This article is about ecclesiastical dioceses. For the administrative unit in the Roman Empire, see Roman diocese. A Roman or civil diocese ( Latin: dioecesis, from the διοίκησις, "administration" was one of the administrative divisions

Pope Pius XI blesses Bishop Stephen Alencastre as fifth Apostolic Vicar of the Hawaiian Islands in a Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace window. Pope Pius XI ( Latin: Pius PP XI; Italian: Pio XI; May 31 1857 &ndash February 10 1939) born A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight Bishop Stephen Peter Alencastre, SSCC ( November 3, 1876 &mdash November 9, 1940) was the fifth and last Vicar apostolic of The Roman Catholic Bishop of Honolulu is the residential Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Honolulu in the United States, which encompasses the entire The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace &mdash also known by its original French Name Cathédrale de Notre Dame de la Paix, its Portuguese variant For the Blackford Oakes novel see Stained Glass (novel The term stained glass refers either to the material of coloured Glass or to the art In Roman Catholicism, the pope is the bishop of the Diocese of Rome. History See also History of the Papacy Catholics recognize the Pope as a successor to Saint Peter, who Jesus named as the "shepherd" and The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, commonly known as the Pope, and is the preeminent Episcopal see of the Roman Catholic He creates the other dioceses throughout the world and chooses their bishops. This is a growing list of Roman Catholic Dioceses. There are approximately 3000 dioceses of the Church

In the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church and in Anglican churches, a diocese is an administrative territorial unit administered by a bishop. The Latin Rite is one of the 23 Sui iuris Particular Churches within the Catholic Church. Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight It is also referred to as a bishopric or Episcopal Area (as in United Methodism) or episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bishop. An Episcopal Area in the United Methodist Church (UMC is a basic unit of this denomination The United Methodist Church is the largest Methodist denomination and the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States. An episcopal see is the ecclesiastical domain of authority of a Bishop. The diocese is the key geographical unit of authority in the form of church governance known as episcopal polity. Episcopal polity is a form of church governance which is hierarchical in structure with the chief authority over a local Christian church resting in a Bishop (Greek 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 an ecclesiastical province. See also Anglicanism The Anglican Communion is an international association of national Anglican churches In Christianity, an archbishop is an elevated Bishop. In the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and others this means that they lead An ecclesiastical province is a large jurisdiction of religious government so named by analogy with a secular Province, existing in certain hierarchical Christian As of 2003, there are approximately 569 Roman Catholic archdioceses and 2014 dioceses. Year 2003 ( MMIII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. After the Reformation, the Church of England continued and developed the existing diocesan structure in England. The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th century England by which the Church of England first broke away from the authority of the Pope The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican This continued throughout the Anglican Communion. See also Anglicanism The Anglican Communion is an international association of national Anglican churches In the Eastern Catholic Churches (which recognise papal authority and so are part of the Roman Catholic Church), the equivalent unit is the Eparchy; the Orthodox Church calls its dioceses Metropoleis. This article refers to Eastern Churches in full communion with the Holy See Eparchy is an Anglicized Greek word authentically Latinized as eparchia and loosely translating as 'rule over something' but has the following The term Orthodox Christianity may refer to The Eastern Orthodox Church: the Eastern Christian churches of Byzantine

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"). A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial In Ancient Rome, a province (Latin provincia, pl provinciae) was the basic and until the Tetrarchy (circa A Roman or civil diocese ( Latin: dioecesis, from the διοίκησις, "administration" was one of the administrative divisions Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Greek (el ελληνική γλώσσα or simply el ελληνικά — "Hellenic" is an Indo-European language, spoken today by 15-22 million people mainly

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. The Western Roman Empire refers to the western half of the Roman Empire, from its division by Diocletian in 285 the other half of the Roman Empire was the Eastern 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. For Gaul, Bruce Eagles has observed that "it has long been an academic commonplace in France that the medieval dioceses, and their constituent pagi, were the direct territorial successors of the Roman civitates. In the later Western Roman Empire, following the reorganization of Diocletian, a pagus (compare French pays, Spanish pago In the history of the Roman empire, civitas (pl civitates mainly referred to the condition of Roman Citizenship It was also used to describe a type of settlement ^[1]

