Codex of FaithsAn illustrated atlas of belief

Clergy and religious life

The Anglican hierarchy

Anglicanism grew from the Church of England, which broke with the authority of Rome in the 1530s while keeping the historic ministry of bishops. Today the Anglican Communion is a fellowship of forty-two self-governing member churches, often called provinces, in about 165 countries. Each has its own primate and synod, and none has authority over another. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop of the Communion and a focus of its unity, but has no jurisdiction over the other member churches. Anglican churches keep three orders of ordained ministry, bishops, priests and deacons, and their clergy may marry. Many provinces now ordain women to all three orders, while others ordain women only as deacons or priests, or not at all. In church, clergy wear two kinds of dress: choir dress, used for Morning and Evening Prayer and on formal occasions, and Eucharistic vestments in the older catholic pattern, worn for Holy Communion in many, though not all, parishes.

See also: The Orthodox hierarchy →See also: The Catholic hierarchy →See also: Protestant ministry →

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  1. Bishops
    1. Archbishop
    2. Bishop
  2. Priests
    1. Priest
  3. Deacons
    1. Deacon

Orders and states of life

  • Bishops

    Bishops oversee a diocese, ordain clergy, confirm and preside in synod together with elected clergy and laity. Archbishops are bishops who lead a province or hold a historic metropolitan see; the title brings oversight and precedence, not a further ordination. In the Church of England diocesan bishops are chosen through the Crown Nominations Commission and formally appointed by the monarch, and twenty-six bishops sit in the House of Lords.

  • Priests

    Priests, also called presbyters, celebrate the Eucharist, pronounce absolution and blessing, baptise, marry, bury and preach. The priest in charge of an English parish may be styled rector, vicar or priest-in-charge, titles that once reflected how the parish was endowed, and an assistant priest is a curate. Senior priests may serve as archdeacons, cathedral deans or canons, offices that carry responsibility but involve no further ordination.

  • Deacons

    Deacons are ordained to a ministry of service. They baptise, read the Gospel, preach, assist at the Eucharist and may take weddings and funerals, but they cannot preside at Holy Communion or pronounce absolution. Most Anglican clergy are ordained deacon first and priest about a year later. Some remain deacons for life, a vocation the Church of England calls the distinctive diaconate.

Bishops

Archbishop

Addressed as The Most Reverend; traditionally addressed as Your Grace

An archbishop is the senior bishop of a province, with a metropolitan’s duty to confirm and consecrate its bishops and to visit its dioceses. The Church of England has two, of Canterbury and of York. The Archbishop of Canterbury is also Primate of All England and one of the four Instruments of Communion: the archbishop calls the Lambeth Conference, chairs the Primates’ Meeting and is president of the Anglican Consultative Council. Dame Sarah Mullally, installed in March 2026, is the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to hold the see.

What the figure wears

  1. Cope

    A semicircular cloak of white and gold brocade worn over the shoulders and open at the front, edged with broad embroidered bands called orphreys; it is worn for processions and solemn occasions.

  2. Morse

    A clasp of metal or embroidered cloth that fastens the two sides of the cope across the chest, often bearing a cross or the arms of the see.

  3. Mitre

    A tall white and gold headdress rising to two peaks, front and back. Little used in England after the Reformation, it returned in the late nineteenth century and is now common.

  4. Primatial cross

    A cross on a tall staff, the sign of an archbishop’s metropolitan authority, usually carried before the archbishop by a chaplain within the province, in addition to the crozier.

  5. Pectoral cross

    A cross on a chain or cord worn on the breast, the personal sign of a bishop in most Anglican provinces.

Outside services
A purple clerical shirt with a white collar and a pectoral cross; for formal occasions a purple cassock, and in church the choir dress of rochet and chimere worn by every bishop.
Insignia
Primatial cross, crozier, mitre, pectoral cross and episcopal ring.

Bishops

Bishop

Addressed as The Right Reverend

A diocesan bishop is the chief pastor of a diocese. The bishop ordains deacons and priests, confirms, licenses clergy to their parishes, presides over the diocesan synod and shares in governing the wider church. Suffragan and assistant bishops help the diocesan bishop, often with the title of a town within the diocese. Anglican bishops may be married. The Episcopal Church in the United States consecrated its first woman bishop, Barbara Harris, in 1989; in the Church of England the first was Libby Lane, consecrated Bishop of Stockport in January 2015.

What the figure wears

  1. Rochet

    A long white linen garment with full, gathered lawn sleeves, caught at the wrist by red ruffled bands; the lawn sleeves have long been the emblem of an English bishop.

  2. Chimere

    A sleeveless robe of scarlet silk or wool, open at the front, worn over the rochet with the lawn sleeves passing through its armholes. Black chimeres are equally traditional.

  3. Tippet

    A broad black silk scarf worn around the neck and falling straight down the front, the preaching scarf that belongs to the choir dress of clergy.

  4. Pectoral cross

    A cross on a chain worn on the breast over the chimere, the personal sign of the bishop’s office.

Outside services
A purple clerical shirt with a white collar and a pectoral cross on a chain; a purple cassock may be worn in church beneath the rochet and chimere.
Insignia
Pectoral cross, episcopal ring and pastoral staff (crozier), with mitre and cope or chasuble at the Eucharist.

