A suffragan bishop is a type of
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
in some
Christian denominations
Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...
.
In the
Anglican Communion
The Anglican Communion is the third largest Christian communion after the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. Founded in 1867 in London, the communion has more than 85 million members within the Church of England and other ...
, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a
metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.
Originally, the term referred to the b ...
or
diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictional in their role. Suffragan bishops may be charged by a metropolitan to oversee a
suffragan diocese
A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ...
and may be assigned to areas which do not have a
cathedral
A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...
of their own.
In the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, a suffragan
bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...
instead leads a
diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
within an
ecclesiastical province
An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...
other than the principal diocese, the
metropolitan archdiocese
A metropolis religious jurisdiction, or a metropolitan archdiocese, is an episcopal see whose bishop is the metropolitan bishop or archbishop of an ecclesiastical province. Metropolises, historically, have been important cities in their provinces.
...
; the diocese led by the suffragan is called a suffragan diocese.
Anglican Communion
In the
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
churches, the term applies to a bishop who is assigned responsibilities to support a
diocesan bishop. For example, the
Bishop of Jarrow is a suffragan to the diocesan
Bishop of Durham
The Bishop of Durham is the Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler has been the Bishop of Durham ...
.
Suffragan bishops in the Anglican Communion are nearly identical in their role to
auxiliary bishops in the Roman Catholic Church.
England
History
English diocesan bishops were commonly assisted by bishops who had been consecrated to sees which were ''
in partibus infidelium
A titular see in various churches is an episcopal see of a former diocese that no longer functions, sometimes called a "dead diocese". The ordinary or hierarch of such a see may be styled a "titular metropolitan" (highest rank), "titular archbish ...
'' (titular sees that had in most cases been conquered by Muslims) before the
English Reformation
The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...
. The separation of the English Church from Rome meant that this was no longer possible. The
Suffragan Bishops Act 1534
The Suffragan Bishops Act 1534 (26 Hen 8 c 14) is an Act of the Parliament of England that authorised the appointment of suffragan (i.e., assistant) bishops in England and Wales. The tradition of appointing suffragans named after a town in the d ...
allowed for the creation of new sees to allow these assistant bishops, who were named as suffragan. Before then, the term ''suffragan'' referred to diocesan bishops in relation to their metropolitan.
The concept of a suffragan bishop in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
was legalised by the Suffragan Bishops Act 1534. The first bishops consecrated under that Act were
Thomas Manning,
Bishop of Ipswich
The Bishop of Ipswich was an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Norwich, in the Province of Canterbury, England.''Crockford's Clerical Directory 2008/2009 (100th edition)'', Church House Publishing ().
...
and
John Salisbury,
Bishop of Thetford
The Bishop of Thetford is an episcopal title which takes its name after the market town of Thetford in Norfolk, England. The title was originally used by the Normans in the 11th century, and is now used by a Church of England suffragan bishop.
...
on 19 March 1536. The last Tudor suffragan bishop in post was
John Sterne,
Bishop of Colchester
The Bishop of Colchester is an episcopal title used by an area bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Chelmsford, in the Province of Canterbury, England.
The current bishop is Roger Morris, former Archdeacon of Worcester, who was consecrat ...
, who died in post in 1607/8. No more suffragans were appointed for more than 250 years, until the consecration of
Henry Mackenzie
Henry Mackenzie FRSE (August 1745 – 14 January 1831, born and died in Edinburgh) was a Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer sometimes seen as the Addison of the North. While remembered mostly as an author, his main income came from legal role ...
as
Bishop of Nottingham on 2 February 1870. At that point, the sees of suffragans were still limited to the 26 towns named in the 1534 Act; the
Suffragans Nomination Act 1888
The Suffragan Bishops Act 1534 (26 Hen 8 c 14) is an Act of the Parliament of England that authorised the appointment of suffragan (i.e., assistant) bishops in England and Wales. The tradition of appointing suffragans named after a town in the d ...
allowed the creation of new suffragan sees besides the 26 so named. The appointment of bishops suffragan became much more common thereafter.