Christian hierarchy

Modern 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). Carolingian Empire is a historiographical term sometimes used to refer to the realm of the Franks under the Carolingian dynasty. A parish is a Local church; it is an administrative unit typically found in episcopal or presbyterian churches

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. The United Methodist Church is the largest Methodist denomination and the second largest Protestant denomination in the United States. A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight An Episcopal Area in the United Methodist Church (UMC is a basic unit of this denomination Each Episcopal Area contains one or more Annual Conference, which is how the churches and clergy under the bishop's supervision are organized. An Annual Conference in the United Methodist Church is a regional body that governs much of the life of the "Connectional Church 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).

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a bishop is not the leader of a large administrative area, but is rather the spiritual leader of an individual local congregation (known as a ward and roughly equivalent to a Catholic parish). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the fourth largest Christian denomination in the United States and the largest and most well-known Bishop is the highest priesthood office of the Aaronic priesthood in the Latter Day Saint movement. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a ward is the larger of two types of local congregations (the smaller being a branch) A stake is the rough equivalent of a diocese. A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement.

Notes

See also

Sources and external links

• Definition from 1911 Britannica
• Complete list of Catholic dioceses worldwide by Giga-Catholic Information
• Virtually complete list of current and historical Catholic dioceses worldwide
• Another such list, in English and Norwegian
• Notitia dignitatum
• List of current Anglican/Episcopalian dioceses
• "Diocese". This is an alphabetical list of Anglican and Episcopalian dioceses. The Anglican Church of Canada, an independent province of the worldwide Anglican Communion, contains thirty Dioceses organised into four Ecclesiastical Wikipedia_talkFeatured_lists#Proposed_change_to_all_featured_lists for an explanation of this and other inclusion tags below -->This is a list of Church of England This page is a List of Church of Ireland Dioceses. The Church of Ireland 's diocesan system is based on the 900-year-old boundaries drawn set up by a series of mediaeval The Episcopal Church in the United States of America is governed by 100 Dioceses in the United States proper plus ten dioceses in other countries or outlying In the Orthodox Church in America (OCA the Diocese is the basic church body that comprises all the Parishes of a determined geographical area The following is a current list of Roman Catholic Archdioceses ordered by Country and Continent. This is a growing list of Roman Catholic Dioceses. There are approximately 3000 dioceses of the Church The following is the List of the Roman Catholic dioceses of the United States (this list also includes not only dioceses of the Latin or Western Church but also the eparchies Eparchy is an Anglicized Greek word authentically Latinized as eparchia and loosely translating as 'rule over something' but has the following This article refers to Eastern Churches in full communion with the Holy See The Eastern Orthodox Church is the second largest single Christian Communion in the world Oriental Orthodoxy is the communion of Eastern Christian Churches that recognize only three Ecumenical councils — the First Council of Nicaea, the The Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East (ܥܕܬܐ ܩܕܝܫܬܐ ܘܫܠܝܚܝܬܐ ܩܬܘܠܝܩܝ ܕܡܕܢܚܐ ܕܐܬܘܪ̈ܝܐ ‘Ittā Qaddishtā wa-Shlikhāitā Qattoliqi A stake is an administrative unit composed of multiple congregations in denominations of the Latter Day Saint movement. Mormonism is a term used to describe the religious, ideological and cultural elements of certain branches of the Latter Day Saint movement This is a directory of patriarchs archbishops and bishops across various Christian denominations A particular Church is in Catholic theology and canon law, an ecclesial community headed by a bishop or someone recognized as the equivalent of a bishop Ecclesiastical Latin (sometimes called Church Latin) is the Latin dialect as used in documents of the Roman Catholic Church and in its Latin liturgies The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican The Roman Catholic Church is organised in a worldwide Hierarchy under the Pope, and the Roman Curia. The Notitia Dignitatum is a unique document of the Roman imperial chanceries Catholic Encyclopedia. The Catholic Encyclopedia, also referred to today as the Old Catholic Encyclopedia, is an English-language Encyclopedia published by The Encyclopedia (1913). New York: Robert Appleton Company.