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An episcopal polity, also known as episcopalianism, is a Hierarchy form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called . The word "bishop" here is derived via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term *ebiscopus/ *biscopus, .. It is the structure used by many of the major and denominations, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Anabaptist, Lutheranism, and Anglicanism churches or denominations, and other churches founded independently from these lineages. Many Methodist denominations have a form of episcopal polity known as connexionalism.
Bishops are considered to derive their authority from an unbroken, personal apostolic succession from the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Bishops with such authority are said to represent the historical episcopate or historic episcopate. Churches with this type of government usually believe that the Church requires episcopal government as described in the New Testament (see 1 Timothy 3 and 2 Timothy 1). In some systems, bishops may be subject in limited ways to bishops holding a higher office (variously called , metropolitans, or , depending upon the tradition). They also meet in councils or synods. These gatherings, subject to presidency by higher ranking bishops, usually make important decisions, though the synod or council may also be purely advisory.
For much of the recorded history of institutional Christianity, episcopal government was the only known form of church organization. This changed at the Reformation. Many Protestantism churches are now organized by either congregational or presbyterian church polities, both descended from the writings of John Calvin, a Protestant reformer working and writing independently following the break with the Catholic Church precipitated by The Ninety-Five Theses of Martin Luther. However, some people have disputed the episcopal polity before the reformation, such as Aerius of Sebaste in the 4th century.
"Episcopal" is also commonly used to distinguish between the various organizational structures of denominations. For instance, "Presbyterian" (, presbýteros) is used to describe a church governed by a hierarchy of assemblies of elected elders, referred to as presbyterian polity. Similarly, "episcopal" is used to describe a church governed by bishops. Self-governed local congregations, governed neither by elders nor bishops, are usually described as "congregational".
More specifically, the capitalized appellation "Episcopal" is applied to several churches historically based within Anglicanism ("Episcopalianism"), including those still in communion with the Church of England.
Using these definitions, examples of specific episcopal churches include:
Some Lutheran churches practice congregational polity or a form of presbyterian polity. Encyclopedia of Religion and Society, William H. Swatos, Jr. Editor Lutheranism Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary. Retrieved on September 4, 2006. Others, including the Church of Sweden, practice episcopal polity; the Church of Sweden also counts its bishops among the historic episcopate. This is also the case with some American Lutheran churches, such as the Anglo-Lutheran Catholic Church, Lutheran Orthodox Church, Lutheran Church - International, and the Lutheran Episcopal Communion.
Many Methodist churches (the United Methodist Church, among others) retain the form and function of episcopal polity, although in a modified form, called connexionalism. Since all trace their ordinations to an Anglican priest, John Wesley, it is generally considered that their bishops do not share in apostolic succession. However, United Methodists affirm that their bishops share in the historic episcopate.
Ignatius of Antioch, writing in already the early second century, makes a clear distinction of bishops and presbyters, meaning that his letters show that an episcopal system was already in existence by his time. However, Bart Erhman sees it as significant that Ignatius never mentioned a bishop in Rome. Later, Tertullian also very clearly distinguishes the presbyters and bishops as a separate office, Irenaeus made lists of the succession of bishops, though such lists made by the early Church Fathers are highly contradictory. By the second century, it appears that the episcopal system had become the majority, universal view among Christians.
Even schismatic sects such as the Novatianism and Donatism would also use the episcopal framework, except for Aerius of Sebaste, who contested the system and began his own sect.
Jerome stated that churches were originally governed by a group of presbyters, only later electing bishops to suppress schisms.
Both the Greek and Coptic Orthodox Churches each recognise their own Pope of Alexandria (Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, and Pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria respectively), both of whom trace their apostolic succession back to the figure Mark the Evangelist.Eusebius of Caesarea, the author of an Ecclesiastical History in the 4th century, states that St. Mark came to Egypt in the first or third year of the reign of Emperor Claudius, i.e. 41 or 43 AD. "Two Thousand Years of Coptic Christianity", Otto F.A. Meinardus, p. 28. There are official, ongoing efforts in recent times to heal this ancient breach. Already, the two recognize each other's , , and , making intermarriage much easier.
Through Swedish missionary work and the establishment of Lutheran Churches in various countries, such as in Kenya, apostolic succession was continued in those denominations, such as in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa, Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Malaysia, and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Zimbabwe, among others.
The Lutheran Church - International, a Confessional Lutheran denomination of Evangelical Catholic churchmanship has an episcopal polity, with its clergy being ordained in lines of apostolic succession.
The legislation of Henry VIII effectively establishing the independence of the Church of England from Rome did not alter its constitutional or pastoral structures. Royal supremacy was exercised through the extant legal structures of the church, whose leaders were bishops. Episcopacy was thus seen as a given of the Reformed Ecclesia Anglicana, and a foundation in the institution's appeal to ancient and apostolic legitimacy. What did change was that bishops were now seen to be ministers of the Crown for the spiritual government of its subjects. The influence of Richard Hooker was crucial to an evolution in this understanding in which bishops came to be seen in their more traditional role as ones who delegate to the presbyterate inherited powers, act as pastors to presbyters, and holding a particular teaching office with respect to the wider church.
