, on the occasion of the ordination service. The practice is widespread in Korean Protestant churches. Some regard it as an expression of gratitude, while others criticize it as a way of buying church office with money.
Merab
[People]Merab was the elder daughter of Saul, the first king of Israel. An Old Testament figure, she was promised to David as his wife but was instead given in marriage to Adriel the Meholathite. Her younger sister was Michal, who became David's wife.
Adriel
[People]Adriel was an Israelite of the time of King Saul, the son of Barzillai the Meholathite. He married Merab, Saul's elder daughter, who had been promised to David.
Diotrephes
[People]Diotrephes was an early Christian mentioned in 3 John. He is described as one who loved to have the preeminence, refused to receive the elder's letter and his workers, and cast out of the church those members who wished to welcome them.
Council of Jerusalem
[Bible]The Council of Jerusalem is an event recorded in Acts 15. The apostles and elders of the Jerusalem church met to consider whether Gentile believers must be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, and they reached a decision on the matter.
Deposition (Church Discipline)
[Organization & Polity]Deposition is a form of church discipline in which an officer such as a minister, elder, or deacon is stripped of the office itself. It is distinct from excommunication, which also removes church membership.
Suspension (Church Discipline)
[Organization & Polity]Suspension is a form of church discipline in which an officer such as a pastor, elder, or deacon retains the office itself but is barred from performing its duties, either for a set period or indefinitely.
Letter of Aristeas
[History]The Letter of Aristeas is an ancient Jewish writing that, presented as the work of a courtier of the Egyptian king, recounts how the Pentateuch was translated into Greek at Alexandria by seventy-two Jewish elders. It contains the story from which the name Septuagint derives.