Three elements have been important in holding the Communion together: First, the shared ecclesial structure of the component churches, manifested in an episcopal polity maintained through the apostolic succession of bishops and synodical government ; second, the principle of belief expressed in worship, investing importance in approved prayer books and their rubrics ; and third, the historical documents and standard divines that have influenced the ethos of the Communion.

Originally, the Church of England was self-contained and relied for its unity and identity on its own history, its traditional legal and episcopal structure and its status as an established church of the state.

Like the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church also traces its heritage to the foundation of Christianity through Apostolic succession and has an episcopal structure, though the autonomy of the individual, mostly national churches is emphasized.

It may be divided into two distinct phases: the apostolic period, when the first apostles were alive and organising the Church, and the post-apostolic period, when an early episcopal structure developed, whereby bishoprics were governed by bishops ( overseers ).

Early Christianity may be divided into 2 distinct phases: the apostolic period, when the first apostles were alive and led the Church, and the post-apostolic period, when an early episcopal structure developed, and persecution was periodically intense.

In the 2nd century, an episcopal structure becomes more visible, and in that century this structure was supported by teaching on apostolic succession, where a bishop becomes the spiritual successor of the previous bishop in a line tracing back to the apostles themselves.

James gave the translators instructions intended to guarantee that the new version would conform to the ecclesiology and reflect the episcopal structure of the Church of England and its belief in an ordained clergy.

This structure of church governance is known as episcopal polity.

Though the Church's practices and approach to the sacraments became strongly influenced by those of continental reformers, it nevertheless retained episcopal church structure.

This focus on the monastery has led some scholars, most notably Kathleen Hughes, to argue that the monastic system came to be the dominant ecclesiastical structure in the Irish church, essentially replacing the earlier episcopal structure of the type found in most of the rest of the Christian world.

The British church employed an episcopal structure corresponding closely to the model used elsewhere in the Christian world.

Church was considering adopting an episcopal structure, and in 1922 it consecrated its first bishop, Daniel Russell, Jr.

But it was not until 1967 that the Church actually made the switch to the episcopal structure and consecrated its two leaders as bishops.

This is different than some other Lutheran bodies which have maintained episcopal polity ; however, this is not considered to be a point of doctrine, as the Synod is in fellowship with some Lutheran church bodies in Europe that have an episcopal structure.

The main result of the synod was the official papal sanctioning of the episcopal structure as created in 1111 and refined in 1148.

It is a Protestant denomination of episcopal structure, Arminian theology, with roots in the Mennonite and German Reformed communities of 18th century Pennsylvania, as well as close ties to Methodism.

The church is episcopal in structure with a Senior Bishop as the highest official and spiritual leader.

" Although episcopal in structure, the church does not have cathedrals as such, though the largest parish church in a city may well have that de facto function with respect to major worship services involving the whole Lutheran community.

In the 2nd century, an episcopal structure becomes more visible, and in that century this structure was supported by teaching on apostolic succession, where a bishop becomes the spiritual successor of the previous bishop in a line tracing back to the apostles themselves.

As, for example, the teaching on papal infallibility was infallibly taught for a long time de fide tenenda by the universal magisterium, but not de fide credenda until the extraordinary definition at Vatican I, because there was disagreement on whether it was a specifically revealed truth from the deposit of faith, or merely the logical implication of other things in the deposit of faith ( as, for example, the authority of Peter in the college of apostles, the constitution of the Church, her unity, her episcopal structure, etc.

The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches ( and a few other episcopal churches ) in full communion with the Church of England ( which is regarded as the mother church of the worldwide communion ) and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The first case recorded of the partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, AD 456 ; but the exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone, received an impulse from Pope Gregory the Great.

The Porvoo Common Statement ( 1996 ), agreed to by the Anglican churches of the British Isles and most of the Lutheran churches of Scandinavia and the Baltic, also stated that " the continuity signified in the consecration of a bishop to episcopal ministry cannot be divorced from the continuity of life and witness of the diocese to which he is called.

