Asuffragan bishop is a type ofbishop in someChristian denominations.
In theCatholic Church, a suffraganbishop leads adiocese within anecclesiastical province other than the principal diocese, themetropolitan archdiocese; the diocese led by the suffragan is called asuffragan diocese.
In theAnglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to ametropolitan bishop ordiocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdictional in their role. Suffragan bishops may be charged by a metropolitan to oversee asuffragan diocese and may be assigned to areas which do not have acathedral.
In theCatholic Church, a suffragan is a bishop who heads adiocese. Hissuffragan diocese, however, is part of a largerecclesiastical province, nominally led by ametropolitan archbishop. The distinction between metropolitans and suffragans is of limited practical importance. Both are diocesan bishops possessing ordinary jurisdiction over their individualsees. The metropolitan has few responsibilities over the suffragans in his province and no direct authority over the faithful outside of his own diocese. However he is competent to conduct pastoral visits and he can perform sacred functions, as if he were a bishop in his own diocese in all churches of the Metropolitan province, but he is first to inform the diocesan bishop if the church is the cathedral.[1][2]
Bishops who assist diocesan bishops are usually calledauxiliary bishops. If the assisting bishop has special faculties (typically the right to succeed the diocesan bishop) he would be called acoadjutor bishop.[3] Since they are not in charge of a suffragan diocese, they are not referred to as "suffragan bishops".
In theAnglican churches, the term applies to a bishop who is assigned responsibilities to support adiocesan bishop. For example, thebishop of Jarrow is a suffragan to the diocesanbishop of Durham.
Suffragan bishops in the Anglican Communion are nearly identical in their role toauxiliary bishops in theCatholic Church.
English diocesan bishops were commonly assisted by bishops who had been consecrated to sees which werein partibus infidelium (titular sees that had in most cases been conquered by Muslims) before theEnglish Reformation. The separation of the English Church from Rome meant that this was no longer possible. TheSuffragan Bishops Act 1534 allowed for the creation of new sees to allow these assistant bishops, who were named as suffragan. Before then, the termsuffragan referred to diocesan bishops in relation to their metropolitan.[4] The first bishops consecrated under that Act wereThomas Manning,bishop of Ipswich, andJohn Salisbury,bishop of Thetford, on 19 March 1536.[5]
The last Tudor suffragan bishop in post wasJohn Sterne,bishop of Colchester, who died in post in 1607/8. No more suffragans were appointed for more than 250 years, until the consecration ofHenry Mackenzie asbishop of Nottingham on 2 February 1870.[6] At that point, the sees of suffragans were still limited to the 26 towns named in the 1534 Act; theSuffragans Nomination Act 1888 allowed the creation of new suffragan sees besides the 26 so named. The appointment of bishops suffragan became much more common thereafter.
Some Church of England suffragan bishops are legally delegated responsibility by the diocesan bishop for a specific geographicalarea within the diocese. Such formal arrangements were piloted by the experimental London scheme in 1970.[7] For example, the Bishop of Colchester is anarea bishop in theDiocese of Chelmsford. Sucharea schemes are presently found in the dioceses of:[8]
Area schemes have previously existed inWorcester diocese (1993–2002; Worcester (overseen by the diocesan), Dudley),[9]Salisbury diocese (1981–2009; Ramsbury, Sherborne),[10]Lincoln diocese (2010[11] – 31 January 2013; Grantham, Grimsby)[12] andChichester diocese (1984–2013; Chichester (overseen by the diocesan), Lewes, Horsham). Other suffragans have or have had informal responsibility for geographical areas (e.g. inWinchester,[13]Peterborough,[14] and York), but these are not referred to asarea bishops.
Only the small diocesesof Portsmouth andof Sodor and Man do not have a suffragan bishop. Until 2016/2017, the diocesesof Newcastle andof Leicester each had a stipendiaryassistant bishop instead of suffragans,[15] but these have since been replaced with suffragan bishops. The Diocese of Truro has had at some periods an assistant bishop; these have includedJohn Wellington (formerly bishop ofShantung) andBill Lash, both retired from sees abroad.[16]
Suffragan bishops in theChurch of England who have oversight of parishes and clergy that reject the ministry of priests who are women, usually across a whole province, are known asprovincial episcopal visitors (PEVs) (or "flying bishops"). This concession was made in 1992 following the General Synod's vote to ordain women to the priesthood. The first PEV wasJohn Gaisford,bishop of Beverley, who was consecrated on 7 March 1994.[citation needed]
An early example of a suffragan can be seen inWales isPenrydd, established in 1537, when the Welsh dioceses were still within the Church of England. TheBishop of Swansea was a suffragan in theDiocese of St David's from 1890 till the erection of theDiocese of Swansea and Brecon in 1923. Since disestablishment,Thomas Lloyd was suffragan Bishop of Maenan in theDiocese of St Asaph, when the bishop diocesan was alsoArchbishop of Wales.[citation needed]
TheChurch of Ireland has no suffragan bishops, not even in the geographically large dioceses.[citation needed]
Suffragan bishops are fairly common in larger dioceses of theEpiscopal Church in the United States of America (ECUSA), but usually have no responsibility for a specific geographical part of a diocese.ECUSA is not within the jurisdiction of the English law that requires diocesan and suffragan bishops to be appointed as bishop to a specific place, and so suffragans are not given the title of any particular city within the diocese. For example,Bishop Barbara Harris was titled simply “Suffragan Bishop ofMassachusetts”.[citation needed]
Coadjutor andassistant bishops are different episcopal offices thansuffragan. A coadjutor is elected by a diocesan convention to become the diocesan bishop (also called "the ordinary") upon the ordinary's retirement. A suffragan is also elected by a convention, but does not automatically succeed the diocesan bishop. However a suffragan's office does continue in the diocese until he or she chooses to retire. Anassistant bishop is appointed by the diocesan bishop, and his or her office ends when the ordinary who appointed her or him leaves office.[citation needed]
Some Anglican Church of Canada suffragan bishops are legally delegated responsibility by the diocesan bishop for a specific geographicalarea within the diocese.
TheDiocese of West Malaysia is divided into two "area dioceses", each with their own suffragan bishop.[citation needed]
It is common for Anglican suffragan or assistant bishops to serve as acting bishop during a vacancy in the diocesan see (e.g., between the death or retirement of the bishop diocesan and their successor taking post). In order to achieve this, themetropolitan bishop commissions a suffragan/assistant (usually the full-time bishop senior by consecration) who becomes theepiscopal commissary, but may be referred to by any number of phrases (since the commission is held from the metropolitan archbishop, she may be calledarchbishop's commissary; the most usual current term in the Church of England being Acting Bishop of Somewhere). In the Anglican Church of Australia, someone (not always a bishop) acting as diocesan bishop is the administrator of the diocese and a bishop so commissioned is called the bishop administrator.[17]
In 2013, between the retirement ofNigel McCulloch and the confirmation ofDavid Walker asbishop of Manchester, both of that diocese's suffragan bishops (Chris Edmondson,bishop of Bolton, andMark Davies,bishop of Middleton, who were consecrated on the same day, therefore neither had seniority) served as acting bishop co-equally.[18] In 2014–2015, during the vacancy between the episcopates ofPaul Butler andPaul Williams, the diocese's sole suffragan bishop,Tony Porter,bishop of Sherwood, became actingbishop of Southwell and Nottingham; however, when he resigned the commission due to ill health,Richard Inwood (retiredbishop of Bedford and anhonorary assistant bishop of the diocese) was commissioned Acting Bishop for a fixed one-year term.[19]
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