The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod ( LCMS ) and the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod ( WELS ), the second and third largest Lutheran bodies in the United States and the two largest Confessional Lutheran bodies in North America, do not have a bishop as the head of the church or middle jurisdiction, practicing a form of congregationalism similar to the United Church of Christ.

Some American Lutheran synods such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America do have a bishop acting as the head of the synod, but the synod does not have dioceses and archdioceses as the churches listed above.

He is commemorated as a bishop by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on 10 April.

Martin Sasse, bishop of the Thuringian Evangelical Church and leading member of the German Christians movement, published a compendium of Martin Luther's writings shortly after the Kristallnacht ; Sasse " applauded the burning of the synagogues " and the coincidence of the day, writing in the introduction, " On 10 November 1938, on Luther's birthday, the synagogues are burning in Germany.

* IV = ecumenism and working abroad: Vice President Bishop Martin Schindehütte, foreign bishop and head of the Office of the Union of Evangelical Churches ) ( since 2006 )

Under the influence of the high church functionary and later state bishop Ingo Braecklein, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Thuringia seceded from the Evangelical Church in Germany ( EKD ) and prompted the foundation of the Confederation of Protestant Churches in the GDR ( Bund der Evangelischen Kirchen in der DDR ) in 1969.

Grundtvig is commemorated on September 2 as a bishop and a renewer of the church in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

* 1992: Maria Jepsen became the world's first woman to be elected a Lutheran bishop when she was elected bishop of the North Elbian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Germany, but she resigned in 2010 after allegations that she failed to properly investigate cases of sexual abuse.

* 1995: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark ordained its first female bishop.

* 2010: The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland elected Irja Askola of the Diocese of Helsinki as its first female bishop.

Also the church bodies Evangelical Church in the Rhineland and Evangelical Church of Westphalia, which do not know the title and function of bishop, are chaired by a praeses ().

* H. George Anderson ( born 1932 ), bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

The Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church ( EELC ) was constituted in 1949, when the previous church hierarchy, Eesti Evangeeliumi Luteriusu Kirik, headed by bishop Johan Kõpp, had escaped to Sweden in 1944.

Although as large as many cathedrals, Ulm is not a cathedral, as the responsible bishop of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church in Württemberg – member of the Evangelical Church in Germany – resides in Stuttgart.

In 1846 he was consecrated second Protestant bishop of Jerusalem, under the agreement between the British and Prussian governments ( 1841 ) for the establishment of a joint bishopric for Anglicans, Lutherans and Calvinists in the Holy Land, carried by the Anglican Church of England and the united Evangelical Church in Prussia.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada ( ELCIC ), a mainline Lutheran body similar to the ELCA, uses the term " national bishop " for a similar position.

* John S. Stamm, was an American bishop of the Evangelical Church

His father was pastor of Trinity Slovak Lutheran Church in Chicago, Illinois, and his paternal grandfather a bishop of the Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Churches then known as the Slovak Lutheran Church in America.

Maria Jepsen ( born 19 January 1945, Bad Segeberg ) was the bishop of Hamburg in the North Elbian Evangelical Church.

She became the first Lutheran female bishop in the Evangelical Church in Germany and worldwide on 4 April 1992, and since then she has been re-elected for a second ten-year period.

John Seybert ( 1791 – 1860 ) was an American bishop of the Evangelical Association.

Peter Caroli had come to Geneva, saying that he had been a bishop of the Church of Rome and had been persecuted in Paris for his Reformed faith.

# One bishop succeeding another in the same see meant that there was a continuity of teaching: " while the Church as a whole is the vessel into which the truth is poured, the Bishops are an important organ is carrying out this task ".

It is " one of four elements which define the true Church of Jesus Christ " and legitimizes the ministry of its clergy, as only a bishop within the succession can perform legitimate or " valid " ordinations.

