Welcome to Ask the Church, our series where we seek to answer your questions on church worship, practice, and theology in around five minutes.
Today’s question is about the Anglican Communion and its governance. And I want to share the question, because it made me laugh:
“Since I’ve been learning more about Anglicanism, I’ve been hearing a lot of talk about Primates and Provinces. All my life, I’ve been thinking primates were creatures that lived in jungles, and provinces were a unit of government in Canada. What do these words mean?”
Before I plunge into the answer, I should note that primates also live in man-made jungles—because many scientists consider us primates too. But that’s beside the point.
What Is a Province?
Whenever somebody asks me about Anglican church governance, I always ask them, How much do you want to know? Because you could give the two-minute answer, or you could give the two-hour answer. You can talk for a long time on these things—but I’ll keep it brief today.
A Province is a discrete part of the worldwide Anglican Communion. In other words, it’s an individual member of a greater Communion, and it governs itself according to the Anglican way.
Most of the time, a Province is coterminous with the country that it’s in. For example, the Anglican Province of Rwanda covers the entirety of the country of Rwanda. It’s part of the broader Anglican Communion, but it’s a discrete unit within it that governs itself.
Now, these Provinces are not independent in the full sense, because they are part of a broader Communion. But they do govern themselves locally. They represent the historic episcopacy—the historic part of Apostolic Succession—active in a particular place.
What Is a Primate?
Each Province is led by a Primate, or Archbishop. The word Primate comes from the Latin word primus, which means “first.” So the Primate is the “first bishop” of the Province—the Archbishop who oversees it.
Exceptions to the Rule
Even though Provinces are usually the same size as the countries they’re in, there are exceptions.
The worst example is the United Kingdom, where there are five Anglican Provinces: the Church of Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Church of Ireland, the Province of York, and the Province of Canterbury.
But normally, the country is the same size as the Province.
So you could think of the Anglican Communion as being broken up into member States—like in American government. Each governs itself, but they are bound together in a larger Communion, or, if you think politically, a kind of federation.
They have their own systems within them, but they share a lot in common: theology, worship, governance.
It doesn’t always work that way, unfortunately, but that’s the idea.
Provinces and Dioceses
Each Province is broken up into Dioceses. So if the Province is like the country, then the Diocese is like the state.
For example, our Diocese—the Diocese of Christ Our Hope—is part of a Province called the Anglican Church in North America.
Each Diocese is governed by a Bishop, while the Province as a whole is overseen by a council of Bishops, or a College of Bishops, led by its Primate (Archbishop).
In Summary
The worldwide Anglican Communion is made up of Provinces. Provinces are led by Primates (Archbishops). Provinces are divided into Dioceses, each led by a Bishop.
They govern themselves, but they are bound together in a larger Communion.
I hope this answer helps!
As always, if you have questions, send them to steven@incarnationrichmond.org.
And now, go in the grace of our Lord.