Episcopal polity Wikipedia. This article is about the form of church governance. For the churches characterized by this form of governance and named themselves Episcopalian, see Anglicanism. Church authority in ceremonies is often represented by a mitre as headdress. An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance ecclesiastical polity in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. The word bishop derives, via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term ebiscopusiscopus, from the Ancient Greekepskopos meaning overseer. It is the structure used by many of the major Christian Churches and denominations, such as the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Anglican and Lutheran churches or denominations, and other churches founded independently from these lineages. Churches with an episcopal polity are governed by bishops, practicing their authorities in the dioceses and conferences or synods. Their leadership is both sacramental and constitutional as well as performing ordinations, confirmations, and consecrations, the bishop supervises the clergy within a local jurisdiction and is the representative both to secular structures and within the hierarchy of the church. Bishops are considered to derive their authority from an unbroken, personal apostolic succession from the Twelve Apostles of Jesus. Bishops with such authority are said to represent the historical episcopate or historic episcopate. Churches with this type of government usually believe that the Church requires episcopal government as described in the New Testament see 1 Timothy 3 and 2 Timothy 1. In some systems, bishops may be subject to bishops holding a higher office variously called archbishops, metropolitans, or patriarchs, depending upon the tradition. They also meet in councils or synods. Tags ias study material indian art and culture indian art architecture literature ancient medieval modern indian art culture soft copy download study material for. Yojana, a monthly magazine published by the Publication Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, is dedicated to highlighting socio. Download UPSC Mains2016 Essay Paper Topicwise Essay Papers of last 24 YEARS 19932016. I/41W68vEtWkL.jpg' alt='Indian Polity 4Th Edition Pdf Free Download' title='Indian Polity 4Th Edition Pdf Free Download' />These gatherings, subject to presidency by higher ranking bishops, usually make important decisions, though the synod or council may also be purely advisory. For much of the written history of institutional Christianity, episcopal government was the only known form of church organization. This changed at the Reformation. Many Protestant churches are now organized by either congregational or presbyterian church polities, both descended from the writings of John Calvin, a Protestant reformer working and writing independently following the break with the Roman Catholic Church precipitated by The Ninety Five Theses of Martin Luther. Overview of episcopal churcheseditThe definition of the word episcopal has variation among Christian traditions. There are subtle differences in governmental principles among episcopal churches at the present time. To some extent the separation of episcopal churches can be traced to these differences in ecclesiology, that is, their theological understanding of church and church governance. For some, episcopal churches are churches that use a hierarchy of bishops that regard themselves as being in an unbroken, personal apostolic succession. Episcopal is also commonly used to distinguish between the various organizational structures of denominations. For instance, the word presbyterian Greek, presbtes is used to describe a church governed by a hierarchy of assemblies of elected elders, referred to as Presbyterian. Similarly, episcopal is used to describe a church governed by bishops. Self governed local congregations, governed neither by elders nor bishops, are usually referred to as Congregational. More specifically, the title Episcopal capitalized in this instance is applied to several churches historically based within Anglicanism Episcopalianism including those still in communion with the Church of England. Using these definitions, examples of specific episcopal churches include Some Lutheran churches practice congregational polity or a form of presbyterian polity. Others, including the Church of Sweden, practice episcopal polity the Church of Sweden also counts its bishops among the historic episcopate as do some American Lutheran churches like the Anglo Lutheran Catholic Church, Lutheran Orthodox Church, Lutheran Church International, and the Lutheran Episcopal Communion. Many Methodist churches see The United Methodist Church, among others retain the form and function of episcopal polity, although in a modified form, called connexionalism. Since all trace their ordinations to an Anglican priest, John Wesley, it is generally considered that their bishops do not share in apostolic succession, though United Methodists still affirm that their bishops share in the historic episcopate. Before the Great SchismeditAll orthodox Christians were in churches with an episcopal government, that is, one Church under local bishops and regional Patriarchs. Writing between ca. St. Ignatius of Antioch, Patriarch of Antioch, was the earliest of the Church fathers to define the importance of episcopal government. Assuming Ignatius view was the Apostolic teaching and practice, the line of succession was unbroken and passed through the four ancient Patriarchal sees those local churches known to be founded by apostles, Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria. Rome was the leading Patriarchate of the ancient four by virtue of its founding by Saints Peter and Paul and their martyrdom there, not to mention being the political center of the Roman empire at the time. Some organizations e. Assyrian Church of the East, though aloof from the political wranglings of imperial Christianity, nevertheless also practiced episcopal polity. Shortly after the Roman Emperor Constantine I legalized Christianity in 3. Roman Empire located at Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople, in 3. The single Roman Empire was divided between these two autonomous administrative centers, Roman and Constantinopolitan, West and East, Latin speaking and Greek speaking. This remained the status quo through the fourth century. A deep chasm developed between the East and West, becoming critical around 3. Install Pecl On Amazon Linux System. Arian, or Nicene controversy. The Eastern Christian Churches were thought by Constantine to believe against the Trinity that Christ was lesser than God. Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, France, believed that the Eastern Church should be given the opportunity to, at least, be educated on the subject. Constantine, in his wisdom, and upset by disagreement, banished Hilary to the East. Hilary perfected his Greek language skills while in exile, and determined the great divide between Rome and the East was actually not a disagreement at all, and was merely a linguistic ignorance on the part of his Latin speaking contemporaries. This truth became known in the West, though some differences lingered. Hilary of Poitiers later became St. Hilary, Doctor of the Church, for exposing the true Christian beliefs of the Eastern Church. Many of Hilarys writings were lost to time. In the fifth century, Pope Dioscorus, the Patriarch of Alexandria, rejected certain Christological dogmas promulgated by the Council of Chalcedon, and as a result, the Oriental Orthodox churches split from the rest however they continued the episcopal tradition, and today in fact there is dialog between the various orthodox churches over whether the schism was due to real differences or simply translation failures. Also during the fifth century, the Western Roman Empire declined and was overrun by German and Frankish peoples.