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There was some critical comment recently about assembly being made up of people who are employed by the church, which would make them ‘not grass roots” or make them ‘out of touch’
For those of you who like figures and numbers 257 members of assembly – 128 ministers, 129 lay people
of the ministers elected 128 ministers appointed, 16 are presbytery officers or similar, and 22.5 are employed by synods, often heads of departments or similar, 7.5 by assembly includes ex-officio (president, gen sec, etc) and national directors of assembly agencies.
Lay people Of the 129 lay people, 6 are employed by the Assembly, (includes national directors of assembly agencies) , 38 by synods and 4 by presbyteries (includes youth workers.)
Of the 257 people who attended the 10th assembly , · 13.5 are employed directly by the assembly including ex-officio · 60. 5 are employed by synods · 20 are employed by presbyteries
These figures could go up or down by one or two depending on whether you count Congress people as assembly, synod or Congress.
Overall 64% of the assembly members are not employed by synods, presbyteries or Assembly , ie almost 2/3. Of those employed by those councils, approx 7% are from presbyteries, 23.5% from synods, 5% by the Assembly.
Wendie Wilkie Associate General Secretary
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