Church Organization

In accordance with Canon 2 of the Second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 381, which is binding on the Anglican Communion, the national churches, as well as their provinces and dioceses, have geographical boundaries that must not overlap. The Anglican Communion does not recognize more than one denomination of Anglicans in the same country, and two bishops cannot have overlapping dioceses.

There is some confusion about the term Anglican in the USA, which is one of the reasons for this entry. The only church body in the United States that is in the Anglican Communion is the Episcopal Church. Some congregations have broken away from the Episcopal Church for various reasons, some because they reject the 1979 revision of the Book of Common Prayer, some because they reject the ordination of women, and others because they reject the inclusion or ordination of gay people. They all put Anglican in their name, which correctly indicates their history, heritage, and worship. Because of the one-church-per-territory rule dating back to 381, they cannot be part of the Anglican Communion unless the Anglican Communion rejects the Episcopal Church and replaces it with them.

Some of the breakaway congregations in the United States have affiliated themselves with African bishops to remain in the Anglican Communion. As long as the Episcopal Church is in the Anglican Communion, they are breaking the rule against overlapping dioceses. If their conviction prevails that the Episcopal Church is not valid, they are not breaking the rule.

Other Churches That Left the Catholic Church

The Church of England was not a unique case. The following churches were parts of the Catholic Church until they became independent Lutheran churches in about the 1530s. Many are still official state churches of their countries. Those that are not have special status or receive public funding.

Like the Church of England, they all have bishops, priests, and deacons. The links go to their respective websites.

• The Church of Denmark (Folkekirken)
  The official state church of Denmark.
• The Church of the Faroe Islands (Færøernes folkekirke)
  The Faroe Islands are part of the Kingdom of Denmark; hence the Church of the Faroe Islands began as a diocese of the Church of Denmark. In 2007, it became independent and it is now the state church of the Faroe Islands.
• The Church of Finland (Suomen evankelis-luterilainen kirkko) Because Finland used to be part of Sweden, it originated as part of the Church of Sweden and shared official status with the Orthodox Church of Finland. It became a separate church in 1809, when the country became the Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Finland declared independence from Russia in 1917. The constitution of 1919 guarantees freedom of religion, which allows other religious bodies to exist.
• The Church of Iceland (Þjórðkirkjan)
  The state church of Iceland.
• The Church of Norway (Den norske kirke)
  It is no longer the state church of Norway since 2017, but receives funding from local governments.
• The Church of Sweden (Svenska kyrkan)
  It is no longer the state church of Sweden since 2000, but it still receives state funding. If you visit the website, click on the first red button on the bottom left to accept necessary cookies.

The eligibility requirements for being an apostle are given in Acts 1:21-22: a disciple of Jesus who followed Him from His baptism by John to His Ascension is eligible to be an apostle. Given those criteria, two people were equally qualified, Justus and Matthias. They cast lots to decide which one, and Matthias filled out the core group of 12.

The Twelve were not the only people who met the criteria for being an apostle. If you read Luke 10, you will discover 70 more disciples who met the criteria and whom Jesus gave the same authority and mission as the 12. These are recognized as apostles in the Orthodox churches, and you can find a list of their names on Orthodox websites or in Wikipedia. Hence, at this point, we have identified a total of 82 apostles, or 81 if Matthias had been promoted from the Seventy to the Twelve. Obviously, it was more effective to have about 80 apostles than just 12.

In addition to the apostles I just described, Paul was an apostle. Since he was recognized by the other apostles as a genuine apostle, he must have been among the group that followed Jesus from His baptism to His Ascension, but as a spy. Jesus commissioned Him on the road to Damascus

Obviously, there are no apostles after the first generation of apostles died out, because since that time, no one meets the qualifications in Acts. There are no apostles today, though modern churches can call their orders of clergy whatever they want, so they are free to call an order of clergy apostles.

Duties and Authority of Apostles

Apostles were missionaries who had the authority to establish churches, to appoint bishops to supervise them, and to ordain priests to run them. They were also able to work miracles at their own discretion (Acts 3:6). Today, anyone can request a miracle from God, but if it happens, it happens only at God’s discretion.

