PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH (1931) The Presbyterians who are found chiefly in Ulster, are formed into Congregations, each of which is under the ecclesiastical government of a court called a Kirk Session, consisting of the Minister and Elders of the Congregation. An indefinite number of the Ministers of these Congregations, with a Representative Elder or each constitutes a Presbytery, which has the charge of the Congregations represented in it. Delegates from each of these Presbyteries, consisting of all the Ministers, with a Representative Elder, for each, constitute the General Assembly, which is presided over by a Moderator chosen annually and regulates the ecclesiastical concerns of the Body. The first Presbytery in Ireland was formed at Carrickfergus in 1642, and gave rise t the Synod of Ulster. The Presbyterian Synod of Munster was formed about 1660. The Presbytery of Antrim separated from the Synod of Ulster in 1727, and the Remonstrant Synod in 1829. A number of Seceders formed themselves into the Secession Synod of Ireland about 1780. In 1840 the General and Secession Synods having united, assumed the name of the general Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, comprising in 1930, 546 Congregations, arranged under 34 Presbyteries. The Ministers were supported by voluntary contributions, the rents of seats or pews, and the proceeds of the commutation of the annual Parliamentary Grant called the Regium Donum, or Royal Gift ( first granted in 1672 by Charles II), made by the Church Temporalities Commissioners under the Act of 1869. The Minutes of the General Assembly for 1930 state that in the year ending in December there were 584 Ministers,, (besides 22 licentiates and ordained ministers without charge, 546 congregations and 510 manses.