be ordained as elders. The Synod did not adopt the committee recommendation. The sacrament of the Lord's Supper, or Communion, is served to all communicant members present at a church celebrating the sacrament. Until recent decades, only Reformed Presbyterians were permitted to take the sacrament, but members of other denominations considered to be Bible-believing have been extended this privilege in recent decades. However, the RPCNA requires that members of other denominations who take communion be personally interviewed by the session before partaking, another practice that distinguishes the RPCNA from other Reformed denominations. The Reformed Presbyterian Church in North America is also a member of the North American Presbyterian and Reformed Council (NAPARC), an organization of confessional Presbyterian and Continental Reformed churches, which also includes the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, the Presbyterian Church in America, the United Reformed Churches in North America, Reformed Church in the United States, and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church along with a few other smaller Reformed and Presbyterian denominations as members. Organization Today, the RPCNA has congregations in twenty-eight U.S. states and three Canadian provinces throughout North America, as well as maintaining close relations with "sister churches" of Reformed Presbyterians in South Sudan, Ireland, Scotland, and Australia. There is also a mission presbytery in Kobe, Japan, as well as an associated mission congregation in Larnaca, Cyprus. The RPCNA is composed of the following presbyteries: Alleghenies: including congregations in Maryland, northeastern Ohio, western and central Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Atlantic: including congregations in Massachusetts, New Jersey, southeastern New York, eastern Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island Great Lakes-Gulf: including congregations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, North Carolina, western Ohio, and South Carolina. Midwest: including congregations in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming. Pacific Coast: including congregations in Alberta, Arizona, British Columbia, California, Nevada, and Washington St. Lawrence: including congregations in upstate New York, Ontario, and Quebec. Japan: including congregations in Kobe Membership Since 1980, the denomination has experienced growth, seeing an increase of approximately 25% in membership and 11% in the number of churches. This growth has not been uniform, however; many churches have been started in urban areas, while many older congregations, especially in rural areas, have continued to decline. As of 31 December 2007, the RPCNA had 6,334 members in 75 North American congregations, along with 238 more members in four congregations in Japan. By 2016 communicant membership had risen to 7,076. The "stronghold" areas