Anglican opinion has differed as to the way in which episcopal government is de jure divino (by the Divine Right of Kings). On the one hand, the seventeenth century divine, John Cosin, held that episcopal authority is jure divino, but that it stemmed from "apostolic practice and the customs of the Church ... not absolute precept that either Christ or His Apostles gave about it" (a view maintained also by Hooker).Cosin, Works, Vol. IV (Oxford, 1855), p. 402 In contrast, Lancelot Andrewes and others held that episcopal government is derived from Christ via the apostles. Regardless, both parties viewed the episcopacy as bearing the apostolic function of oversight which both includes, and derives from, the power of ordination, and is normative for the governance of the church. The practice of apostolic succession both ensures the legitimacy of the church's mission and establishes the unity, communion, and continuity of the local church with the universal church. This formulation, in turn, laid the groundwork for an independent view of the church as a "sacred society" distinct from civil society, which was so crucial for the development of local churches as non-established entities outside England, and gave direct rise to the Catholic Revival and disestablishmentarianism within England.
Functionally, Anglican episcopal authority is expressed , although individual provinces may accord their primate with more or less authority to act independently. Called variously "synods", "councils", or "conventions", they meet under episcopal chairmanship. In many jurisdictions, conciliar resolutions that have been passed require episcopal assent or consent to take force. Seen in this way, Anglicans often speak of "the bishop-in-synod" as the force and authority of episcopal governance. Such conciliar authority extends to the standard areas of doctrine, discipline, and worship, but in these regards is limited by Anglicanism's tradition of the limits of authority. Those limits are expressed in Article XXI of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, ratified in 1571 (significantly, just as the Council of Trent was drawing to a close), which held that "General Councils ... may err, and sometimes have erred ... wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture." Hence, Anglican jurisdictions have traditionally been conservative in their approach to either innovative doctrinal development or in encompassing actions of the church as doctrinal (see lex orandi, lex credendi).
Anglican synodical government, though varied in expression, is characteristically representative. Provinces of the Anglican Communion, their ecclesiastical provinces and are governed by councils consisting not only of bishops, but also representatives of the presbyterate and laity.
There is no international juridical authority in Anglicanism, although the tradition's common experience of episcopacy, symbolised by the historical link with the episcopal see of Canterbury, along with a common and complex liturgical tradition, has provided a measure of unity. This has been reinforced by the Lambeth Conferences of Anglican Communion bishops, which first met in 1867. These conferences, though they propose and pass resolutions, are strictly consultative, and the intent of the resolutions is to provide guideposts for Anglican jurisdictions—not direction. The Conferences also express the function of the episcopate to demonstrate the ecumenical and catholic nature of the church.
The Scottish Episcopal Church traces its history back to the origins of Christianity in Scotland. Following the 1560 Scottish Reformation the Church of Scotland was initially run by Superintendents, episcopal governance was restored in 1572, but episcopalianism alternated with periods when the Kirk was under presbyterian control until the 1711 Act allowed formation of the independent non-established Scottish Episcopal Church. The Nonjuring schism led to the British Government imposing penal laws against the church. In 1784 the Scottish church appointed Samuel Seabury as first bishop of the American Episcopal Church, beginning the worldwide Anglican Communion of churches, and in 1792 the penal laws were abolished. The church accepted the articles of the Church of England in 1804., detailed history The spread of increasingly democracy forms of representative governance has its origin in the formation of the first General Conventions of the American Episcopal Church in the 1780s, which established a "House of Bishops" and a "House of Deputies". In many jurisdictions, there is also a third, clerical House. Resolutions may be voted on jointly or by each House, in the latter case requiring passage in all Houses to be adopted by the particular council.
Churches that are members of the Anglican Communion are episcopal churches in polity, and some are named "Episcopal". However, some churches that self-identify as Anglican do not belong to the Anglican Communion, and not all episcopally-governed churches are Anglican. The Roman Catholic Church, the Old Catholic Churches (in full communion with, but not members of, the Anglican Communion), and the Eastern Orthodox churches are recognized, and also their bishops, by Anglicanism.
In the Free Methodist Church, bishops are elected.
In the United Methodist Church, bishops are elected for life, can serve up to two terms in a specific conference (three if special permission is given), are responsible for ordaining and appointing clergy to pastor churches, perform many administrative duties, preside at the annual sessions of the regional Conferences and at the quadrennial meeting of the worldwide General Conference, have authority for teaching and leading the church on matters of social and doctrinal import, and serve to represent the denomination in ecumenical gatherings. United Methodist bishops in the United States serve in their appointed conferences, being moved to a new "Episcopal Area" after 8 (or 12) years, until their mandated retirement at the end of the quadrennium following their sixty-sixth birthday. Still in Production . UMC.org. Retrieved on 2013-07-23.
The Methodist Church in Great Britain holds that all ordained ministers are equal in terms of spirituality. However, for practical management lines are drawn into President of Conference, Chair of District, Superintendent Minister, Minister. However, all are ministers. The Fellowship of Independent Methodist Churches is non-episcopal. Similarly, the Congregational Methodist Church has a congregational polity.
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