04-23-2025, 08:38 PM
timg wrote:
I think it's by definition that there is no equivalent to Pope in the protestant world.
The whole premise of the protestants were that people could decipher the bible for themselves, where in the Roman Catholic tradition, the church decides what the bible means.
Yes that was the thinking at the time of the Protestant Reformation. But now you have protestant denominations and Evangelical churches who are very much into telling their members what the Bible means. That's considered the role of the pastor and church elders.
The predominant difference, operationally, from the Catholic church is autonomy of individual church congregations. Protestant churches usually hire or fire their own pastor, manage their own funds, may own the building, etc.