There are a great many bishops who have never had a cross on their bosom, nor a mitre on their head, who appeal not to the authority of the Pope at Rome, but to the Almighty Dollar, a pope much nearer home.

Some churches founded outside the Anglican Communion in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, largely in opposition to the ordination of openly homosexual bishops and other clergy are usually referred to as belonging to the Anglican realignment movement, or else as " orthodox " Anglicans.

Abbesses are, like abbots, major superiors according to canon law, the equivalents of abbots or bishops ( the ordained male members of the church hierarchy who have, by right of their own office, executive jurisdiction over a building, diocesan territory, or a communal or non-communal group of persons — juridical entities under church law ).

However, there are certain limitations: they may not administer the sacraments and related functions whose celebration is reserved to bishops, priests, deacons, or seminarians ( the male clergy ), namely, Holy Orders ( they may make provision for an ordained cleric to help train and to admit some of their members, if needed, as altar servers, Eucharistic ministers, or lectors-the minor ministries which are now open to the non-ordained ).

The lack of apostolic succession through bishops is the primary basis on which Protestant communities are not considered churches by the Orthodox churches and the Roman Catholic Church.

Today, Methodism follows this ancient Alexandrian practice as bishops are elected from and by the order of the presbyterate: the Discipline of the Methodist Church, in ¶ 303, affirms that " ordination to this ministry is a gift from God to the Church.

* Two further suffragans, the Bishop of Ebbsfleet and the Bishop of Richborough, are provincial episcopal visitors for the whole Province of Canterbury, licensed by the archbishop as " flying bishops " to visit parishes throughout the province who are uncomfortable with the ministrations of their local bishop who has participated in the ordination of women.

Several of its later bishops are known: Marinus in 325 ; Niconius in 344 ; Sylvanus at the beginning of the 5th century ; Pionius in 451 ; Leo in 787 ; Peter, friend of the Patriarch Ignatius, and adversary to Michael, in the ninth century.

Within these churches, bishops are seen as those who posess the full priesthood and can ordain clergy including other bishops.

The bishops in the 2nd century are defined also as the only clergy to whom the ordination to priesthood ( presbyterate ) and diaconate is entrusted: " a priest ( presbyter ) lays on hands, but does not ordain.

In the 21st century, the more senior bishops of the Church of England continue to sit in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, as representatives of the established church, and are known as Lords Spiritual.

Eastern Orthodox bishops, along with all other members of the clergy, are canonically forbidden to hold political office.

; Patriarch: Patriarchs are the bishops who head certain ancient autocephalous or sui iuris churches, which are a collection of metropolitan sees or provinces.

In the Roman Catholic Church, the title is purely honorific and carries no extra jurisdiction, though most archbishops are also metropolitan bishops, as above.

In the Ecumenical Patriarchate, bishops of modern dioceses are often given a titular see alongside their modern one ( for example, the Archbishop of Thyateira and Great Britain ).

; Honorary Assistant bishop, Assisting Bishop, or Bishop Emeritus: These titles are usually applied to retired bishops who are given a general licence to minister as episcopal pastors under a diocesan's oversight.

Chorbishops are not generally ordained bishops – they are not given the sacrament of Holy Orders in that degree – but function as assistants to the diocesan bishop with certain honorary privileges.

Most cardinals are already bishops at the time of their appointment, the majority being archbishops of important archdioceses or patriarchs, and a substantial portion of the rest already titular archbishops serving in the Vatican.

Recent popes have appointed a few priests, most of them influential theologians, to the College of Cardinals without requiring them to be ordained as bishops ; invariably, these men are over the age of 80, which means they are not permitted to take part in a conclave.

Since parsons, vicars and curates often lacked the education and experience needed to write sermons and were often unfamiliar with Reformed doctrine, scholars and bishops wrote out a collection of sermons for them, which were appointed to be read each Sunday and holy day.

In all the talk of feudal rights, the knights and bishops must never forget the woolworkers, nor was it easy to do so, for all along the road to Italy they passed the Florentine pack trains going home with their loads of raw wool from England and rough Flemish cloth, the former to be spun and woven by the Arte Della Lana and the latter to be refined and dyed by the Arte Della Calimala with the pigment recently discovered in Asia Minor by one of their members, Bernardo Rucellai, the secret of which they jealously kept for themselves.

if Mike had had a finger in it, he had gotten away with it -- and what happened to supreme bishops worried Jubal not at all as long as he wasn't bothered.

The Church of Scotland separated from the Roman Catholic Church with the Scottish Reformation in 1560, and the split from it of the Scottish Episcopal Church began in 1582, in the reign of James VI of Scotland, over disagreements about the role of bishops.

