Suffragan bishop

A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. They may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.

Anglican Communion

In the Anglican churches, the term applies to a bishop who is an assistant to a diocesan bishop. For example, the Bishop of Jarrow is a suffragan to the diocesan Bishop of Durham.

Suffragan bishops in the Anglican Communion are nearly identical in their role to auxiliary bishops in the Roman Catholic Church.

England

Some Anglican suffragans are legally delegated responsibility for a geographical area within the diocese. For example, the Bishop of Colchester is an area bishop in the Diocese of Chelmsford. Such area schemes are presently found in the dioceses of:[1]

Area schemes have previously existed in Worcester diocese (1993–2002),[2] Salisbury diocese (1981–2009),[3] Lincoln diocese (2010[4]–31 January 2013)[5] and Chichester diocese (1984-2013). Other suffragans have or have had informal responsibility for geographical areas (e.g. in Winchester[6] and in Peterborough),[7] but these are not referred to as area bishops.

English diocesan bishops were commonly assisted by bishops who had been consecrated to sees which were in partibus infidelium (titular sees that had in most cases been conquered by Muslims) before the English Reformation. The separation of the English Church from Rome meant that this was no longer possible. The Suffragan Bishops Act 1534 allowed for the creation of new sees to allow these assistant bishops, who were named as suffragan. Before this time the term "suffragan" referred to diocesan bishops in relation to their metropolitan.[8]

Suffragan bishops in the Church of England who look after those parishes and clergy who reject the ministry of priests who are women, usually across a whole province, are known as provincial episcopal visitors. This concession was made in 1992 following the General Synod's vote to ordain women to the priesthood.

The dioceses of Leicester, Newcastle and Portsmouth do not have suffragan bishops, but the former two have one stipendiary assistant bishop with very little difference from a suffragan bishop, except that they do not have a see.[9]

Wales

An early example of a suffragan see in Wales is Penrydd, established in 1537 when the Welsh dioceses were still within the Church of England.

Ireland

The Church of Ireland has no suffragan bishops, not even in the geographically large dioceses.

United States

Suffragan bishops are fairly common in larger dioceses of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), but usually have no responsibility for a specific geographical part of a diocese. ECUSA is not within the jurisdiction of the English law that requires diocesan and suffragan bishops to be appointed as bishop to a specific place, and so suffragans are not given the title of any particular city within the diocese. For example, Bishop Barbara Harris was titled simply “Suffragan Bishop of Massachusetts”.

Coadjutor and assistant bishops are different episcopal offices than suffragan. A coadjutor is elected by a diocesan convention to become the diocesan bishop (also called “the ordinary”) upon the ordinary’s retirement. A suffragan is also elected by a convention, but does not automatically succeed the diocesan bishop. However a suffragan’s office does continue to in the diocese until he or she chooses to retire. An assistant bishop is appointed by the diocesan bishop, and his or her office ends when the ordinary who appointed her or him leaves office.

Roman Catholic Church

In the Roman Catholic Church, a suffragan is a bishop who heads a diocese. His suffragan diocese, however, is part of a larger ecclesiastical province, nominally led by a metropolitan archbishop. The distinction between metropolitans and suffragans is of limited practical importance. Both are diocesan bishops possessing ordinary jurisdiction over their individual sees. The metropolitan has few responsibilities over the suffragans in his province and no direct authority over the faithful outside of his own diocese.[10][11]

Bishops who assist diocesan bishops are usually called auxiliary bishops. If the assisting bishop has special faculties (typically the right to succeed the diocesan bishop) he would be called a coadjutor bishop.[12] Since they are not in charge of a suffragan diocese, they are not referred to as “suffragan bishops”.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "4: The Dioceses Commission, 1978–2002" (PDF). Church of England. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  2. ↑ GS 1445: Report of the Dioceses Commission, Diocese of Worcester (Accessed 23 April 2014)
  3. ↑ Salisbury Diocesan Synod minutes – 99th session, 7 November 2009 p. 3 (Accessed 23 April 2014)
  4. ↑ Diocese of Lincoln Central Services Review – Report to the Bishop of Lincoln (Accessed 23 April 2014)
  5. ↑ Diocese of Lincoln Central Services Review – Response from the Bishop of Lincoln (Accessed 23 April 2014)
  6. ↑ Diocese of Winchester: Vacancy in See – Background to the Diocese, 2011 (Accessed 23 April 2014)
  7. ↑ Ministry in the Diocese of Peterborough (Accessed 23 April 2014)
  8. ↑ "3: Suffragan Bishops" (PDF). Church of England. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  9. ↑ "2: Bishops and Diocese in the Church of England" (PDF). Church of England. Retrieved 28 January 2012.
  10. ↑ "Metropolitan". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Volume 10. The Encyclopedia Press. 1911. pp. 244–45. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
  11. ↑ "Canon 435-36". Code of Canon Law. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
  12. ↑ "Canon 403-10". Code of Canon Law. Libreria Editrice Vaticana. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
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