Today
=Area bishops
=
Some Church of England suffragan bishops are legally delegated responsibility by the diocesan bishop for a specific geographical ''area'' within the diocese. Such formal arrangements were piloted by the experimental London scheme in 1970. For example, the Bishop of Colchester is an ''area bishop'' in the
Diocese of Chelmsford
The Diocese of Chelmsford is a Church of England diocese, part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers Essex and the five East London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering, Newham, Redbridge, and Waltham Forest (most of which wer ...
. Such ''area schemes'' are presently found in the dioceses of:
*
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
(since 1979): Two Cities (overseen by the diocesan), Edmonton, Kensington, Stepney, Willesden.
*
Chelmsford
Chelmsford () is a city in the City of Chelmsford district in the county of Essex, England. It is the county town of Essex and one of three cities in the county, along with Southend-on-Sea and Colchester. It is located north-east of London a ...
(since 1983): Barking, Bradwell, Colchester.
*
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
(since 1984): Oxford (overseen by the diocesan), Buckingham, Dorchester, Reading.
*
Southwark
Southwark ( ) is a district of Central London situated on the south bank of the River Thames, forming the north-western part of the wider modern London Borough of Southwark. The district, which is the oldest part of South London, developed ...
(since 1991): Croydon, Kingston, Woolwich.
*
Lichfield
Lichfield () is a cathedral city and civil parish in Staffordshire, England. Lichfield is situated roughly south-east of the county town of Stafford, south-east of Rugeley, north-east of Walsall, north-west of Tamworth and south-west of B ...
(since 1992): Shrewsbury, Stafford, Wolverhampton.
*
Leeds
Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...
(since 2014): Bradford, Huddersfield, Leeds (overseen by the Bishop of Kirkstall), Ripon, Wakefield.
Area schemes have previously existed in
Worcester diocese (1993–2002; Worcester (overseen by the diocesan), Dudley),
Salisbury diocese
The Diocese of Salisbury is a Church of England diocese in the south of England, within the ecclesiastical Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers most of Dorset (excepting the deaneries of Bournemouth and Christchurch, which fall within the ...
(1981–2009; Ramsbury, Sherborne),
Lincoln diocese (2010 – 31 January 2013; Grantham, Grimsby) and
Chichester diocese (1984–2013; Chichester (overseen by the diocesan), Lewes, Horsham). Other suffragans have or have had informal responsibility for geographical areas (e.g. in
Winchester
Winchester is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs Nation ...
,
Peterborough
Peterborough () is a cathedral city in Cambridgeshire, east of England. It is the largest part of the City of Peterborough unitary authority district (which covers a larger area than Peterborough itself). It was part of Northamptonshire until ...
, and York), but these are not referred to as ''area bishops''.
=Suffragan bishops
=
Only the small Dioceses
of Portsmouth and
of Sodor and Man do not have a suffragan bishop. Until 2016/2017, the Dioceses
of Newcastle and
of Leicester each had a stipendiary
assistant bishop
An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop.
Church of England
In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...
instead of suffragans, but these have since been replaced with suffragan bishops. The Diocese of Truro has had at some periods an assistant bishop; these have included
John Wellington
The Right Reverend John Wellington was an Anglican missionary bishop in China during the first half of the 20th century.
Born into an ecclesiastical family on 28 December 1889, he was the son of the Reverend G. Wellington. Educated at Queen ...
(formerly Bishop of
Shantung
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...
) and
Bill Lash, both retired from sees abroad.
=Provincial episcopal visitors
=
Suffragan bishops in the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...
who have oversight of parishes and clergy that reject the ministry of priests who are women, usually across a whole province, are known as
provincial episcopal visitor
A provincial episcopal visitor (PEV), popularly known as a flying bishop, is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who on grounds of theological conviction, "are unable to receive the ministry of ...
s (PEVs) (or "flying bishops"). This concession was made in 1992 following the General Synod's vote to ordain women to the priesthood. The first PEV was
John Gaisford
John Scott Gaisford (born 7 October 1934) is a British retired Anglican bishop. He was the second Bishop of Beverley, the first appointed to be a provincial episcopal visitor ("flying bishop") for the Province of York when the Church of England b ...
