The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justin Welby, who was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 21 March 2013. Welby is the 105th person to hold the position, as part of a line of succession going back to the "Apostle to the English" Augustine of Canterbury, who was sent to the island by the church in Rome in 597. Welby succeeded Rowan Williams.
An ecclesiastical court, also called court Christian or court spiritual, is any of certain courts having jurisdiction mainly in spiritual or religious matters. In the Middle Ages, these courts had much wider powers in many areas of Europe than before the development of nation states. They were experts in interpreting canon law, a basis of which was the Corpus Juris Civilis of Justinian, which is considered the source of the civil law legal tradition.
A consistory court is a type of ecclesiastical court, especially within the Church of England where they were originally established pursuant to a charter of King William the Conqueror, and still exist today, although since about the middle of the 19th century consistory courts have lost much of their subject-matter jurisdiction. Each diocese in the Church of England has a consistory court.
An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consists of several dioceses, one of them being the archdiocese, headed by a metropolitan bishop or archbishop who has ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all other bishops of the province.
The Dean of the Arches is the judge who presides in the provincial ecclesiastical court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. This court is called the Arches Court of Canterbury. It hears appeals from consistory courts and bishop's disciplinary tribunals in the province of Canterbury.
The Arches Court, presided over by the Dean of Arches, is an ecclesiastical court of the Church of England covering the Province of Canterbury. Its equivalent in the Province of York is the Chancery Court.
The Master of the Faculties is a judicial officer in the Faculty Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury and has some important powers in English law, in particular the appointment and regulation of public notaries. Since 1873 the position has always been held by the Dean of the Arches.
A diocesan chancery is the branch of administration that handles all written documents used in the official government of a Catholic or Anglican diocese.
The Court of Peculiars is one of the ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England. The court sits with a Dean, who is also the Dean of the Arches. The Registrars are the Joint Provincial Registrars. The Court of Peculiars deals with all legal matters from peculiar parishes in the province. Until 1545, ecclesiastical judges were required to have a degree in canon law; thereafter, they only needed a doctorate in civil law. Binding precedent was only introduced into the ecclesiastical courts in the nineteenth century.
The Court of the Vicar-General of the Province of Canterbury is responsible for granting marriage licences in the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. The Vicar-General is distinct from the Dean of the Arches. The Registrars are the Joint Provincial Registrars. A Vicar-General is appointed by the Archbishop, and by certain other bishops to assist with such matters as ecclesiastical visitations. The Vicar-General of the Diocese is distinct from the Vicar-General of the Province. The Registry of the Vicar-General of the Province is 16 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2LZ.
The Court of the Vicar-General of the Province of York is responsible for granting Marriage Licences in the Province of York of the Church of England. The Vicar-General of the Province and Official Principal of the Consistory Court is distinct from the Dean of the Arches. The Registrar is the Registrar of the Chancery Court of York.
The Provincial Secretary and Registrar of Ontario was a senior position in the provincial cabinet of Ontario from before Canadian Confederation until the 1960s.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia is the Australian archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Church, part of the wider communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The archdiocese is a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. As of 2023, there were over 130 parishes and eight monasteries in the seven diocesan districts of the archdiocese in Australia.
In the Roman Catholic Church, a plenary council is any of various kinds of ecclesiastical synods, used when those summoned represent the whole number of bishops of some given territory. The word itself, derived from the Latin plenarium, hence concilium plenarium, also concilium plenum. Plenary councils have a legislative function that does not apply to other national synods.
Sir Philip Wilbraham Baker Wilbraham, 6th Baronet, was a British ecclesiastical lawyer and administrator.
The Anglican Church of Chile is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers four dioceses in Chile. Formed in 2018, the province is the 40th in the Anglican Communion. The province consists of four dioceses. Its primate and metropolitan is the Archbishop of Chile, Héctor Zavala.
Sir Arthur Charles was a British lawyer and High Court judge. A distinguished ecclesiastical lawyer, Charles is today best remembered for presiding over the first trial of Oscar Wilde for gross indecency.
Sir John Arthur Dalziel Owen was a British barrister and High Court judge. He has been described as "one of the foremost criminal judges of his time".
