Hierarchy of the Church OF England
The British monarch which is the King and Queen, with the queen at the top most position having the constitutional title of Supreme Governor of the Church of England. The Queen being Supreme Governor of the Church of England, also has a special and inimitable relationship with the free Church of Scotland.
She appoints in the Church of England archbishops, bishops and deans of cathedrals on the advice of the Prime Minister. Sitting in the House of Lords, the two archbishops and 24 senior bishops make a major contribution to Parliament’s work.
The Church of England is organized into two provinces; each led by an archbishop, Canterbury for the Southern Province and York for the Northern). Covered by these two provinces the jurisdiction of the Church of England extends to England, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, the Isles of Scilly a small part of Wales and continental Europe. Separated from the Church of England in 1869 and 1920 are the Church of Ireland and the Church in Wales.
A source confirms Scotland’s national church, the Church of Scotland, is Presbyterian but the Scottish Episcopal Church is in the Anglican Communion. Each province are built from dioceses, there are 43 in England. Each diocese (except Europe) is divided into parishes. Parishes are the heart of the Church of England.
A parish priest oversees a parish and a title given can be a vicar or rector). From inception up and into current times parish priest and their bishop take a leading roll in overseeing members which includes everyone. The parish priests keep involved with problems and issues which affect the whole community.
A parish is the most local level, often consisting of one church building in a community, and for financial reasons many parishes are working together in a number of ways. The parish is looked after by a parish priest and for tradition or other reasons may be called by one of the following offices:
vicar, rector, priest in charge, team rector team vicar.
The running of the parish is the joint responsibility of the parish priest in conjunction with the parish clergy and elected representatives from the congregation. The bishops come right under the archbishop, followed by the Suffragan Bishops, who are responsible for part of the bishop’s diocese.
Next in line are the priests who comprise the rector, and the vicar. A rector is the parson of a parish church, while as the vicar, is parson of a parish, where the tithes are impropriated. After this, comes a curate who performs divine service in the place of the incumbent, parson or vicar.
This is the basic form of the church in England and can vary in the United States and other countries, with church names being changed and church functions differing. In Part 1 the early Church of England Established By Henry VIII was for the most part Catholic, but over the centuries it evolved into its present form.
We could get deeper into this unscriptural church, but enough is covered here to show there’s nothing in the make up of this church to find in the New Testament. I always like to show these two verses when a christian oriented church is discussed to point out what the New Testament has to say about adding or taking away from it teaching.
Revelation 22:18-19 (KJV)
- 18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
- 19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.