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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.
According to Walter Ullmann, medieval Catholic scholars came close to envisioning and endorsing democracy in its modern form, [2] with Saint Thomas writing that the law should be formulated by "the whole community or the person who represents it" and describing a regime in which "all participate in the election of those who rule" as the best ...
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 ...
In canon law, the power to govern the church is divided into the power to make laws (legislative), enforce the laws (executive), and to judge based on the law (judicial). [6] An official exercises power to govern either because he holds an office to which the law grants governing power or because someone with governing power has delegated it to ...
In the Latin Church, positive ecclesiastical laws, based directly or indirectly upon immutable divine law or natural law, derive formal authority in the case of universal laws from the supreme legislator (i.e., the Supreme Pontiff), who possesses the totality of legislative, executive, and judicial power in his person, [14] while particular ...
The consultative leadership of the church, in both the diocese and the parish, usually comprises a Pastoral Council [92] [93] and a Finance Council, [94] [95] as well as several Commissions usually focusing on major aspects of the church's life and mission, such as Faith Formation or Christian Education, Liturgy, Social Justice, Ecumenism, or ...
The canon law of the Catholic Church (from Latin ius canonicum [1]) is "how the Church organizes and governs herself". [2] It is the system of laws and ecclesiastical legal principles made and enforced by the hierarchical authorities of the Catholic Church to regulate its external organization and government and to order and direct the ...
These include models of the Church as institution, as mystical communion, as sacrament, as herald, and as servant. [9] The ecclesiological model of Church as an institution holds that the Catholic Church alone is the "one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church", and is the only Church of divine and apostolic origin led by the Pope.