Church, Ministry and Sacraments in the New Testament Paternoster Press: 1993, p. 92f </ ref > Moving on to Ignatius of Antioch, Barrett states that here we find a sharp distinction between ' presbyter ' and ' bishop ': the latter now stands out as " an isolated figure " who is to be obeyed and without whom it is not lawful to baptise or hold a love-feast .< Barrett, C. K.

Church, Ministry and Sacraments in the New Testament Paternoster Press: 1993, p. 94f </ ref > He also points out that when Ignatius writes to the Romans, there is no mention of a bishop of the Roman Church, " which we may suppose had not not yet adopted the monarchical episcopate.

John Wesley, along with a priest from the Anglican Church and two other elders, operating under the ancient Alexandrian custom, ordained Thomas Coke a " superintendent ", although Coke embraced the title " bishop ".

The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury.

In some dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church it is customary for the bishop to visit each parish or region of the diocese some time during Great Lent and give Anointing for the faithful, together with the local clergy.

* Mar Abba I ( or Aba ), metropolitan bishop and saint of the Assyrian Church of the East

The city remains a titular see of the Roman Catholic Church, Troadensis ; the seat is vacant following the resignation of the last bishop in 1971.

296-298 – d. 2 May 373 ), also referred to as St. Athanasius the Great, St. Athanasius I of Alexandria, St Athanasius the Confessor and ( primarily in the Coptic Orthodox Church ) St Athanasius the Apostolic, was the 20th bishop of Alexandria.

As the Church continued to expand, new churches in important cities gained their own bishop.

Rogier van der Weyden, Seven Sacraments Altarpiece | The Seven Sacraments, 15th century. In the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church the administration of Confirmation is normally reserved to the local bishop.

The bishop is the ordinary minister of the sacrament of confirmation in the Latin Rite Catholic Church, and in the Anglican and Old Catholic communion only a bishop may administer this sacrament.

The practice of only one bishop ordaining was normal in countries where the Church was persecuted under Communist rule.

The Catholic Church does recognise as valid ( though illicit ) ordinations done by breakaway Catholic, Old Catholic or Oriental bishops, and groups descended from them ; it also regards as both valid and licit those ordinations done by bishops of the Eastern churches, so long as those receiving the ordination conform to other canonical requirements ( for example, is an adult male ) and an orthodox rite of episcopal ordination, expressing the proper functions and sacramental status of a bishop, is used ; this has given rise to the phenomenon of episcopi vagantes ( for example, clergy of the Independent Catholic groups which claim apostolic succession, though this claim is rejected by both Orthodoxy and Catholicism ).

Orthodoxy considers apostolic succession to exist only within the Universal Church, and not through any authority held by individual bishops ; thus, if a bishop ordains someone to serve outside of the ( Orthodox ) Church, the ceremony is ineffectual, and no ordination has taken place regardless of the ritual used or the ordaining prelate's position within the Orthodox Churches.

Since the implementation of concordats between the ELCA and the Episcopal Church of the United States and the ELCIC and the Anglican Church of Canada, all bishops, including the Presiding Bishop ( ELCA ) or the National Bishop ( ELCIC ), have been consecrated using the historic succession, with at least one Anglican bishop serving as co-consecrator.

Although ELCA agreed with the Episcopal Church to limit ordination to the bishop " ordinarily ", ELCA pastor-ordinators are given permission to perform the rites in " extraordinary " circumstance.

: 1949-1961: Otto Dibelius, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg

: 1961-1967: Kurt Scharf, president, bishop from 1966, Berlin-Brandenburg

: 1985-1991: Martin Kruse, bishop of Berlin-Brandenburg

Kurt Scharf ( October 21, 1902-March 28, 1990 ) was a German clergyman and bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg.

From 1966 to 1976 he was the elected bishop of the Evangelical Church in Berlin-Brandenburg ( new name of the March of Brandenburg ecclesiastical province after it assumed independence in 1948 ), although since 1961 the bishop's area of responsibility and influence had been restricted to West Berlin.