bishop

'' "Plainly? therefore we ought to regard the bishop as the Lord Himself"'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Ephesians 6:1.
''"your godly bishop"'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 2:1.
''"the bishop presiding after the likeness of God and the presbyters after the likeness of the council of the Apostles, with the deacons also who are most dear to me, having been entrusted with the diaconate of Jesus Christ"'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians !6:1.
''"Therefor e? as the Lord did nothing without the Father, being - united with Him, either by Himself or by the Apostles, so neither do ye anything without the bishop and the presbyters."'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 7:1.
''"Be obedient to the bishop and to one another, as Jesus Christ was to the Father according - to the flesh, and as the Apostles were to Christ and to the Father, that there may be union both of flesh and of spirit."'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Magnesians 13:2.
''"In like manner let all men respect the deacons as Jesus Christ, even as they should respect the bishop as being a type of the Father and the presbyters as the council of God and as the college of Apostles. Apart from these there is not even the name of a church."'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Trallesians 3:1.
''"follow your bishop, as Jesus Christ followed the Father, and the presbytery as the Apostles; and to the deacons pay respect, as to God's commandment"'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 8:1.
''"He that honoureth the bishop is honoured of God; he that doeth aught without the knowledge of the bishop rendereth service to the devil"'' — Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnans 9:1.

—? Lightfoot !translation.

It? is clear that, by this period, a single bishop was expected to lead the church in each centre of Christian mission, supported by a council of presbyters (now a distinct and subordinate position) with a pool of deacons. As the church continued to expand, new churches in important cities gained their own bishop, but churches in the regions around an important city were served by presbyters and deacons from the bishop's city church. Thus, in time, the bishop changed from being the leader of a single church to being the leader of the churches of a given geographical area.

Bishops and civil government - The efficient infrastructure of the Roman Empire became the template for the organization of the church in the 4th centuryfourth century, particularly after the Edict of Milan. As the church moved from the shadows of privacy into the public forum it acquired land for churches, burials and clergy. In 391, Theodosius I decreed that any land that had been confiscated from the church by Roman authorities be returned.The most usual term for the geographical area of a bishop's authority and ministry, the diocese, began as part of the structure of the Roman Empire under Diocletian. As Roman authority began to fail in the western portion of the empire, the church took over much of the civil administration. This can be clearly seen in the ministry of two popes: Pope Leo I in the 5th centuryfifth century, and Pope Gregory I in the 6th centurysixth century. Both of these men were statesmen and public administrators in addition to their role as Christian pastors, teachers and leaders. In the Eastern churches, latifundia entailed to a bishop's see were much less common, the state power did not collapse the way it did in the West, and thus the tendency of bishops acquiring secular power was much weaker than in the West. However, the role of Western bishops as civil authorities, often called prince bishops, continued throughout much of the Middle Ages.

Sovereign bishops - , Bishop of Rome]]The most important of these prince bishops was the Pope, who ruled as monarch of the Papal States by virtue of his title as Bishop of Rome. His claim to this fief rested on the forged Donation of Constantine, but in fact his authority over this kingdom in central Italy grew slowly after the collapse of Roman and Byzantine EmpireByzantine authority in the area. The Papal States were abolished when Victor Emmanuel II of ItalyKing Victor Emmanuel II took possession of Rome in 1870 and completed the reunification of Italy. This became a perennial source of tension between the Papacy and the government of Italy. In 1929, Pope Pius XI made a deal with the FascismFascist government of Benito Mussolini and became the independent sovereign of the Vatican CityVatican, while giving up any rights to the rest of the former Papal States. He was recognised as an independent monarch by the Lateran Treaties, an authority the current Pope continues to hold. The only other bishop who is a head of state is the Bishop of Urgell, a List of Co-Princes of AndorraCo-Prince of Andorra.Three senior bishops served as prince-electorElectors in the Holy Roman Empire. By the terms of the Golden Bull of 1356, the Archbishops of Archbishopric of MainzMainz, Archbishopric of TrierTrier, and Archbishopric of CologneCologne were made permanent electors, who chose the next Holy Roman Emperor upon the death of his predecessor. The Archbishop of Mainz was President of the Electors and ChancellorArchchancellor of Germany. Likewise, the Archbishop of Cologne was Archchancellor of Italy, and the Archbishop of Trier was Archchancellor of Burgundy. A number of other bishops within the Holy Roman Empire, although not being Electors, were sovereign prince-bishops in their own lands.

