Protestant Sects

Annie left a comment over at Ask Sister Mary Martha. It was quite well worded. If anyone can add to this please feel free to do so! Here it is in its entirety:

Each protestant denomination has a unique historical trajectory, resulting in a peculiar set of emphases.

Baptists spring from calvinist groups--you can find baptists who eschew calvinism, but that's counter their heritage--and not from Anabaptists, though some baptists are confused on this point. They are congregationalists, which means each congregation is autonomous. They are loosely affiliated with one another but there is no centralized authority and they resist such authority at every turn. They practice two "ordinances": Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism is for adults only, by full immersion, and constitutes a public declaration of faith on the part of the person being baptized. By adults there, I mean past the so-called "age of reason". I grew up in a Baptist church and was baptized at age 6. I managed to convince them I knew something about Jesus.

Lutherans are directly descended from Martin Luther and have inherited his emphasis on scripture alone and on justification by faith. Lutheran theology tends to work along binaries--law and gospel, faith and works. Lutherans vary in practice but in general, they uphold the Lord's Supper and baptism as ordinances. Lutherans do practice infant baptism, though, and that means they also practice confirmation.

Lutheran polity is synodical, meaning there are individual synods, which decide their positions. Lutherans do have bishops, which means their polity is also Episcopal.

• The ELCA - Evangelical Lutheran Church in America is the more liberal.
  
• the LCMS - Lutheran Church Missouri Synod is more conservative.
  
• H/T Radical Catholic Mom ~~> Lutherans have a 3rd branch, the Wisconsin Synod, the most conservative of them all.

The Episcopal Church (which is the Church of England in the United States) is likewise governed by bishops. Episcopal church governance is divided between the house of bishops (made up of all the bishops and convened by a presiding bishop) and the house of deputies (lay and clergy are elected as delegates to this body). Though there is a presiding bishop, there is no truly centralized authority. All decisions are made and approved by both bodies.

Likewise, the Anglican community is loosely organized with the Bishop of Canterbury as its figurehead, but each province is essentially autonomous. Outside the United States, most provinces are governed by a primate who is a central authority. The United States is peculiar in its polity, which resembles a representative democracy. Anglicans acknowledge baptism and The Eucharist. They acknowledge these in particular because they were instituted by Jesus but many also practice the other five sacraments. There is much in Anglicanism that is left to the individual and falls under the category "pious idea". Asking for prayer of Mary and the saints, for instance, is not required but considered good and well. Same for belief in doctrines like the immaculate conception and purgatory. If you want to, go for it. If you find it unhelpful, well...it's not required for salvation.

Thank you to Radical Catholic Mom for this quick note on Anglicans and the Eucharist:

The doctrine is VERY confused. When I studied the famous Anglican priest poet George Herbert I discovered he believed in the Catholic understanding of the Eucharist. But when I called up every Anglican Church in the DFW area, I discovered that there is no one policy on it. Some didn't believe in the Real Presence and some did. Good friends in college, a married couple, both devout Anglicans were shocked when they discovered one believed in the Real Presence and the other did not. I told them their Church's doctrine allowed the confusion and they did not believe me. When they researched and found out I was right, they became Catholics.

The Methodist Church is an offshoot of Anglicanism. John Wesley combined Anglicanism with German pietism (especially the Moravians). Wesley's theology emphasized justification but as a first step on a longer journey toward sanctification. In that, he opposed doctrines of instantaneous salvation. Wesleyan theology is also built on what is known as his quadrilateral: scripture, tradition, reason, and experience. As in Anglicanism, there is a larger role for tradition. The emphasis on experience is owing to German pietism. Modern Methodists also follow Wesley in emphasizing social justice.

The Presbyterian Church is calvinist in outlook, meaning there is an emphasis on predestination and the sovereignty of God. The term presbyterian comes from the greek presbyteros, meaning elder. The church is governed by a board of elders. Like the Lutheran church, the denomination is split between a liberal branch (PC-USA Presbyterian Church USA; and PCA Presbyterian Church in America).

Mainline protestant churches more or less liturgical in worship depending on congregational preferences. That's the thing about this level of autonomy--it's a bit difficult to pin down. In the rural south, you'd have a hard time telling the difference between a Methodist and a Baptist church on most Sundays. In general, though, protestantism emphasizes delivery of the word to the people by way of a sermon over the Eucharist itself. That is perhaps most true of Presbyterian churches.