The foundational unit of the New Covenant Church of God is the congregation or the LOCAL COLONY which consists of catechumens (unbaptised investigator- members), baptised members, and confirmed/full (or Christmated) members. All members are called into the Priesthood (1 Pet.2:9) though not all accept the call necessarily. There are three Priesthood Orders -- the Patriarchal, the Eldership (Enochian Order) and the Deaconate (Zadokian Order). These are collectively called the Melchizedek Priesthood, which is the Order of the Son of God (Heb.5-7). Priesthood is open to both men and women though the sexes have their own orders with slightly different callings.

The Eldership and Deaconate are divided into various offices as shown in the diagram below:

Each colony is presided over by a Pastorate consisting of three Elders and three Eldresses, two of which are the Pastor and Pastress who are looked upon as the father (patriarch) and mother (matriarch) of the Local Colony. The Pastor presides over the Pastorate.

The maximum size of a local colony is 144 baptised members after which they are divided up into smaller units. A group of local colonies in a common geographical area constitute a Metropole, the senior colony in which is called a Metropolitan Colony. The Metropolitan Colony is presided over by a Bishopric or a Metropolitan Pastorate structured in the same way as a local Pastorate. The Metropolitan Pastorate has oversight over the other local colonies in its care and is thus sometimes called a Mother Colony.

The New Covenant Church is highly evangelistic and has missionaries (called missioners) in every local and metropolitan colony. There are therefore Local Missioners, Metropolitan Missioners, Evangelists -- also called Sub-Apostles (who work within an area containing several Metropoles), and finally the international missioners called APOSTLES.

The Twelve Apostles constitute the APOSTOLATE or PATRIARCHATE, who are the Church fathers, three of whom constitute the Presiding Patriarchate.

The women's equivalent of the Apostolate, known as the Matriarchate, has, when fully organised, one hundred and forty-four members, three of which constitute the Presiding Matriarchate.

For a more detailed account of Church organisation, see The Olive Branch, "The New Covenant Priesthood", pp.xxi-xxix, which also contains a helpful table showing all the church officers and their responsibilities. Though this is not completely up on this site yet, you can order the book with full commentary by clicking here. Also see the Membership Page which contains a more detailed look at the operation of cells within the local colony and how you will settle in as a new member.

At the time of writing (October 2004), the New Covenant Church of God is organised with one proto-Firstborn Colony in Sweden (Kadesh-biyqah), one Mission in Oslo (Norway), about 40 congregations in Andhra Pradesh & Orissa States and one in Bombay/Mumbai (India), about 30 congregations in Africa, and one congregation in the USA. The total membership is somewhere in the order of 8,000-10,000 souls. Two Bible Schools operate in Kadesh-biyqah and in Salt Lake City, Utah.

There were previously associate congregations in Moldova, Romania, Israel, the USA, Pakistan, Ukraine, the DR Congo and elsewhere until the associate status was disbanded in 2004.