Bishops holding political office - As well as the Archchancellors of the Holy Roman Empire, bishops generally served as chancellors to mediaeval monarchs, serving as head of the justiciary and chief chaplain. The Lord Chancellor of England was almost always a bishop up until the dismissal of Thomas Cardinal Wolsey by Henry VIII of EnglandHenry VIII. Likewise, the position of Kanclerz in the Polish kingdom was always a bishop until the 16th centurysixteenth century.In France before the French Revolution, representatives of the clergy — in practice, bishops and abbots of the largest monasterymonasteries — comprised the First Estate of the French States-GeneralEstates-General, until their role was abolished during the French Revolution.The more senior bishops of the Church of England continue to sit in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as representatives of the established church, and are known as Lord SpiritualLords Spiritual. The Bishop of Sodor and Man, whose diocese lies outside of the United Kingdom, is ''ex officio'' a member of the Legislative Council (Isle of Man)Legislative Council of the Isle of Man. In the past, the Bishop of Durham, known as a prince bishop, had extensive viceregal powers within his northern diocese — the power to mint money, collect taxes and raise an army to defend against the Scottish peopleScots.

Episcopacy during the English Civil War - During the period of the English Civil War (or rather, Civil Wars), the role of bishops as wielders of political power and as upholders of the established church became a matter of heated political controversy. John Calvin formulated a doctrine of presbyterianism, which held that in the New Testament the offices of ''presbyter'' and ''episkopos'' were identical; he rejected the doctrine of apostolic succession. Calvin's follower John Knox brought presbyterianism to Scotland when the Scottish church was reformed in 1560. In practice, presbyterianism meant that committees of lay elders had a substantial voice in church government, as opposed to merely being subjects to a ruling hierarchy. This vision of at least partial democracy in ecclesiology paralleled the struggles between Parliament of EnglandParliament and King of Englandthe King. A body within the PuritanismPuritan movement in the Church of England sought to abolish the office of bishop and remake the Church of England along Presbyterian lines. The Martin Marprelate tracts, applying the pejorative name of ''prelateprelacy'' to the church hierarchy, attacked the office of bishop with satire that deeply offended Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I and her Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift. The vestments controversy also related to this movement, seeking further reductions in church ceremony, and labelling the use of elaborate vestments as "unedifying" and even Idolatry in Christianityidolatrous. King James I of EnglandJames I, reacting against the perceived contumacy of his Presbyterian Scottish subjects, adopted "No Bishop, no King" as a slogan; he tied the hierarchical authority of the bishop to the absolute authority he sought as king, and viewed attacks on the authority of the bishops as attacks on his own authority. Matters came to a head when King Charles I of EnglandCharles I appointed William Laud as the Archbishop of Canterbury; Laud aggressively attacked the Presbyterian movement and sought to impose the full Anglican liturgy on each church. The controversy eventually lead to Laud's impeachment for treason by a bill of attainder in 1645, and subsequent execution. Charles also attempted to impose episcopacy on Scotland; the Scots' violent rejection of bishops and liturgical worship sparked the Bishops' Wars in 1639-1640. During the height of Puritan power in Commonwealth of Englandthe Commonwealth and the Protectorate, episcopacy was abolished in the Church of England in 1649. The Church of England remained Presbyterian until the English RestorationRestoration of Charles II of EnglandCharles II in 1660.