Apparently the apostles had the strategy of evangelizing major urban areas, with the intent that those churches would evangelize the surrounding areas. The New Testament mentions the church at Ephesus, the largest city in the Roman province of Asia (now part of southwestern Turkey), but does not mention the nearby smaller city of Magnesia. In AD 117, Ignatius passed through the same area and was greeted by the bishop of Magnesia, from a church that had been founded after Paul left and before Ignatius arrived.

In the historic church, a bishop is a regional minister, a priest with administrative duties over a group of churches in a territory called a diocese. Only bishops can preside at the rite of ordination. An individual bishop can ordain a deacon or a priest, but it takes three bishops to consecrate a new bishop. A Roman Catholic bishop must remain unmarried. An Anglican, Lutheran, or Methodist bishop can be married. In the Orthodox Church, and in the Uniate Churches that are affiliated with Rome, only unmarried priests can become bishops, and bishops are not permitted to marry. See the entry on celibacy.

Bishops are the successors of apostles. For example, the Bishop of Rome is the successor-in-office of the Apostle Peter, and the Bishop of Alexandria is the successor-in-office of the Apostle Mark (one of the Seventy).

When they are ordained, Methodist ministers are presented with a document showing their apostolic succession back to Peter, but they are not priests in the Anglican Communion, since their ordinations pass through Wesley, who was never a bishop.

Duties and Authority of Bishops

Like apostles, bishops are missionaries who have the authority to establish churches, to appoint bishops to supervise them, and to ordain priests to run them. Saint Patrick became a bishop in order to evangelize Ireland. Alaska was originally evangelized by St. Herman of Alaska, a Russian Orthodox bishop.

Unlike apostles, they cannot single-handedly appoint a priest to the office of bishop. It took (and still takes) three bishops working together to do that, just as it takes three rabbis to ordain a rabbi. They also cannot work miracles at their own discretion (Acts 3:6) as the apostles could. Bishops also have the ability to appoint local feast and fast days for the churches under their supervision.

Since a bishop had authority over the churches he founded, it sometimes happened that a church came under the authority of a different bishop than the church next door, and that led to unseemly arguments among Christians. There was also the problem of priests, both real and fake, unilaterally moving from one bishop to another. Canon 2 of the Second Ecumenical Council held in Constantinople in 381, solved these problems by setting up geographical boundaries and prohibited overlapping jurisdictions.

(The word canon also has another meaning.)

The term catechumen is still used by Catholic, Orthodox, and Lutheran Christians, and you may come across it elsewhere.

In ancient times, people lived in households, which were a combination of an extended family and a business. Since home and work were the same thing, managing the business and staff of a household was a full-time job. Ordination would have conferred a second full-time job on top of the first one, which would not work out for obvious practical reasons. Since celibacy was a practical necessity for bishops, they were required to be celibate. If a priest was married at ordination, he remained married, but he was not allowed to divorce or remarry if he was widowed. Priests who were single at the time of their ordination were not allowed to marry afterwards, because learning the skill of balancing two full-time jobs after ordination wasn’t practical. (That is still the rule in eastern churches, even those affiliated with Rome.) Later, the western church required all priests to be celibate both at ordination and afterwards.

This is still the rule in Ortodox and Uniate churches.

Today, professional life is separate from family life. It is possible to quit a secular job to become clergy and maintain a normal family life after ordination. For that reason, Protestants do not require either their regular clergy or their bishops to be celibate.

In theory, the rules about celibacy could be changed in the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, because it is not a matter of dogma or doctrine, just church discipline. Change is unlikely, because of the historical and institutional inertia behind these rules.

In some legal jurisdictions, clergy status may automatically empower a person to perform legally binding weddings; in others, clergy must obtain a license from the court. Courts generally do not require clergy to divulge what people have told them in confidence; this is often called the sanctity of the confessional. However, there can be exceptions. Many legal jurisdictions impose criminal penalties on clergy who do not immediately report information about certain types of crimes, such as suspected child abuse, even if the information was given in confidence.

• Those presently assembled for worship.
• All of the people who make up the local church’s constituency.

In many churches the word congregation is only used in the first meaning, and the word parish is used for the second meaning.

The Western Church—Carthage (during the second century)
The Bishop of Carthage had the courtesy title pope for about a hundred years, beginning in the late second century. That usage has not survived.