Some bishops were initially reluctant to attend, fearing that the meeting would declare itself a council with power to legislate for the church ; but it agreed to pass only advisory resolutions.

Thus at the first Council of Constantinople, AD 448, 23 archimandrites or abbots sign, with 30 bishops.

To distinguish abbots from bishops, it was ordained that their mitre should be made of less costly materials, and should not be ornamented with gold, a rule which was soon entirely disregarded, and that the crook of their pastoral staff ( the crosier ) should turn inwards instead of outwards, indicating that their jurisdiction was limited to their own house.

Some historians define and minimize the Arian conflict as the exclusive construct of Arius and a handful of rogue bishops engaging in heresy ; but others recognize Arius as a defender of ' original ' Christianity, or as providing a conservative response against the politicization of Christianity seeking union with the Roman Empire.

The debates among these groups resulted in numerous synods, among them the Council of Sardica in 343, the Council of Sirmium in 358 and the double Council of Rimini and Seleucia in 359, and no fewer than fourteen further creed formulas between 340 and 360, leading the pagan observer Ammianus Marcellinus to comment sarcastically: " The highways were covered with galloping bishops.

He was on uneasy terms with the Catholic bishops of Arelate ( modern Arles ) as epitomized in the career of the Frankish Caesarius, bishop of Arles, who was appointed bishop in 503.

Apostolic succession is the method whereby the ministry of the Christian Church is held to be derived from the apostles by a continuous succession, which has usually been associated with a claim that the succession is through a series of bishops.

Under the particular historical circumstances of the growing Church in the early centuries, the succession of bishops became one of the ways, together with the transmission of the Gospel and the life of the community, in which the apostolic tradition of the Church was expressed.

Along with primacy over the Archbishop of York, the Archbishop of Canterbury also has a precedence of honour over the other bishops of the Anglican Communion.

According to Eusebius, the Jerusalem church was scattered twice, in AD70 and AD135, with the difference that from 70-130 the bishops of Jerusalem have evidently Jewish names, whereas after 135 the bishops of Aelia Capitolina appear to be Greeks.

Arius was subsequently excommunicated by Alexander, and he would begin to elicit the support of many bishops who agreed with his position.

Paul commands them to ordain presbyters / bishops and to exercise general oversight, telling Titus to " rebuke with all authority " ().

Other contemporary Christian writers do not describe monarchial bishops-either continuing to equate them with the presbyters or speaking of episkopoi ( bishops, plural ) in a city.

While traditional teaching maintains that any bishop with apostolic succession can validly perform the ordination of another bishop, some churches require two or three bishops participate, either to ensure sacramental validity or to conform with church law.

In the Catholic Church the Congregation for Bishops oversees the selection of new bishops with the approval of the pope.

Whilst members of the Independent Catholic movement take seriously the issue of valid orders, it is highly significant that the relevant Vatican Congregations tend not to respond to petitions from Independent Catholic bishops and clergy who seek to be received into communion with the Holy See, hoping to continue in some sacramental role.

Some approved of the existing church hierarchy with bishops, but others sought to reform the Episcopal churches on the Presbyterian model.

The Council reviews all decisions of law made by bishops The Judicial Council cannot create any legislation ; it can only interpret existing legislation.

The council was held at Antioch, and was attended by only a few bishops: the existing Acts bear only nine signatures.

It was also decided that, given the greater ease of communication then existing, bishops selected by CPCA procedures were likewise to request and receive the prior approval of the Holy See before ordination, and must seek to have as consecrants legitimate bishops, since " the active participation of illegitimate bishops cannot but make more difficult the acceptance of a subsequent request for regularization.

The bishops at the council confirmed the position of the metropolitan sees of Rome and Alexandria as having authority outside their own province, and also the existing privileges of the churches in Antioch and the other provinces.

Nicholas II, in the synod of 1059, formally codified existing practise by decreeing that preference were to be given to the clergy of Rome, but leaving the cardinal bishops free to select a clergy from elsewhere if they so decide.

Cardinal Bishops of suburbicarian dioceses are also titular bishops, but they hold titles to existing dioceses, namely one or more of the suburbicarian sees, but while they do not govern their see they are obliged to give it their patronage.

Gabriel was seeking to maneuver things such that the decision of Catholicos would have been in his own ( monophysite ) hands, an option completely unacceptable, in fact horrifying, to the existing bishops.

With the cooperation of the Catholic bishops, Sigismund set out to remake the existing hospice and community that already ministered to pilgrims around the shrine.

On the other hand, titles such as archbishop or patriarch imply no ontological alteration, and existing bishops who rise to those offices do not require further ordination.

# The existing " quasi-parishes should have well-defined limits, and the jurisdiction and privileges of pastors should be indicated by the bishops.