,
Bishop of Beverley
The Bishop of Beverley is a Church of England suffragan bishop. The title takes its name after the town of Beverley in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England.
The suffragan bishop was originally to assist the Archbishop of York in overseeing ...
, who was consecrated on 7 March 1994.
Wales
An early example of a suffragan can be seen in
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
is
Penrydd
Penrydd (variously spelled Penrhydd, Penrhudd, Penrith, Penreth or Penrieth) is a former parish in the Hundred of Kilgerran, north Pembrokeshire, Wales. The parish's history is closely linked with that of Castellan, and included parts of the pres ...
, established in 1537, when the Welsh dioceses were still within the Church of England. The
Bishop of Swansea
The Bishop of Swansea was an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of St David's, in the Church of England Province of Canterbury until 1920 and then in the Church in Wales.It took its name after the town of Swansea, then in ...
was a suffragan in the
Diocese of St David's
The Diocese of St Davids is a diocese of the Church in Wales, a church of the Anglican Communion. The diocese covers the historic extent of Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire, together with a small part of western Glamorgan. The episcop ...
from 1890 till the erection of
the diocese in 1923. Since disestablishment,
Thomas Lloyd was suffragan Bishop of Maenan in the
Diocese of St Asaph
The Diocese of Saint Asaph is a diocese of the Church in Wales in north-east Wales, named after Saint Asaph, its second bishop.
Geography
The Anglican Diocese of St Asaph in the north-east corner of Wales stretches from the borders of Chester in ...
, when the bishop diocesan was also
Archbishop of Wales
The post of Archbishop of Wales was created in 1920 when the Church in Wales was separated from the Church of England and disestablished. The four historic Welsh dioceses had previously formed part of the Province of Canterbury, and so came unde ...
.
Ireland
The
Church of Ireland
The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the second ...
has no suffragan bishops, not even in the geographically large dioceses.
United States
Suffragan bishops are fairly common in larger dioceses of the
Episcopal Church in the United States of America
The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop o ...
(ECUSA), but usually have no responsibility for a specific geographical part of a diocese.
ECUSA
The Episcopal Church, based in the United States with additional dioceses elsewhere, is a member church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is divided into nine provinces. The presiding bishop of ...
is not within the jurisdiction of the English law that requires diocesan and suffragan bishops to be appointed as bishop to a specific place, and so suffragans are not given the title of any particular city within the diocese. For example,
Bishop Barbara Harris was titled simply “Suffragan Bishop of
”.
''Coadjutor'' and
''assistant'' bishops are different episcopal offices than ''suffragan''. A coadjutor is elected by a diocesan convention to become the diocesan bishop (also called "the ordinary") upon the ordinary's retirement. A suffragan is also elected by a convention, but does not automatically succeed the diocesan bishop. However a suffragan's office does continue in the diocese until he or she chooses to retire. An ''assistant bishop'' is appointed by the diocesan bishop, and his or her office ends when the ordinary who appointed her or him leaves office.
Canada
Some Anglican Church of Canada suffragan bishops are legally delegated responsibility by the diocesan bishop for a specific geographical ''area'' within the diocese.
*
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
: York-Scarborough, York-Credit Valley, Trent-Durham, York-Simcoe.
Malaysia (Diocese of West Malaysia)
As the Peninsular of Malaysia is governed by the Diocese of West Malaysia, the diocese subdivided into North Archdeaconry, MIDDLE ARCHDEACONRY, and South Archdeaconry with A suffragan Bishop.
Acting bishops
It is common for Anglican suffragan or assistant bishops to serve as acting bishop during a vacancy in the diocesan see (e.g., between the death or retirement of the bishop diocesan and their successor taking post). In order to achieve this, the
metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan (alternative obsolete form: metropolite), pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis.
Originally, the term referred to the b ...
commissions a suffragan/assistant (usually the full-time bishop senior by consecration) who becomes the ''episcopal commissary'', but may be referred to by any number of phrases (since the commission is held from the metropolitan archbishop, she may be called ''archbishop's commissary''; the most usual current term in the Church of England being Acting Bishop of Somewhere). In the Anglican Church of Australia, someone (not always a bishop) acting as diocesan bishop is the Administrator of the Diocese and a bishop so commissioned is called the Bishop Administrator.
