Archbishop

Archbishops are church officials found in many Christian churches with episcopal church organizations. Episcopal churches are characterized by territories, or dioceses, under the control of a single individual, called the bishop. The position of archbishop exists in the Catholic Church, Orthodox Churches, the Anglican Communion, some Lutheran denominations, and some other Protestant groups. Not all churches in the Anglican communion have archbishops; the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States does not, although the presiding bishop of the church is sometimes referred to as an archbishop.

Archbishops, although they are part of the order of bishops, outrank bishops and often have several bishops under their authority. The area subject to the direct jurisdiction of an archbishop is an archdiocese. However, archbishops can also have ultimate responsibility for other bishop’s dioceses, although in most churches, this responsibility is less frequently exercised than in earlier times in church history. The territories subject directly or indirectly to an archbishop constitute an ecclesiastical province, and the archbishop is referred to as the "metropolitan" of that province. Archbishops tend to be associated with major cities and capitals, although there are exceptions, and some archbishops in the Catholic Church are titular archbishops who do not have any pastoral responsibility over a diocese. In countries with the principle of the separation of religion and state, any individual is free to call him or herself an archbishop, and some quite small churches are headed by self-proclaimed archbishops.

Background

The title of archbishop dates back to the fourth and fifth centuries CE. Archbishops emerged as the church grew larger and richer and its hierarchy more complex. The first archbishops were associated with the capitals of late Roman Imperial provinces. The early history of the Western church saw powerful and independent archbishops brought under the authority of the Pope, while in the Eastern churches, national churches, such as the churches of Bulgarian and Serbia, were frequently headed by archbishops. The Protestant Reformation saw some Protestant areas abandon bishops as an institution entirely, but elsewhere, including England and Sweden, archbishops became more powerful as a result of being freed from papal authority. Denmark is an exception in that it retained episcopal organization in transition from Catholicism to Lutheranism, but has no archbishops.

In areas with multiple churches with episcopal hierarchies, archbishops of different churches will often have different titles to avoid confusion or conflict based on different historical claims. Thus, in England, the Church of England is headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, despite the fact that the Archdiocese of Canterbury was founded by Catholics. The Roman Catholic Church in England has not set up a rival archbishop of Canterbury but is instead headed by the Archbishop of Westminster. In Ireland, however, both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Church of Ireland have archbishops of Dublin and Armagh.

Some archbishops in the Catholic Church are church officials without pastoral or administrative responsibility for an archdiocese or province. In the Catholic Church, some of these are archbishops in partibus infidelium (in the lands of the unbelievers). This refers to Christian territories that had once been the seats of archbishops, but have been conquered by non-Christians, usually Muslims, and from which the Christian population has disappeared. There are many in North Africa. Since these titles are no longer attached to functioning churches, they can be given to officials as a mark of status without adding to their responsibilities.

Overview

In many places, including the United States, the title of archbishop is more an honorific for the bishops of large and important dioceses centering on major cities than a title that connotes superiority over an ecclesiastical province and other bishops.

The supreme leader of a Catholic or Orthodox church in a nation is usually an archbishop, whose archdiocese usually but not always centers on the nation’s capital city. Other titles often given to archbishops who claim supremacy in a nation or other large territory are "primate" and "patriarch." Due to the complicated history of how different ecclesiastical jurisdictions relate, multiple archbishops may claim primacy over an area. The archbishop of Dublin, for example, is primate of Ireland, while the archbishop of Armagh is primate of All Ireland. Some archbishops function as heads of churches. The archbishop of Canterbury is the leader of the Church of England and the Anglican Communion. Canterbury, rather than London, is the Archbishop’s seat for the historical reason that the area of Canterbury was converted to Christianity before the area of London, which later became the capital of England. Some national Lutheran Churches are headed by archbishops—the Lutheran Church of Sweden selected its first female archbishop and primate, Antje Jackelén, in 2013. She joined a very short list of women archbishops, most of whom were heads of very small independent churches. Though still a minority, more female archbishops were selected in subsequent years, including Kay Goldsworthy as Archbishop of Perth in 2017 and Lynne McNaughton as Archbishop of Kootenay in 2021.

Forms of address and distinguishing honors for archbishops vary in different churches and sometimes according to regional customs as well. In the Church of England, bishops are referred to as Right Reverend and formally addressed as My Lord, while archbishops are referred to as Most Reverend and addressed as Your Grace. Your Grace is also the formal address for a Duke, and using the form for an archbishop places the highest spiritual lord on the same footing as the highest temporal lord. Roman Catholic archbishops who are metropolitans, heads of ecclesiastical provinces, are entitled to the pallium, a piece of cloth made of wool blessed on St. Agnes’s day and laid for a night on the tomb of St. Peter in Rome. The pallium is given to a metropolitan archbishop by the pope and is defined in the canon law of the Catholic Church as signifying the authority, derived from the pope, which a metropolitan archbishop wields in his province.

Bibliography

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"Frequently Asked Questions about Archbishops." United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 6 June 2023, usccb.org/about/archbishop-faqs. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Gál, Judit. "The Roles and Loyalties of the Bishops and Archbishops of Dalmatia (1102-1301)." Hungarian Historical Review, vol. 3, 2014, pp. 471-93.

Huffman, Joseph P. "The Donation of Zeno: St. Barnabas and the Modern History of the Cypriot Archbishop's Regalia Privileges." Church History, vol. 84, no. 4, 2015, pp. 713-45, mosaic.messiah.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=hist‗ed. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Messmer, Sebastian. "Archbishop." New Advent, newadvent.org/cathen/01691a.htm. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.

Nock, David A. "Patriotism and Patriarchs: Anglican Archbishops and Canadianization." Canadian Ethnic Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, 1982, pp. 79-95.

Spalding, Thomas W. The Premier See: A History of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, 1789-1989. Johns Hopkins UP, 1989.

Tschan, Francis Joseph, and Timothy Reuter. History of the Archbishops of Hamburg-Bremen. Vol. 53, Columbia UP, 2002.

Wright, Thomas C. "The Investiture of Bishops and Archbishops in Spanish America: Protocol and Church-State Conflict in the Late 1700s." Journal of Church and State, vol. 25, no. 2, 1983, pp. 279-97.