Presbyterian describes the way the church is governed. Responsibility for oversight of the local congregation rests -- not on individuals appointed by a distant authority or on the congregation by majority vote -- but on elected bodies at the congregational, regional, and national levels. The ruling council in each congregation is called the Session -- a body made up of men and women known as elders, who have been "set apart" by election and ordination into a supervisory role. "Elder" is the English equivalent of the Greek New Testament word presbuteros, from which we get the word Presbyterian.