Church is not a requirement for salvation. It is a gathering of followers to hone, perfect, and strengthen their bond with God. All of the actions you just called for can be done in the presence of other followers within a church, without the need of catholic or orthodoxy priesthood to oversee it. IN FACT! Most of the actions you just called for, Paul through his letters called for the churches to perform on his behalf as a collective unit. Prayer for a person, confession and excommunication of a person, doing good works, listening to the wisdom of elders (Someone who is older and more experienced in the faith, NOT a person with claims to being more holy or a special officer of God). But the church itself, baptism, they are all outward expressions of an inward faith. In fact, the scripture speaks about the actions of the church itself and what was performed by it was a group body, but no where can I find a single mention of a pope, nor a singular individual (Save Peter, more on that in a second) who was to be the sole command leader of the church. In Acts, when they send out the 7, they were sent out as more of a clerical, and church support role, not in any specific leadership capacity outside of the operation of their churches. 2 The Twelve summoned the whole company of the disciples and said, “It would not be right for us to give up preaching the word of God to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, select from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we can appoint to this duty. 4 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a convert from Antioch. 6 They had them stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. In the case of Peter, you are missing some very important facts. First: When Christ turned the keys over to him, it was done with expressed purpose of bringing the church to fruition, and to plant the seeds for a world wide spread of the knowledge of Jesus and his miracles. The same with the Apostles. The Apostles are direct witnesses of Jesus Christ who were given rights and privileges by Jesus Himself. The Holy Spirit was the later foretold Helper that would come and inbue all followers with a temple of God in their hearts. But again: Peter and the Apostles were select indivduals with select purpose. This can be clearly seen in how Matthias was chosen. Acts 1 21 and 22 21 Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, 22 beginning from John’s baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.” This was a requirement because the people who were planting the church needed to be first hand witnesses, and to have received the blessing of Christ during his earthly rein. This is actually why some feel that Paul's ministry was invalid, as he was blessed after the fact and was never a witness to the risen Christ. I do not subscribe to this personally, as what Paul experienced was a miracle. But you'll also STILL notice: When Paul was sent for healing, he was not send to a specific priest or pope. He was sent to a devout disciple, Ananias. Even during the healing, Ananias himself calls Paul "Brother", a word that denotes someone on equal footing. >The idea that the curtain tearing means you just need a relationship with Christ is steeped in pride, willful ignorance, and a total lack of connection to Christian thought prior to the mid 18th century. Martin Luther firmly disagrees with you, as do every other Protestant since his teaching. And this all happened several hundred years prior to the 18th century.