Diocese

Diocese (Greek dioiltesis, arrangement), originally a subdivision of a Roman province, e.g. of Cilicia Mnder Cicero's government. The Roman empire, in its administrative reorganisation by Constantine, was divided into four large districts, called dioilieseis, which were subdivided into provinces. The ecclesiastical divisions followed the civil, each of these districts being under a patriarch, and the provinces under bishops. Later, but not before the fourth century, the word was transferred to single bishoprics. In England, also, the ecclesiastical divisions followed the civil originally, the Anglo-Saxon bishoprics being originally coincident with the several kingdoms. At present the dioceses are grouped in provinces, each under an archbishop (who also have special districts in which they perform ordinary episcopal functions), and subdivided into archdeaconries and parishes, which latter are grouped into rural deaneries. In the larger English dioceses the bishop is usually assisted by a suffragan. [Bishop.] In the United States, each State was formerly a diocese of the Protestant Episcopal Church, but several have been subdivided. Diocesan Conferences, composed of clerical and lay members, have been held in most English dioceses annually since about 1850.