In 2013, between the retirement of
Nigel McCulloch
Nigel Simeon McCulloch, (born 17 January 1942) is an Anglican bishop. He is a retired Bishop of Manchester in the Church of England. He was appointed in August 2002, taking up duties later that year and was installed in February 2003. He reti ...
and the confirmation of
David Walker as
Bishop of Manchester
The Bishop of Manchester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.'' Crockford's Clerical Directory 2008/2009 (100th edition)'', Church House Publishing ().
The current bishop is David Walker w ...
, both of that diocese's suffragan bishops (
Chris Edmondson
Christopher Paul Edmondson (born 25 June 1950) is a British Anglican retired bishop. He was the Bishop of Bolton, a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Manchester, from 2008 to 2016. He is presently an Honorary Assistant Bishop in the Diocese ...
,
Bishop of Bolton
The Bishop of Bolton is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Manchester, in the province of York, England. The title takes its name after the town of Bolton in Greater Manchester; the See was erected ...
, and
Mark Davies,
Bishop of Middleton
The Bishop of Middleton is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Manchester, in the Province of York, England. The title takes its name after the town of Middleton in Greater Manchester; the See was ...
, who were consecrated on the same day, therefore neither had seniority) served as acting bishop co-equally. In 2014–2015, during the vacancy between the episcopates of
Paul Butler and
Paul Williams, the diocese's sole suffragan bishop,
Tony Porter
Anthony "Tony" Porter (born 10 February 1952) is a retired Church of England bishop who served as the suffragan Bishop of Sherwood in the Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham from 2006 to 2020.
Early life and education
Porter was born at RAF H ...
,
Bishop of Sherwood
The Bishop of Sherwood is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Southwell and Nottingham, in the Province of York, England. The title takes its name after the Royal forest of Sherwood in Nottinghamshi ...
, became Acting
Bishop of Southwell and Nottingham; however, when he resigned the commission due to ill health,
Richard Inwood
Richard Neil Inwood (4 March 1946 - 14 April 2019) was a Bishop suffragan of Bedford.
Inwood was born in Burton-on-Trent and studied chemistry at University College, Oxford and theology at the University of Nottingham. Before ordination, he spe ...
(retired former
Bishop of Bedford
The Bishop of Bedford is an episcopal title used by a Church of England suffragan bishop who, under the direction of the Diocesan Bishop of St Albans, oversees 150 parishes in Luton and Bedfordshire.
The title, which takes its name after the tow ...
and an
honorary assistant bishop
An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop.
Church of England
In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...
of the diocese) was commissioned Acting Bishop for a fixed one-year term.
Roman Catholic Church
In the
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
, a suffragan is a bishop who heads a
diocese
In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop.
History
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...
. His
suffragan diocese
A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria ...
, however, is part of a larger
ecclesiastical province
An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction
Jurisdiction (from Latin 'law' + 'declaration') is the legal term for the legal authority granted to a legal entity to enact justice. In federations like the United State ...
, nominally led by a
metropolitan archbishop
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
. The distinction between metropolitans and suffragans is of limited practical importance. Both are diocesan bishops possessing ordinary jurisdiction over their individual
sees. The metropolitan has few responsibilities over the suffragans in his province and no direct authority over the faithful outside of his own diocese. However he is competent to conduct pastoral visits and he can perform sacred functions, as if he were a bishop in his own diocese in all churches of the Metropolitan province, but he is first to inform the diocesan bishop if the church is the cathedral.
Bishops who assist diocesan bishops are usually called
auxiliary bishops. If the assisting bishop has special faculties (typically the right to succeed the diocesan bishop) he would be called a
coadjutor bishop
A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) is a bishop in the Catholic, Anglican, and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in the administration of the diocese. The coadjutor (literally, "co ...
.
Since they are not in charge of a suffragan diocese, they are not referred to as "suffragan bishops".
See also
*
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suffragan Bishop
Bishops by type
Christian terminology
Anglican ecclesiastical offices
Episcopacy in the Catholic Church
Episcopacy in Eastern Orthodoxy
Episcopacy in Oriental Orthodoxy