What gives ONE Lutheran and/or Episcopalian church the authority to bless animals while withholding it to others?
Does a local bishop have the say?
How does it work?
What is the reason for or for NOT blessing animals?
Just curious.
Being Catholic I don't even know if all Lutheran and/or Episcopalian churches HAVE bishops. Being PROTESTORS/vestiges of the Catholic Church I would ASSUME that practices of having bishops and blessing animals would be TOTALLY unwanted.
WHO is the "ultimate" authority therefore? Again, just curious.
I know the Episcopal Church(es) have bishops, but I can’t speak to their actual roles and authority.
The major Lutheran Church bodies all have bishops (though my own, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod formally eschews the term “bishop,” opting for “District President” instead. Not really sure why. Perhaps simply because they’re elected for a term. Others do use the term bishop. We do too, colloquially). However, for us, the bishop is certainly not the “boss” of the local churches in his district, and we have no hierarchy. It’s more of an administrator and coordinator, overseeing things that generally involve multiple individual churches - missions, seminary, assisting churches fill vacancies, church relations, etc. etc. I know there are some that do feel our district presidents don’t have enough authority (e.g., very difficult to defrock a pastor in the LCMS).
So what gives one church the authority to do something different than others? Because our churches are autonomous. They’re more like franchises than branch offices. From the Augsburg Confession:
“Article VII: Of the Church.
1] Also [Lutheran Churches] teach that one holy Church is to continue forever. The Church is the congregation of saints, in which the Gospel is rightly taught and the Sacraments are rightly administered.
2] And to the true unity of the Church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and 3] the administration of the Sacraments. Nor is it necessary that human traditions, that is, rites or ceremonies, instituted by men, should be everywhere alike. 4] As Paul says: One faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all, etc. Eph. 4:5-6.”
http://www.bookofconcord.org/augsburgconfession.php
So the supreme authority isn’t a who, it’s a what. It’s the Bible. Theoretically, as it has been interpreted by the Church throughout history. “Confessional” Lutherans look to the Book of Concord ~ which is the collection of documents written early during the reformation - many in debate with the Catholic Church - plus the creeds, to be a correct representation of the Church’s teaching. The Evangelical Lutheran Church of America frankly does whatever it feels like (many of us don’t even consider the ELCA to be Lutheran - though there are certainly faithful churches therein. Nobody has a copyright on the name Lutheran.).