The Executive and Field Service Commission was established in 1956 by the Board of Christian Education, the Board of National Missions, the Commission on Ecumenical Mission and Relations, and the Department of Stewardship and Promotion of the General Council, acting jointly. The purpose of the Commission was to provide an agency for a unified plan of executive and field services to serve the synods and presbyteries, forwarding the interests of the whole Church program in judicatories, coordinate the activities of field service personnel representing particular interests, and to relate those serving the various judicatories in administering the work of the Church. In 1972, the Commission was disbanded and reformed into the Council on Administrative Services.