An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. The word "bishop" here is derived via the British Latin and Vulgar Latin term *ebiscopus/*biscopus, from the Ancient Greek ἐπίσκοπος epískopos meaning "overseer". It is the structure used by many of the major Christian Churches and denominations, such as the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Church of the East, Anglican, Lutheran and Methodist churches or denominations, and other churches founded independently from these lineages.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) is a worldwide Christian inter-church organization founded in 1948 to work for the cause of ecumenism. Its full members today include the Assyrian Church of the East, the Oriental Orthodox Churches, most jurisdictions of the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Union of Utrecht, the Lutheran World Federation, the Anglican Communion, the Mennonite churches, the World Methodist Council, the Baptist World Alliance, the World Communion of Reformed Churches, the Pentecostal churches, the Moravian Church and the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church. Notably, the Catholic Church is not a full member, although it sends delegates to meetings who have observer status.
Codrington College is an Anglican theological college in St. John, Barbados now affiliated with the University of the West Indies at Cave Hill. It is one of the oldest Anglican theological colleges in the Americas. It was affiliated to the University of Durham from 1875 to 1965.
Patrick Campbell Rodger was an Anglican bishop and ecumenist. He was the Bishop of Manchester (1970–1978) and Bishop of Oxford (1978–1986).
Benjamin Noel Young Vaughan was an Anglican priest.
Philip Alford Potter was a leader in the Methodist Church and the third General Secretary of the World Council of Churches (1972–1984).
Juhanon Mar Thoma XVIII Metropolitan was the Metropolitan of the Malankara Mar Thoma Syrian Church from 1949–1976, who gave leadership to the church and at the same time actively participated in social and political arenas. He was respected by people from all walks of life, from all religions and from all age groups. He is remembered for providing the church with its famous motto "Lighted to Lighten". His humanistic and socially-engaged approach to the Christian faith was embodied in his personal credo: "The Church must be interested where human life is interested."
The Church in the Province of the West Indies is one of 40 member provinces in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church comprises eight dioceses spread out over much of the West Indies area. The present position of Archbishop and Primate of the West Indies is held by the current bishop of Jamaica, Howard Gregory. Gregory was elected as the thirteenth Archbishop of the Province by clergy and laity attending the 40th Synod of the CPWI at the Cascadia Hotel, in Port of Spain, Trinidad in May 2019. The position was previously held by John Holder who retired in 2018. Drexel Gomez was the primate before Bishop Holder until 2009. The church is also part of the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches.
The Anglican Church in North America (ACNA) is a Christian denomination in the Anglican tradition in the United States and Canada. It also includes ten congregations in Mexico, two mission churches in Guatemala, and a missionary diocese in Cuba. Headquartered in Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the church reported 977 congregations and 124,999 members in 2022. The first archbishop of the ACNA was Robert Duncan, who was succeeded by Foley Beach in 2014.
The Anglican Diocese of Belize was established in 1883. The current bishop is Philip Wright.
Barry Rogerson was the first Bishop of Wolverhampton from 1979 to 1985 and, from then until his retirement in 2002, the Bishop of Bristol. He holds Honorary degrees from Bristol & the West of England Universities. He was made a Freeman of the City and County of Bristol in 2003.
Olav Fykse Tveit is a Norwegian Lutheran theologian and bishop, and the current Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway. He was elected to the post of general secretary of the World Council of Churches on 27 August 2009. He entered office on 1 January 2010, for a proposed term of five years, and was re-elected to a second term in July 2014. He resigned from the post in March 2020, having been elected Preses of the Bishops' Conference of the Church of Norway.
John Mitchinson was a British teacher and Anglican priest who was Bishop of Barbados and later served as Master of Pembroke College, Oxford.
Cornell Jerome Moss was the Bishop of Guyana from 8 December 2009 until his death.
Santosh Kumar Marray is the eleventh and current bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Easton. Before this, he served as assistant bishop for both the Diocese of Alabama (2012-2016) and the Diocese of East Carolina (2009-2012). Prior to that, he was Bishop of Seychelles. He was ordained as a priest in 1981, and served in this capacity in Florida, Guyana, and the Bahamas before being consecrated as bishop.
Sehon Sylvester Goodridge was an Anglican bishop and author from Barbados.
Agnes Regina Murei Abuom was a Kenyan Christian organisational worker who served as moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (WCC) since 2013. She was the first woman and the first African to hold this post. She represented the Anglican Church of Kenya.
Dorick McGowan Wright was a Belizean prelate. From 2006 to 2017, he has served as the fourth bishop of the Catholic Church for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Belize City-Belmopan. Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 26 January 2017 and appointed Fr. Lawrence Sydney Nicasio as the new bishop.
Mark Lawrence MacDonald is a former Anglican bishop in the United States and Canada. From 2007 to 2022, he served as the National Indigenous Anglican Bishop for the Anglican Church of Canada; as such, he had pastoral oversight over all indigenous Canadian Anglicans. In April 2022, he resigned and relinquished his ministry following acknowledged sexual misconduct.
Angelique Walker-Smith is an American Baptist minister and ecumenical leader. In September 2022, she was elected as president of the World Council of Churches, representing the North America region. She is ordained in the National Baptist Convention, USA. Since 2014, she has been on the national staff of Bread for the World. Before that, she was the executive director of the Church Federation of Greater Indianapolis for nineteen years.
