(There is also a chess piece called a bishop. See bishop (chess).) A bishop is an ordained person who holds a specific position of authority in any of a number of churches, importantly the Roman Catholic church, the Eastern Orthodox Church and Anglican church. The bishop's role is typically called the "episcopacy", based on the Greek word episkopos, which literally means overseer. Bishops are generally responsible for leading a large or heavily-populated area (a diocese) and all the churches contained therein. An archbishop is a bishop in charge of an important diocese; however, an archbishop does not hold a higher rank than any other bishop. The Pope, in addition to being the leader of the Roman Catholic church, is the Bishop of Rome.
A bishop can only be ordained by a minimum of two other bishops. Only a bishop may ordain a priest. A priest may only celebrate the Divine Liturgy or Mass with the blessing of a bishop; typically, an antimension signed by the bishop is kept on the altar partly as a reminder of whose altar it is and under whose omophorion the priest at a local parish is serving. In the sanctuary or altar area is typically a "bishop's throne" for the bishop.
Catholic, Anglican, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox bishops claim to be part of a continuous sequence of ordained bishops since the days of the apostles, the apostolic succession. However, since a bull of Pope Leo XIII issued in 1896, the Roman Catholic church has insisted that Anglican orders are invalid, because of that church's changes in the ordination rites. The Roman Catholic church does however recognize as valid (though illegal) ordinations done by breakaway Roman Catholic bishops, and groups descended from them, so long as the people receiving the ordination conform to other canonical requirements; this gives rise to the phenomenon of episcopi vagantes.
Some other churches (such as Lutherans, Methodists and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS)) also have bishops, but their roles differ significantly from the Catholic and Anglican ones. LDS bishops claim apostolic succession, although they define it somewhat differently; see priesthood and apostolic succession for details. Lutheran and Methodist bishops do not claim apostolic succession.
See also: Episcopalian