Distinctions in Practice
Church governance is generally organised in one of three main types:
- Episcopal polity, in which churches are governed in a hierarchical fashion, with the role of elders being fulfilled by external bishops. It is common in Anglican, Orthodox, Methodist, Lutheran and Roman Catholic churches, and was prevalent up to and after the Reformation.
- Presbyterian polity, in which churches are governed on a denominational, geographical basis by committees of elders.
- Congregational polity, in which each church is responsible for its own governance. Churches employing this method include Baptist, Congregational and Plymouth Brethren churches. Some churches are led by a pastor; some maintain a plurality of elders.
Read more about this topic: Elder (Christianity)
Famous quotes containing the words distinctions in, distinctions and/or practice:
“Distinctions drawn by the mind are not necessarily equivalent to distinctions in reality.”
—Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274)
“Again we have here two distinctions that are no distinctions, but made to seem so by terms invented by I know not whom to cover ignorance, and blind the understanding of the reader: for it cannot be conceived that there is any liberty greater, than for a man to do what he will.”
—Thomas Hobbes (1579–1688)
“A little instruction in the elements of chartography—a little practice in the use of the compass and the spirit level, a topographical map of the town common, an excursion with a road map—would have given me a fat round earth in place of my paper ghost.”
—Mary Antin (1881–1949)