Ecclesiastical province

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of

In the history of Western world (sometimes more precisely as Greco-Roman world) adopted by the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, Christian ecclesiastical provinces were named by analogy with the secular Roman province as well as certain extraterritorial formations of the western world in early medieval times (see Early Middle Ages). The administrative seat of each province is an episcopal see. In hierarchical Christian churches that have dioceses, a province is a collection of those dioceses (as a basic unit of administration).

Over the years certain provinces adopted the status of metropolis and have a certain degree of self-rule. A bishop of such province is called the metropolitan bishop or metropolitan. The Catholic Church (both Latin and Eastern Catholic), the Orthodox Churches and the Anglican Communion all have provinces. These provinces are led by a metropolitan archbishop.^{[citation needed]}

Early history

Ecclesiastical provinces first corresponded to the civil provinces of the Roman Empire. From the second half of the 2nd century, the bishops of these provinces were accustomed to assemble on important occasions for common counsel in synods. From the end of that century the summons to attend these increasingly important synods was usually issued by the bishop of the capital or metropolis of the province, who also presided over the assembly, especially in the East. Important communications were also forwarded to the bishop of the provincial capital to be brought to the notice of the other bishops. Thus in the East during the 3rd century the bishop of the provincial metropolis came gradually to occupy a certain superior position, and received the name of metropolitan.^[3]

At the

In general

In the

• A few dioceses are not part of any province. Their bishops are
  exempt from the authority of a metropolitan archbishop, instead reporting directly to the pope. For example, the bishop of the Diocese of Oslo
  in Norway.
• A few archdioceses do not belong to provinces and contain no suffragan dioceses. For example, the Archdiocese of Strasbourg in France is not part of a province and has no diocesan bishops reporting to its archbishop.
• Not all archdioceses are metropolitan sees. Five archdioceses are exempt: Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem; Metropolitan Archdiocese of Udine ; Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Boniface; Metropolitan Archdiocese of Izmir and Metropolitan Archdiocese of Corfu–Zakynthos–Kefalonia its leader reports directly to the pope. Other non-metropolitan archdioceses, in contrast, are not exempt. Their archbishops report directly to metropolitan archbishops.

The authority of a Latin Church metropolitan over the other sees within his province is now very limited. During a

In the Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarchal or major archiepiscopal Churches may also be divided into ecclesial provinces, each headed by a metropolitan. The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church has several, two of them in the United States and Canada. Some other Eastern Catholic Churches of a lower category and generally less populous, are known as metropolitanates. They are headed by a single metropolitan, the hierarch of a fixed episcopal see,^[6][7] As head of an autonomous Church, his name is mentioned in the liturgy of that Church immediately after that of the Pope and, in suffragan eparchies, ahead of that of the local hierarch.^[8]

Provincial boundary lines

The borders of provinces have often been inspired, or even determined, by historical or present political borders; the same is often true of diocesan borders within a province. The following are some examples:

• In France, where the boundaries partly reflected later Roman provinces, most were rearranged in 2002 to fit new administrative regions.
• A comparable process to that of France occurred earlier in Spain.
• In southern Germany, the diocesan boundaries follow the political boundaries that existed between 1815 and 1945.
• In Ireland, the
  the international border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
  , which is part of the United Kingdom.
• In Scotland, the dioceses, and subsequently the two provinces, follow both civil and geographical boundaries such as rivers.
• In geographically large nations with a sizeable Catholic population, such as the United States, ecclesiastical provinces typically follow state lines, with less populous states being grouped into provinces. In the United States, there are five exceptions:
  • California has two metropolitan archdioceses and provinces: Los Angeles and San Francisco.
  • Texas has two metropolitan archdioceses and provinces:
    Galveston-Houston and San Antonio
    .
  • Maryland is unusual in that fourteen of its 23 counties belong to dioceses whose see cities are outside Maryland: (1) the nine counties of Maryland's Eastern Shore (Delmarva Peninsula) are part of the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, and (2) the five counties adjacent to the District of Columbia and in southern Maryland are part of the Archdiocese of Washington, which is a different province. Only the remaining nine counties and the City of Baltimore are part of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
  • Fishers Island, a part of Suffolk County, New York, and north of Long Island, is part of the Diocese of Norwich
    , Connecticut, which is in a different province.
  • Those parts of Idaho and Montana that are within Yellowstone National Park are part of the Diocese of Cheyenne, Wyoming, which is in a different province.

In addition, the

Navajo County—and part of a third county, i.e., those parts of the Navajo and Hopi reservations that are in Coconino County

(Arizona). New Mexico and Arizona, however, together form one province.

• Many countries contain more than one province, except those with a small population or few Catholics.
• In at least one case, a province contains dioceses that are in more than one nation, e.g., the Province of Samoa-Apia, of which the metropolitan see (the
  Diocese of Samoa-Pago Pago) is in American Samoa (an unincorporated territory of the United States). Even individual dioceses, let alone ecclesiastical provinces, can comprise more than one state: examples are San Marino-Montefeltro (San Marino and part of Italy), Urgell (Andorra and part of Spain), and the Diocese of Rome itself (Vatican City
  and part of Italy).

The creation of new autonomous and autocephalous jurisdictions was also marked by tendencies of internal centralization. The newly created Archbishopric of Ohrid (1018) was structured as a single ecclesiastical province, headed by an archbishop who had jurisdiction over all of his suffragan bishops. In 1219, autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church was also organized as one ecclesiastical province, headed by archbishop with direct jurisdiction over all Serbian bishops.^[10] By the end of Middle Ages, each autocephalous and autonomous church in Eastern Orthodoxy was functioning as a single, internally integrated ecclesiastical province, headed by local patriarch or archbishop.

Only in modern times, some Eastern Orthodox Churches have revived the ancient practice by creating internal ecclesiastical provinces on the middle (regional) level of church administration. In the Romanian Orthodox Church there are six regional metropolitanates, headed by local metropolitans who preside over regional synods of local bishops, and have special duties and privileges. For example, the Metropolitan of Oltenia has regional jurisdiction over four local dioceses. On the other hand, a majority of Eastern Orthodox Churches remain and function as highly centralized church bodies, each of them functioning as a single ecclesiastical province.^[11]

Protestantism

Anglican Communion

Member churches of the Anglican Communion are often referred to as provinces. Some provinces are coterminous with the boundaries of political states, some include multiple nations while others include only parts of a nation. Some, such as the Church of the Province of West Africa, have the word "province" in their names. These member churches are known as "provinces of the Anglican Communion", and are headed by a primate, who is usually also styled archbishop, but may have an alternative title such as primus (for example, the Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church), presiding bishop, or moderator.

The word is also used to refer to a grouping of

The borders of a religious institute's provinces are determined independently of any diocesan structure, and so the borders often differ from the 'secular', or diocesan, ecclesiastical provinces. The orders' provinces are usually far larger than a diocese, a secular province, or even a country, though sometimes they are smaller in an institute's heartland.

Most

• Catholic Church by country
• Global organisation of the Catholic Church
• List of Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
• List of Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
• List of Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)

References

Sources

• ISBN 9780881410563
  .
• ISBN 9781405142915
  .
• Kiminas, Demetrius (2009). The Ecumenical Patriarchate: A History of Its Metropolitanates with Annotated Hierarch Catalogs. Wildside Press LLC.
  ISBN 9781434458766
  .
• List of Metropolitan Archdioceses, including all Catholic ecclesiastical provinces GCatholic.org