Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

Episcopal Church (disambiguation) The Episcopal Church is any of various churches in the Anglican, Methodist and Open Episcopal traditions. An episcopal church has bishops in its organisational structure (see episcopal polity). Episcopalian is a synonym for Anglican in Scotland, ...

, any church with "Episcopal" in its name **

Episcopal Church (United States) The Episcopal Church (TEC), also known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America (PECUSA), is a member of the worldwide Anglican Communion, based in the United States. It is a mainline Protestant denomination and is ...

, an affiliate of Anglicanism based in the United States *

Episcopal conference An episcopal conference, often also called a bishops’ conference or conference of bishops, is an official assembly of the bishops of the Catholic Church in a given territory. Episcopal conferences have long existed as informal entities. The fir ...

, an official assembly of bishops in a territory of the Roman Catholic Church *

Episcopal polity 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'', . It is the ...

, the church united under the oversight of bishops *

Episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

, the official seat of a bishop, often applied to the area over which he exercises authority *

Historical episcopate The historic or historical episcopate comprises all episcopates, that is, it is the collective body of all the bishops of a group who are in valid apostolic succession. This succession is transmitted from each bishop to their successors by the ...

, dioceses established according to apostolic succession

See also