His disciple, Cyprian ( Bishop of Carthage 248-58 ) appeals to the same fundamental principle of election to a vacant see in the aftermath of the Decian Persecution when denying the legitimacy of his rigorist rival in Carthage and that of the anti-pope Novatian in Rome ; however, the emphasis is now on legitimating his episcopal ministry as a whole and specifically his exclusive right to administer discipline to the lapsed rather than on the content of what is taught.

For the adherents of this understanding of apostolic succession grace is transmitted during episcopal consecrations ( the ordination of bishops ) by the laying on of hands of bishops previously consecrated within the apostolic succession.

An early understanding of apostolic succession is represented by the traditional claims of various churches, as organized around important episcopal sees, to have been founded by specific apostles.

; Presiding Bishop or President Bishop: These titles are often used for the head of a national Anglican church, but the title is not usually associated with a particular episcopal see like the title of a primate.

An auxiliary bishop is a titular bishop, and he is to be appointed as a vicar general or at least as an episcopal vicar of the diocese in which he serves.

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 ).

The collegial expression of episcopal leadership in the United Methodist Church is known as the Council of Bishops.

This style is also generally followed on the websites of the Holy See and episcopal conferences.

A cardinal who is not a bishop is still entitled to wear and use the episcopal vestments and other pontificalia ( episcopal regalia: mitre, crozier, zucchetto, pectoral cross and ring ).

By the end of 383 he found his health too feeble to cope with episcopal duties.

John, having found himself safe on Corcyra, was not content to serve under Bishop Alcison ; instead he set about trying to usurp his episcopal authority.

The history, which had an apologetic aim, is no longer extant, but copious extracts from it are to be found in the Chronicon of Eusebius, who used it extensively in compiling the early episcopal lists.

In this liturgic and homiletic manuscript, three Slovene records were found and this miscellany was probably an episcopal manual ( pontificals ).

Robert Grosseteste, the Bishop of Lincoln, had examined Passelewe, and found him unfit for episcopal office, and Boniface then quashed the election in 1244.

Leofric claimed that he found his diocese lacking in episcopal vestments and the other items required for church services, and his surviving list of gifts to the church noted that he gave vestments, crosses, chalices, censers, alter coverings, and other furnishings to the cathedral.

The names of Hemming, Florence and John are found together in the Durham Liber Vitae, a confraternity book listing the names of benefactors of and visitors to the episcopal church of Durham ( and its predecessor houses ).

Hemer remained an unimportant settlement without market rights, even when the Counts of the Mark gained independence from the episcopal state of Cologne in the 13th century, when Hemer found itself on the boundary of the two states.

With the visionary schemes of Frederick William, whether that of setting up a strict episcopal organization in the Evangelical Church in Prussia, or that of reviving the defunct ideal of the medieval Empire, Bunsen found himself increasingly out of sympathy.

Towards the close of the eleventh century the popes found it necessary to restrict episcopal authority on this point, and decreed that the virtues and miracles of persons proposed for public veneration should be examined in councils, more particularly in general councils.

In autumn of 1984, the priests sought out a bishop to ordain clergy for CMRI and found Bishop George Musey of Galveston, Texas, whose episcopal lineage can be traced to Archbishop Pierre Martin Ngô Ðình Thục.

But, as is Our Apostolic Duty, we wish your episcopal solicitude and vigilance to be aroused, so that you will strive as much as you can to drive form the mind of men that impious and equally fatal opinion, namely, that the way of eternal salvation can be found in any religion whatsoever.

Until Bishop Stubbs found it necessary to devote all his time to his episcopal duties, he concentrated on historical study.

Cody found his traditional view of episcopal authority often in conflict with a number of priests of his diocese.

They said that the popes had found it impossible to recall to their allegiance and to due respect for ecclesiastical discipline the Frankish lords who had possessed themselves of episcopal sees ; that these lords, insensible to censures and anathemas, rude and untaught, recognized no authority but that of force ; and that the popes had, therefore, granted to Carloman, Pepin, and Charlemagne a spiritual authority which they were to exercise only under papal control.

Stolniks were also attached to episcopal administrations as were other similar offices also found in the grand princely or tsarist administration.

He increased the number of clergy in the chapter, increasing it from the three he found at York when he took office, and reorganised the episcopal and chapter's estates, giving a number of estates to the chapter.