About the Presbytery

The Presbytery of North East Victoria covers a large area of north eastern Victoria and reaches into southern NSW. The western boundary stretches from Mathoura to Colbinabbin, and the eastern boundary from Corryong to Alexandra with Broadford as the southern most community. Our northern boundary is through the Murray Valley region to Mathoura, and then south-east to Broadford. Click to see map below.

Strategic Directions

The presbytery has responsibilities under the Basis of Union and regulations for the ministry and mission within its bounds.  In the rapidly changing context of the church and the world, PNEV was concerned to find ways to care for all congregations and people, regardless of size and financial stability and capacity. Strategic directions were developed and agreed to early in 2013 and are subject to ongoing review.

The presbytery has endeavoured to remain true to its values and role in aiming to care for both small and large congregations. However this is a challenge in a presbytery with many congregations whose members are aging and declining in numbers and thus who are experiencing a reduction in financial resources. Many of the lay leaders are also aging. Ensuring that new possibilities are nurtured and that the outreach to younger people and families is valued and celebrated is also vital.  Recognising that small groups and tiny congregations have much to share along with the larger ones, ensures that all feel valuable and make their contribution to the whole.

The desire to support all congregations resulted in a set of directions for the presbytery, where it identified six centres of population, Seymour, Shepparton/Mooroopna, Benalla, Wangaratta, Albury/Wodonga and Echuca, with a priority to try and ensure that congregations in those centres retained placements as far as possible and became centres of resourcing for smaller congregations around them.  The strategic direction also identified the need for education and the equipping, support and nurture of lay leaders in smaller congregations for the future, and for some new thinking around worship and leadership.  This helps PRC and M&E committees in particular to identify where they need to put their focus.

Map with Congregations

Below is a map showing the extent of the Presbytery and congregations indicated by purple dots. Where congregations linked into a cluster, lines are shown linking the dots.