You can tell a lot about a person’s spiritual outlook based on the administrative structure of the congregation or denomination, church expert Bill Swatos says.
Members of traditions with strong hierarchies, such as the Catholic or Episcopal churches, are likely to view spirituality as a group experience, said Swatos, an Episcopal priest and director of the Association for the Sociology of Religion.
Those in evangelical and congregational churches, such as Baptists and many non-denominational traditions, express faith as a personal experience, he said.
You can also tell a lot by how a given tradition selects spiritual leaders for its congregations.
Swatos and five First Coast ministers discuss how that process evolves in their traditions and what it says about their take on religious life, according to Swatos.
Strong hierarchy? In the ECUSA? Bonnie Anderson has it that the HOB can do nothing without concurrence of the delegates. And the bishops agreed. Something about a hierarchy being absent.