member: a member, almost always the child of communicant members, who has been baptized but has not yet professed Christian faith. Baptized members may not receive the Lord's Supper or vote in congregational business meetings. Communicant member: a member who has professed Christian faith and adherence to church standards. Communicant members may receive the Lord's Supper and vote in congregational business meetings. Elder: a man elected and ordained to lead a congregation. This includes both ruling elders (laymen) and teaching elders (clergy), which are considered equal in status but different in role. Under normal circumstances, each ruling elder is a member of his congregation's session, as is every active pastor. However, an ordained minister who is not currently active as a pastor may serve only as a ruling elder in his congregation. Each congregation must have at least two elders in order to be legitimately constituted. Presbytery: a group of several congregations in a specific area, governed by the ministers in that area along with one or more ruling elders from each of those several congregations. Session: a governing board in each congregation, composed of the ruling elders in that congregation and the congregation's pastor(s). Synod: a governing body above the presbytery, composed of all ministers and one or more ruling elders from each congregation in the denomination. History The RPCNA, like the other churches of the Reformed Presbyterian Global Alliance, descents from the Reformed Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which formed in 1690. From the time of the Revolution Settlement in 1691, the foremost of Reformed Presbyterian "distinctive principles" was the practice of political dissent from the British government. The first Reformed Presbyterian congregation in North America was organized in Middle Octorara (Lancaster County, Pennsylvania) in 1738, but the first presbytery, organized by four immigrant Irish and Scottish Reformed Presbyterian ministers, was not formed until 1774. At this time, Reformed Presbyterians were mostly concentrated in eastern Pennsylvania and northern South Carolina, but small groups of Reformed Presbyterians existed in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, western Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Georgia. During the American Revolution, most Reformed Presbyterians fought for independence—the one minister that served in South Carolina was even arrested for insurrection and brought before Lord Cornwallis in 1780. After the ratification of the United States Constitution in 1788, the denomination held the document (and therefore all governments under it) to be immoral, and participation in such a government to be