Diocese

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This article is about ecclesiastical dioceses. For the administrative unit in the Roman Empire, see Roman diocese.

Pope Pius XI blesses Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace window. In Roman Catholicism, the pope is the bishop of the diocese of Rome. He creates the other dioceses throughout the world and chooses their bishops.

In the Christian church, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administrated by a bishop, hence also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area (as in United Methodism) or episcopal see, though more often the term episcopal see means the office held by the bishop. The diocese is the key unit of authority in the form of church governance known as episcopal polity. In the Roman Catholic Church and the Anglican Communion, an important diocese is called an archdiocese (usually due to size, historical significance, or both), which is governed by an Archbishop, who may be exempt from or have Metropolitan authority over the other ('suffragan') dioceses within a wider jurisdiction called ecclesiastical province. As of 2003, there are approximately 569 Roman Catholic archdioceses and 2014 dioceses. The Orthodox Church calls its dioceses Metropolises. The Church of England continued and developed this diocesan structure after the Reformation. This continued throughout the Anglican Communion.

1 History
2 Christian hierarchy
3 Other denominations
4 See also
5 Sources and external links

[edit] History

See also: Bishops and civil government

In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese (Latin dioecesis, from the Greek term διοίκησις, meaning "administration").

With the adoption of Christianity as the Empire's official religion in the 4th century, the clergy assumed official positions of authority alongside the civil governors. A formal Church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided. With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, the bishops in Western Europe assumed a large part of the role of the former Roman governors. A similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many an ancient diocese, though later divided among several dioceses, has preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division.

[edit] Christian hierarchy

Modern Christian usage of 'diocese' tends to refer to the sphere of a bishop's jurisdiction. This became commonplace during the self-conscious "classicizing" structural evolution of the Carolingian empire in the 9th century, but this usage had itself been evolving from the much earlier parochia ("parish"), dating from the increasingly formalised Christian authority structure in the 4th century (see EB 1911).

[edit] Other denominations

In the Methodist Church (Covering Great Britain and Ireland), churches are grouped together in sections. Sections are grouped together to form Circuits. Circuits are grouped together to form Districts. All of these, combined with the local membership of the Church, are referred to as the 'Connexion'. This, 18th century term, endorsed by John Wesley describes how people serving in different geographical centres are 'connected' to each other. The Methodist Church has an annual president. Each District is headed by a 'Chair' who oversees its functioning. Each Circuit is governed by a superintendent minister. The geographical regions covered by circuits and dioceses rarely overlap.

In the United Methodist Church, a bishop is given oversight over a geographical area called an Episcopal Area. Each Episcopal Area contains one or more Annual Conference, which is how the churches and clergy under the bishop's supervision are organized. Thus, the use of the term "diocese" referring to geography is the most equivalent in the U.M. Church, whereas each Annual Conference is part of one Episcopal Area (though that Area may contain more than one Conference).

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints uses the term ward, rather than parish, to refer to the jurisdiction of the bishop and his counselors. However, the ward is not equal in geographical size to a Catholic diocese; rather, a stake is.