A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
An episcopal polity is a hierarchical form of church governance in which the chief local authorities are called bishops. 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 Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via local synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the head of the Roman Catholic Church—the Pope—but the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognized by them as primus inter pares, which may be explained as a representative of the church. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played a prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern and Southeastern Europe. The Eastern Orthodox Church officially calls itself the Orthodox Catholic Church.
Ecumenism, also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjective ecumenical is thus applied to any interdenominational initiative that encourages greater cooperation among Christians and among their churches.
The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church, the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs.
Closed communion is the practice of restricting the serving of the elements of Holy Communion to those who are members in good standing of a particular church, denomination, sect, or congregation. Though the meaning of the term varies slightly in different Christian theological traditions, it generally means that a church or denomination limits participation either to members of their own church, members of their own denomination, or members of some specific class. This restriction is based on various parameters, one of which is baptism. See also intercommunion.
In ecclesiology, the Christian Church is what different Christian denominations conceive of as being the true body of Christians or the original institution established by Jesus. "Christian Church" has also been used in academia as a synonym for Christianity, despite the fact that it is composed of multiple churches or denominations, many of which hold a doctrinal claim of being the "one true church", to the exclusion of the others.
Open communion is the practice of some Protestant Churches of allowing members and non-members to receive the Eucharist. Many but not all churches that practice open communion require that the person receiving communion be a baptized Christian, and other requirements may apply as well. In Methodism, open communion is referred to as the open table.
The Hong Kong Sheng Kung Hui, also known as the Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal), is the Anglican church in Hong Kong and Macao. It is the 38th Province of the Anglican Communion. It is also one of the major denominations in Hong Kong and the first in the Anglican Communion to ordain a female priest.
The Charismatic Episcopal Church (CEC), officially the International Communion of the Charismatic Episcopal Church (ICCEC), is a Christian denomination established in 1992. The ICCEC is a part of the Convergence Movement.
Catholicity is a concept pertaining to beliefs and practices that are widely accepted by numerous Christian denominations, most notably by those Christian denominations that describe themselves as catholic in accordance with the Four Marks of the Church, as expressed in the Nicene Creed formulated at the First Council of Constantinople in 381: "[I believe] in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church."
The Catholic Church has engaged in the modern ecumenical movement especially since the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and the issuing of the decree Unitatis redintegratio and the declaration Dignitatis humanae. It was at the Council that the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity was created. Those outside of the Catholic Church were categorised as heretics or schismatics, but in many contexts today, in order to avoid offence, the euphemism "separated brethren" is used.
Branch theory is an ecclesiological proposition that the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church includes various Christian denominations whether in formal communion or not. The theory is often incorporated in the Protestant notion of an invisible Christian Church structure binding them together.
The Convergence Movement, also known as the Ancient-Future Faith movement, is a Protestant Christian movement that began during the Fourth Great Awakening (1960–1980) in the United States.
Timothy Anthony McDonnell is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. McDonnell served as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts from 2004 to 2014 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New York from 2001 to 2004.
Jesse Delano Ellis, II, commonly known as J. Delano Ellis, was a religious leader in the United States and progenitor of unity among African-American Pentecostals with Trinitarian and nontrinitarian affinities. Establishing and initially leading the Joint College of Bishops as their Metropolitan Archbishop, Ellis also founded and served as presiding prelate for the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ and Pentecostal Churches of Christ—a Holiness-Pentecostal denomination with Trinitarians and nontrintarians, and a Oneness/Apostolic Pentecostal denomination. He served as the senior pastor of the Pentecostal Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio, a ministry to which he was called on May 14, 1989.
Pope Benedict XVI, who led the Roman Catholic Church as Pope from 2005 to 2013, continued manouevring the Church through the dynamics of modernity, which the Church had begun engaging in with the Second Vatican Council. Because the question of religious pluralism is a key issue raised by modernity, ecumenism, the establishment of harmony and dialogue between the different Christian denominations, is a significant concern of a post Second Vatican Council Church. Pope Benedict XVI's approach has been characterised as leaning toward the conservative while still being expansive and engaged, involving the full breadth of Christendom, including the Orthodox Churches and Protestant churches, as well as freshly engaging with other Christian bodies considered by Roman Catholics to be more heterodox, such as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Thomas John Joseph Paprocki is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois since 2010. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago from 2003 to 2010.
Talbert Wesley Swan II is a prelate of the Church of God in Christ serving as the bishop of the Greater Vermont Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the United States. Swan is the fifth leader of the Jurisdiction and oversees COGIC congregations in Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and New York. Swan serves the Church of God in Christ as Assistant General Secretary and Director of Social Justice Ministry. Swan is also the National Chaplain of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity, Inc. and the host of a radio talk show, The Spoken Word. He is a civil rights activist and the president of the Greater Springfield NAACP.
The Russian True Orthodox Church, also called lazarites or tikhonites, is an independent Russian Orthodox church professing True Orthodoxy. It was formed in 2002 by Archbishop Lazar (Zhurbenko) and Bishop Benjamin (Rusalenko), the two hierarchs of ROCOR inside the territory of Russia, who refused the processe of unification of the ROCOR with the Moscow Patriarchate; Lazar and Benjamin therefore joined the ROCOR (V), then left it thereafter and thus their Church became independent.