Bishops in Catholic, Orthodox and Anglican churches - Although many ProtestantismProtestant churches have rejected the place of bishops in church leadership, churches rooted in tradition continue to ordain bishops to lead the church. Bishops form the leadership in the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion, and the Independent Catholic Churches.The traditional role of a bishop is as pastor of a diocese (also called a bishopric, eparchy or see). Dioceses vary considerably in their size of area and population. Some dioceses around the Mediterranean Sea which were christianized early are rather compact; whereas dioceses in areas of rapid modern growth in Christian commitment, as in some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, South America and the Far East, are much larger and more populous. of a Roman Catholic bishop.]]As well as traditional diocesan bishops, many churches have a well-developed structure of church leadership that involves a number of layers of authority and responsibility.;Archbishop:An archbishop is the bishop of an archdiocese. This is usually a prestigious diocese with an important place in local church history. The title is purely honorific and carries no extra jurisdiction, though most archbishops are also metropolitan bishops.;Metropolitan bishop:A metropolitan bishop is an archbishop in charge of an ecclesiastical province, or group of dioceses, and exercises some oversight over the other dioceses. Sometimes a metropolitan may also be the head of an autocephalous, ''sui juris'', or autonomous church.;Suffragan bishop:A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to another. In the Roman Catholic Church this term is applied to all non-metropolitan bishops (diocesan and auxiliary bishops). In the Anglican Communion, the term applies to a bishop who is a full-time assistant to a diocesan bishop: the Bishop of Warwick is suffragan to the Bishop of Coventry (the diocesan), though both live in Coventry. Some Anglican suffragans are given the responsibility for a geographical area within the diocese (for example, the Bishop of Stepney is an ''area bishop'' within the Diocese of London). , Archbishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a Metropolitan Bishop. ]];Titular bishop:A titular bishop is a bishop without a diocese. Rather, the bishop is head of a titular see, which is usually an ancient city that used to have a bishop, but, for some reason or other, does not have one now. Titular bishops often serve as coadjutor bishopcoadjutors or auxiliary bishops. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, bishops of modern diocese are often given a titular see alongside their modern one (for example, the Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain).;Auxiliary bishop:An auxiliary bishop is a full-time assistant to a diocesan bishop (the Roman Catholic equivalent of an Anglican suffragan bishop). Auxiliaries are almost always titular bishops, and are often appointed as the vicar general of the diocese in which they serve.;Coadjutor bishop:A coadjutor bishop is a bishop who is given automatic right to succeed the incumbent diocesan bishop. The appointment of coadjutors is often seen as a means of providing for continuity of church leadership.;Honorary assistant bishop:This title is usually applied to retired bishops who are given a general license to minister as episcopal pastors under a diocesan's oversight.;Primate (religion)Primate:A primate is the bishop of the oldest church of a nation. Sometimes this carries jurisdiction over metropolitan bishops, but usually it is another honorific. An exarch is like a primate in the Eastern churches. The title ''Presiding'' or ''President Bishop'' is often used for the head of a national Anglican church, but this title is not usually associated with a particular episcopal see like a primate. The primate of the Scottish Episcopal Church is chosen from among the diocesan bishops, and, while retaining diocesan responsibility, is called ''Primus''.;Cardinal (Catholicism)Cardinal:A cardinal (Catholicism)cardinal, although not until recently necessarily a bishop (e.g., Jesuit theologian Henri de Lubac), is usually a primate (religion)primate, patriarch or titular bishop within the Roman Catholic Church. Their primary duty is to elect the pope.;Major archbishop:Major archbishops are the heads of some of the Eastern Rite churches in the Roman Catholic Church. Their authority within their ''sui juris'' church is equal to that of a patriarch, but they recieve less ceremonial honors.;Catholicos:Catholicoi are the heads of some of the Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox churches, roughly similar to a Catholic major !archbishop.;Patriarch:Patriarc hs? are the heads of certain ancient autocephalous or ''sui juris'' churches. Some of these churches call their leaders ''Catholicos''; the patriarch of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria, Egypt, is called ''Pope''. While most patriarchs in the Roman Catholic Church have jurisdiction, all Latin Rite patriarchs, except for the Pope, are honorary. Patriarch of Antioch]]Bishops in all of these communions are Holy Ordersordained by other bishops. Depending on the church, there need to be two or three bishops for validity or legality.Apart from the ordination, which is always done by other bishops, there are different methods in different churches as to the actual ''choosing'' of a candidate for ordination as bishop. In the Roman Catholic Church today, the Congregation for Bishops oversees the selection of new bishops with the approval of the Pope. Most Eastern Orthodox churches allow varying amounts of more or less formalized laity and/or lower clergy influence on the choice of bishops. ''More information on this topic is needed.''Only a bishop can ordain a bishop, priest, or deacon.In the Eastern Orthodox Church and in the Eastern Rite liturgical tradition, a priest may celebrate the Divine Liturgy only with the blessing of a bishop. An antimension signed by the bishop is kept on the altar partly as a reminder of whose altar it is and under whose omophorion the priest at a local parish is serving.The PopePope of Rome, in addition to being the Bishop of Rome and head of the Roman Catholic Church, is the Patriarch of the Latin Catholic Church. Each bishop within the Latin Catholic Church is only answerable directly to the Pope and not any other bishop except to metropolitans in certain oversight instances.In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Communion, the cathedral of a diocese will have a special chair set aside for the exclusive use of the bishop. This is the bishop's ''cathedra'', which is often called the bishop's throne. In some other Christian denominations, other churches besides the cathedral will maintain a chair for the use of a Bishop when he visits their parish.Catholic, Anglican, and Orthodox Christian bishops claim to be part of a continuous sequence of ordained bishops since the days of the apostles, the apostolic succession. However, since a bull of Pope Leo XIII issued in 1896, the Roman Catholic church has insisted that Anglican orders are invalid, because of that church's changes in the ordination rites. The Roman Catholic church does however recognize as valid (though illegal) ordinations done by breakaway Roman Catholic bishops, and groups descended from them, so long as the people receiving the ordination conform to other canonical requirements; this gives rise to the phenomenon of ''episcopi vagantes''. Roman Catholics also recognize the validity of ordinations of bishops, priests, and deacons in the Orthodox churches.Some province (Anglican)provinces of the Anglican Communion have begun ordination of womenordaining women as bishops in recent decades. The first was Barbara Clementine Harris, who was ordained to the epsicopate in 1989.

