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American Heritage Dictionary:
di·o·cese |
[Middle English diocise, from Old French, from Late Latin diocēsis, from Latin dioecēsis, jurisdiction, from Greek dioikēsis, administration, from dioikein, to keep house, administer : dia-, intensive pref.; see dia- + oikein, to inhabit (from oikos, house).]
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Fowler's Modern English Usage:
diocese |
| dingo, dilettante, dilemma | |
| diphtheria, diphthong, direct object |
Gale Encyclopedia of Russian History:
Diocese |
In early Greek sources (eleventh and twelfth centuries), the term signified a province, either secular or ecclesiastical. In Rus', and later in Russia, the term was used only in the ecclesiastical sense to mean the area under the jurisdiction of a prelate.
Church organization evolved along with the spread of Christianity. The metropolitan of Kiev headed the Church in Rus'. Bishops and dioceses soon were instituted in other principalities. Fifteen dioceses were created in the pre-Mongol period. Compared with their small, compact Greek models centered on cities, these dioceses were vast in extent with vague boundaries and thinly populated, like the Rus' land itself.
The Mongol invasions changed the course of political and ecclesiastical development. The political center shifted north, ultimately finding a home in Moscow. Kiev and principalities to the southwest were lost, although claims to them were never relinquished. Church organization adapted to these changes. In the initial onslaught, several dioceses were devastated and many remained vacant for long periods. Later new dioceses were created, including the diocese of Sarai established at the Golden Horde. By 1488 when the growing division in the church organization solidified with one metropolitan in Moscow and another in Kiev, there were eighteen dioceses. Nine dioceses (not including the metropolitan's see) were subordinated to Moscow; nine dioceses looked to the metropolitan seated in Kiev.
The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed the elevation of the metropolitan of Moscow to patriarch (1589), periods of reform directed at strengthening church organization and raising the spiritual level of parishioners, and the subordination of the see of Kiev with its suffragens to the Moscow patriarch (1686). Ecclesiastical structure responded to these profound changes. By 1700 the number of dioceses had increased to twenty-one (excluding the Patriarchal see) as the Church struggled to create an effective organization able to meet the spiritual needs of the people and suppress dissident voices that had emerged. Thirteen of these dioceses were headed by metropolitans, seven by archbishops, and one by a bishop.
In 1721 the patriarchate was abolished and replaced by the Holy Synod. Despite this momentous change in ecclesiastical organization, the long-term trend of increasing the number of dioceses continued. In 1800 there were thirty-six dioceses; by 1917 the number had grown to sixty-eight. More and smaller dioceses responded to increased and changing responsibilities, particularly in the areas of education, charity, and missionary activity, but also in the area of social control and surveillance as servants of the state.
The Bolshevik Revolution destroyed the organization of the Russian Church, making prisoners, fugitives, exiles, and martyrs of its prelates. The catastrophes that characterized the beginning of World War II prompted Stalin to initiate a partial rapprochement with the Church. This permitted a revival of its organization, but under debilitating constraints. In the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church entered a new period institutionally. Constraints were lifted, the dioceses revived and liberated. By 2003 there were 128 functioning dioceses.
Bibliography
Cracraft, James. (1971). The Church Reform of Peter the Great. London and Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan and Co. Ltd.
Fennell, John. (1995). A History of the Russian Church to 1448. London and New York: Longman.
Muller, Alexander V., trans. and ed. (1972). The Spiritual Regulation of Peter the Great. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Popielovsky, Dmitry. (1984). The Russian Church under the Soviet Regime 1917 - 1982. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press.
Russian Orthodox Church. <http://www.russianorthodox-church.org.ru/en.htm
—CATHY J. POTTER
Random House Word Menu:
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Rhymes:
diocese |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
Diocese |
A diocese is the district or see under the supervision of a bishop. It is divided into parishes.
An archdiocese is more significant than a diocese. An archdiocese is presided over by an archbishop whose see may have or had importance due to size or historical significance. The archbishop may have metropolitan authority over any other (then 'suffragan') bishops and their dioceses within his ecclesiastical province.
This structure of church governance is known as episcopal polity.
A diocese also may be referred to as a bishopric or episcopal see, though strictly the term episcopal see refers to the domain of ecclesiastical authority officially held by the bishop, and the term bishopric to the post of being bishop.
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As of January 2009[update] there are 630 Catholic archdioceses (including 13 patriarchates, two catholicates, 536 metropolitan archdioceses, 79 single archdioceses) and 2,167 dioceses in the world.
In the Eastern Catholic Churches (which recognize papal authority and are a part of the larger Catholic Church), the equivalent unit is called an eparchy;
The Eastern Orthodox Church calls dioceses metropoleis in the Greek tradition or eparchies in the Slavic tradition.
After the Reformation, the Church of England retained the existing diocesan structure which remains throughout the Anglican Communion.
