Bishop

An Anglican bishop governs a diocese, ordains its priests and deacons, confirms its members, and, particularly within the Church of England, sits alongside the clergy and laity of the diocese's synod in a governance structure that gives lay and clerical representatives a formal, ongoing role in diocesan decision-making considerably more institutionalized than in most Roman Catholic dioceses, reflecting the Church of England's post-Reformation development of synodical government at every level from the parish to the national Church. Bishops of the Church of England additionally hold a constitutional role unique among Anglican provinces: twenty-six senior diocesan bishops sit as Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords, giving the established Church a direct, if limited, voice in the United Kingdom's national legislature.

Women have been eligible for ordination as bishops in the Church of England since 2014, following earlier and often contentious debate, a change that had already been adopted earlier by several other Anglican provinces, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, whose first woman bishop was consecrated in 1989, and later opposed by other provinces entirely, illustrating how thoroughly the Communion's single historic office has diverged in practice across its now independently governed member churches.

In the Church of England, a diocesan bishop is selected through the Crown Nominations Commission, a body of Church and lay representatives that recommends a name to the Prime Minister for forwarding to the monarch, who formally appoints the bishop; other Anglican provinces select their bishops through their own synods, election by diocesan or provincial bodies being the more common pattern outside England, without any equivalent royal involvement. A bishop is consecrated by at least three other bishops, a requirement Anglicanism shares with Roman Catholic and Orthodox practice and traces to the same early church custom, though the validity of Anglican orders themselves has been a point of dispute with Rome since Pope Leo XIII's 1896 declaration that Anglican ordinations were invalid, a ruling Anglican authorities have rejected and that remains unresolved between the two communions.

The consecration of openly partnered gay bishops, beginning with the Episcopal Church's 2003 consecration of Gene Robinson, and subsequent decisions by some provinces to bless or perform same-sex marriages, have produced the most serious strain in the Anglican Communion's modern history, with some provinces declaring impaired or broken communion with others over the issue, a divide that has not been resolved by any Communion-wide authority because no such binding authority exists.