Bishops in other churches - Some other churches, such as Lutheran churchLutherans, MethodismMethodists and Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsThe Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints ("LDS Church"; see also Mormon), also have bishops, but their roles differ significantly from the Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican ones.

United Methodist Bishops - , United Methodist Bishop for Western Pennsylvania]]In the United Methodist Church, bishops are administrative superintendents of the church; they are elected for life from among the clergy by vote of the delegates in regional (called Jurisdictional) conferences and, among their duties, are responsible for appointing clergy to serve local churches as pastor, for performing ordinations, and for safeguarding the doctrine and discipline of the Church. The Juridictional Conferences, meeting every four years, are comprised of an equal number of clergy and lay delegates. In each Annual Conference, United Methodist bishops serve for four year terms, and may serve up to three terms before either retirement or appointment to a new Conference. United Methodist bishops may be male or female. John Wesley made Thomas Coke (methodist)Thomas Coke and Francis Asbury superintendents for the United StatesUnited States of America in 1784, where Methodism first became a separate religious denominationdenomination apart from the Church of England. Coke soon returned to England, but Asbury was the primary builder of the new church. He did not call himself bishop, but eventually submitted to the usage by the people. Notable bishops in United Methodist history include Coke, Asbury, Richard Whatcoat, Philip William Otterbein, Martin Boehm, Jacob Albright, John Seybert, Matthew Simpson, John Stamm, Marjorie Matthews, Ntambo Nkulu Ntanda, William Willimon, and Thomas Bickerton.Methodists in Great Britain acquired their own bishops early in the nineteenth century, after the Methodist movement in Britain formally parted company with the Church of England. The position no longer exists, however, in British Methodism.

Christian Methodist Episcopal Church - , Senior Bishop of The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church]] In the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, bishops are administrative superintendents of the church; they are elected by "delegate" votes for as many years deemed until the age of 74, then he/she must retire. Among their duties, are responsibility for appointing clergy to serve local churches as pastor, for performing ordinations, and for safeguarding the doctrine and discipline of the Church. The General Conference, a meeting every four years, are comprised of an equal number of clergy and lay delegates. In each Annual Conference, CME bishops serve for four year terms. CME Church bishops may be male or female.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Bishop (Mormonism)Bishop is the leader of a local congregation, called a Ward (Mormonism)ward. As such, it is his duty to preside at sacrament meetingsacrament meetings, assign local leaders, and participate in one-on-one interviews with his ward members for things such as temple (Mormonism)temple recommends and confession.Bishop is an office of the priesthood (Mormonism)Aaronic Priesthood; in addition to his ward responsibilities, it is a bishop's duty to preside over the priest's quorum (Mormonism)quorum. Responsible for the physical welfare of the ward, he collects tithing and fast offeringfast offerings and distributes financial assistance where needed.A bishop is chosen from members of the local congregation by the stake (Mormonism)stake presidency. After being called, he chooses his two counselors, and the three men together form a bishopric. Like almost all positions in the Church, bishops are not paid or reimbursed financially for their services and therefore have normal full-time jobs to provide for their families. A ward typically releases its bishop and calls a new one every five years or so; after being released, a bishop is usually still referred to by the title "Bishop" by the people he served.

New Apostolic Church - The New Apostolic Church (NAC) knows 3 classes of ministries: Diacons, Priests and Apostles. The Apostles, all conclused in the apostolate with the Chief Apostle as head, are the highest ministries. Of the several kinds of priest-ministries, the bishop is the highest one. Nearly all bishops are set in directly from the chief apostle. They support and help their superior apostle.

Others - In some smaller Protestant denominations and independent churches the term bishop is used in the same way as pastor, to refer to the leader of the local congregation who may be male or female. This usage is especially common in African American churches in the USA. In the Church of Scotland, which has a Presbyterian church structure, the word "bishop" refers to an ordained person, usually a normal parish minister, who has temporary oversight of a trainee minister.

See also -

umc.org - List of United Methodist Bishops

Episcopalian church governance

List of Bishops and Archbishops

Presbyterian church governance

Bishops in the Church of Scotland

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