In the United Methodist Church (USA) a bishop is given oversight over a geographical area called an Episcopal Area. Each episcopal area contains one or more annual conferences, which is how the churches and clergy under the bishop's supervision are organized. Thus, the use of the term "diocese" referring to geography is the most equivalent in the United Methodist Church, whereas each annual conference is part of one episcopal area (though that area may contain more than one conference). The African Methodist Episcopal Church has a similar structure to the United Methodist Church, also using the Episcopal Area.
Certain Lutheran denominations such as the Church of Sweden do have individual dioceses similar to Roman Catholics. These dioceses and archdioceses are under the government of a bishop (see Archbishop of Uppsala).[1] Other Lutheran bodies and synods that have dioceses and bishops include the Church of Denmark, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway.[2]
Some American Lutheran synods such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America do have a bishop acting as the head of the synod,[3] but the synod does not have dioceses and archdioceses as the churches listed above. Rather, it is divided into a middle judicatory.[4] The Lutheran Church-International, based in Springfield, Illinois, presently uses a traditional diocesan structure, with four dioceses in North America. Its current president is Archbishop Robert W. Hotes.[5]
In the Methodist Church (covering Great Britain and Ireland), churches are grouped together in sections. Sections are grouped together to form Circuits. Circuits are grouped together to form Districts. All of these, combined with the local membership of the Church, are referred to as the 'Connexion'. This 18th century term, endorsed by John Wesley who remained within the Church of England, describes how people serving in different geographical centres are 'connected' to each other. The Methodist Church has an annual president. Each District is headed by a 'Chair' who oversees its functioning. Each Circuit is governed by a superintendent minister. The geographical regions covered by circuits and dioceses rarely overlap.
Most Baptists hold that no church or ecclesiastical organization has inherent authority over a Baptist church. Churches can properly relate to each other under this polity only through voluntary cooperation, never by any sort of coercion. Furthermore, this Baptist polity calls for freedom from governmental control.[6] Most Baptists believe in "Two offices of the church"—pastor-elder and deacon—based on certain scriptures (1 Timothy 3:1–13; Titus 1–2).
Exceptions to this local form of local governance include a few churches that submit to the leadership of a body of elders, as well as the Episcopal Baptists that have an Episcopal system.
In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associated in a larger unit, the diocese (Latin dioecesis, from the Greek term διοίκησις, meaning "administration").
With the adoption of Christianity as the Empire's official religion in the 4th century, the clergy assumed official positions of authority alongside the civil governors. A formal church hierarchy was set up, parallel to the civil administration, whose areas of responsibility often coincided.
With the collapse of the Western Empire in the 5th century, the bishops in Western Europe assumed a large part of the role of the former Roman governors. A similar, though less pronounced, development occurred in the East, where the Roman administrative apparatus was largely retained by the Byzantine Empire. In modern times, many diocese, though later subdivided, have preserved the boundaries of a long-vanished Roman administrative division. For Gaul, Bruce Eagles has observed that "it has long been an academic commonplace in France that the medieval dioceses, and their constituent pagi, were the direct territorial successors of the Roman civitates.[7]
Modern usage of 'diocese' tends to refer to the sphere of a bishop's jurisdiction. This became commonplace during the self-conscious "classicizing" structural evolution of the Carolingian empire in the 9th century, but this usage had itself been evolving from the much earlier parochia ("parish"), dating from the increasingly formalised Christian authority structure in the 4th century (see EB 1911).
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Translations:
Diocese |
Dansk (Danish)
n. - bispedømme
Nederlands (Dutch)
bisdom, diocees
Français (French)
n. - diocèse
Deutsch (German)
n. - Diözese, Bistum
Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - (θρησκ.) επισκοπή, περιοχή που ανήκει στην ευθύνη επίσκοπου
Português (Portuguese)
n. - diocese (f)
Español (Spanish)
n. - diócesis
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - biskopsdöme, stift
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
主教教区
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 主教教區
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) الأبرشيه, الأسقفيه, مكان مسؤول عنه أسقف
עברית (Hebrew)
n. - בישופות, מחוז הבישוף
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| synodal hall |
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| What diocese did the Diocese of Rockville Centre belong to before it is was founded? |
Copyrights:
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 | American Heritage Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Fowler's Modern English Usage. Oxford University Press. © 1999, 2004 All rights reserved. Read more | |
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| Gale Encyclopedia of Russian History. Encyclopedia of Russian History. Copyright © 2004 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Random House Word Menu. © 2010 Write Brothers Inc. Word Menu is a registered trademark of the Estate of Stephen Glazier. Write Brothers Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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Rhymes. Oxford University Press. © 2006, 2007 All rights reserved. Read more | |
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| Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary. Collins Bradford's Crossword Solver's Dictionary © Anne Bradford, 1986, 1993, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2008 HarperCollins Publishers All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia on Answers.com. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Diocese. Read more |
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| Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more |
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