The Eastern Church—Alexandria (from the third century on)
Beginning in the third century and extending through the present day, the Patriarch of Alexandria of the Coptic Orthodox Church is the only one who has had the official title pope. Unlike the Roman Catholic pope, he does not claim universal jurisdiction over all Christians. In November 2012, Pope Theodoros became the 118th pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church, succeeding Pope Shenouda III, who died in March 2012.

The Western Church—Rome (from the 11th century on)
In 1073, Pope Gregory restricted the use of the title pope to himself, his successors, and his predecessors in office. Therefore in western Christian usage, the term pope refers exclusively to the Bishop of Rome. The Roman Catholic pope claims jurisdiction over all Christians, hence for Catholics the title pope means universal head of the Christian church. Gregory also instituted a number of measures called the Dictatus Papae that strengthened the papacy. The pope is the only member of the Roman Catholic clergy who always wears white vestments and clericals.

Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) resigned in February 2013 and became pope emeritus. His successor, Pope Frances (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) was elected in March 2013.

History books written in the west generally conform to Catholic practice and refer to all bishops of Rome before 1073 as popes. If you are reading Orthodox documents, or western documents written before 1073, the term pope might refer to the Patriarch of Alexandria or it might be a courtesy title for someone else.

Presbyters, that is, regular ordained clergy, wear black clericals.

Roman Catholic priests must be unmarried at the time of their ordination and they must remain that way. In the Eastern Church, a priest must remain in the state in which he was ordained. If he was single when he was ordained a priest, he must remain unmarried. If he was married when he was ordained a priest, he may remained married, but he is not permitted to remarry if he is widowed. Anglican and Lutheran priests can marry after ordination. (Lutheran clergy in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries are called priests.) If an Anglican or eastern priest becomes a Roman Catholic priest, his marital status is not a barrier. This means that there are a few married priests in the Roman Catholic Church. See also the entry on celibacy.

Priests, that is, regular ordained clergy, wear black clericals.

His proposal was for the Church of England to divide the United States (whose western border was the Mississippi River at the time) into two geographically equal dioceses, one east of the Appalachians for the Episcopal Church and one west of the Appalachians for the Methodist Church. John Wesley wanted to be made the bishop of the western diocese, so the elders he ordained would be priests. The Church of England declined his offer on the grounds that Methodists, who had originated in the illiterate lower class in England, could not even read. (Which was not true, but they didn’t know it.) Consequently, Methodist clergy are ordained as elders, not priests.

In Protestant bodies in areas where the Catholic Church had special legal status, regular clergy could not be called priests, for legal reasons. In those areas, calling Protestant clergy priests would have been illegal impersonation. They called their clergy ministers or pastors, or by some other name, and many wore street clothes or academic robes instead of vestments. This necessity became a virtue as they grew to interpret it as validating them and contrasting them from the Catholic Church that had oppressed them.

Many of these people immigrated to what was later to become the United States to avoid the Catholic Church, which was unpopular, hated, or even illegal. One colony, Maryland, was set up as a haven for Catholics, but there were small Catholic communities elsewhere. Protestant churches were free to call their regular clergy priests, but because the only church they knew about that had priests was the Catholic Church, they carried over their terminology from Europe. Congregations of the Church of England in the United States had priests, just as in England.

When you are talking to John Smith, who is clergy in your church, use the form of address that is common for clergy in your church. If you are talking to John Smith, who is clergy in a different church, you might be unsure what to call him or you might be on the spot with no one to ask. You could also be confused. The bare fact that John Smith is Lutheran clergy is not enough to know what to call him. If his denomination originated in Germany, he is a pastor, but if he is Lutheran clergy from Scandinavia, he is a priest. It might be hard to know which is which and what to call whom, in which case just call him Reverend Smith. Don’t worry, it won’t offend anyone, even if it is technically incorrect. Nevertheless, most members of the clergy are humble and are not offended if you get their titles wrong.

When in doubt, refer to clergy as Rev. So-and-so, using their last name. That way no one will think you are being disrespectful.

Even though they count as Catholic churches, their priests are not required to be celebate. This leads to the disconcerting situation where some men who are considered Catholic priests are married with children, and it’s okay with the church.

George Washington, the first president of the United States, was a member of the vestry of the Falls Church in the city of the same name in Fairfax County, Virginia by virtue of his vast landholdings. His personal beliefs were Deist.