Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
Ecclesiastical polity is the government of a church. There are local (congregational) forms of organization as well as denominational. A church's polity may describe its ministerial offices or an authority structure between churches. Polity relates closely to ecclesiology, the theological study of the church.
Churches with an episcopal polity are governed by bishops, practising their authorities in the dioceses and conferences or synods.Their leadership is both sacramental and constitutional; as well as performing ordinations, confirmations, and consecrations, the bishop supervises the clergy within a local jurisdiction and is the representative both to secular structures and within the hierarchy ...
Ecclesiastical government, ecclesiastical hierarchy, or ecclesiocracy may refer to: Theocracy , a form of religious State government Hierocracy (medieval) , papal temporal supremacy over the State
The Church's tradition taught that government and laws originally emerged from the people, and were justified with their consent . Catholic thinkers believed that government authority was to be limited by natural and customary laws, as well as independent institutions such as the Church. [ 2 ]
Presbyterian (or presbyteral) polity is a method of church governance ("ecclesiastical polity") typified by the rule of assemblies of presbyters, or elders.Each local church is governed by a body of elected elders usually called the session (or consistory), though other terms, such as church board, may apply.
The Holy See is thus viewed as the central government of the Catholic Church and Vatican City. [17] The Catholic Church, in turn, is the largest non-government provider of education and health care in the world. [19]
The Catholic Church takes the position that the Church itself has a proper role in guiding and informing consciences, explaining the natural law, and judging the moral integrity of the state, thereby serving as check to the power of the state. [143] The Church teaches that the right of individuals to religious freedom is an essential dignity.
Pilgrims Going to Church, a 1867 depiction of Puritans in the New England colonies, by George Henry Boughton.. The Congregational tradition was brought to America in the 1620s and 1630s by the Puritans—a Calvinistic group within the Church of England that desired to purify it of any remaining teachings and practices of the Roman Catholic Church. [6]