Priests

Priest

Addressed as The Reverend; in conversation Vicar, Father, Mother or by name, according to local custom

A priest is ordained by a bishop to preach, preside at the Eucharist, baptise, pronounce absolution and blessing, and care for the people of a parish. In England the incumbent of a parish is a rector or vicar, often assisted by curates, and parishioners have a long-standing right to be married and buried in their parish church. Anglican priests may marry. The Church of England first ordained women as priests in 1994, half a century after Florence Li Tim-Oi was ordained priest by the Bishop of Hong Kong in 1944, in wartime China.

What the figure wears

  1. Cassock

    A black ankle-length garment with close-fitting sleeves, worn beneath all other robes; Anglican cassocks are either single-breasted with many buttons or double-breasted in the so-called Sarum style.

  2. Surplice

    A loose white linen over-garment with wide sleeves, reaching to the knee or below. Required by the Book of Common Prayer, it was fiercely debated in the vestiarian controversy under Elizabeth I.

  3. Tippet

    A broad black scarf worn around the neck and falling straight down the front; part of choir dress, distinct from the coloured stole used at the sacraments.

  4. Academic hood

    A university hood worn at the back from the shoulders, here black lined with red, its colours showing the wearer’s degree; canon law allows graduate clergy to wear it with the surplice.

  5. Prayer book

    The Book of Common Prayer of 1662, or a modern book such as Common Worship (2000), from which Morning and Evening Prayer are read.

Outside services
A black or coloured clerical shirt with a white collar, often called a dog collar, worn with ordinary clothes; the cassock is usually kept for church.
Insignia
No personal insignia; the stole worn around the neck at the sacraments marks the priest.

Deacons

Deacon

Addressed as The Reverend

A deacon is ordained by a bishop to a ministry of service and proclamation. At the Eucharist the deacon reads the Gospel, may preach, leads the prayers of intercession, prepares the altar and dismisses the people; beyond it, deacons baptise, take funerals and serve in pastoral and community work. Most deacons are ordained priest after a first year as curate, but many provinces also have distinctive deacons who remain in the order for life. In the Church of England women were first ordained deacons in 1987.

What the figure wears

  1. Alb

    An ankle-length white tunic with narrow sleeves, worn beneath the other Eucharistic vestments; its name comes from the Latin for white, and it recalls the garment of baptism.

  2. Deacon's stole

    A long narrow band in the colour of the season, worn diagonally across the body from the left shoulder to the right hip, the distinctive mark of a deacon.

  3. Dalmatic

    A knee-length tunic with short, wide sleeves, here in green, the colour of Ordinary Time. It is worn mainly in cathedrals and catholic-minded parishes and is optional.

  4. Gospel book

    The book of the Gospels, carried in procession by the deacon and read aloud, often from the midst of the congregation, at the Eucharist.

Outside services
A clerical shirt with a white collar, like a priest; in church, choir dress of cassock, surplice and tippet, or a stole across the body at services.
Insignia
The stole worn diagonally from the left shoulder and the Gospel book.

Questions people ask

Can Anglican clergy marry?

Yes. Clerical marriage was made lawful in England in 1549 under Edward VI, and since the Reformation Anglican deacons, priests and bishops have been free to marry, before or after ordination. Many clergy have families, and the vicarage household has been a familiar part of English parish life for centuries. This sets Anglicans apart from the Roman Catholic Church in the Latin West, where priests are normally celibate, and from Orthodox churches, where bishops must be unmarried.

Does the Church of England ordain women?

Yes, to all three orders: women became deacons in 1987, priests in 1994 and bishops from 2015. In 2026 Sarah Mullally became the first woman Archbishop of Canterbury. Arrangements set out by the House of Bishops in 2014 allow parishes that cannot accept women's priestly or episcopal ministry for theological reasons to request alternative oversight. Practice varies across the Communion: some provinces ordain women to every order, others only as deacons or priests, and some not at all.

What is the difference between choir dress and Eucharistic vestments?

Choir dress is the cassock, surplice and black tippet, with a bishop's rochet and chimere, worn for Morning and Evening Prayer, weddings and other services. Eucharistic vestments, such as the alb, stole, chasuble and dalmatic, follow the medieval pattern and are worn for Holy Communion. After the Reformation most English clergy wore only choir dress; the Oxford Movement and its successors revived the vestments in the nineteenth century, and today usage depends on the parish's tradition.

Is the Archbishop of Canterbury an Anglican pope?

No. The Archbishop of Canterbury has authority within the Church of England, mainly the Province of Canterbury, and over a few small extra-provincial churches, but none over the other member churches. Elsewhere the role is one of honour and unity: inviting bishops to the Lambeth Conference and presiding over meetings of primates. Each member church governs itself. In October 2025 the Global Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Gafcon), representing a number of conservative provinces, announced that it would no longer recognise Canterbury's role and would form its own global structure.

What do rector, vicar and curate mean?

In England a rector originally received the full tithes of a parish, while a vicar served as the deputy of a rector who was often a monastery or college, and received a smaller share. Since tithes were abolished, the difference is largely historical, and both titles describe the incumbent priest in charge of a parish. A curate is an assistant member of the clergy, usually in the first years after ordination, working under the incumbent's supervision.

Sources and further reading

  1. Anglicanism: A Very Short Introduction – Mark Chapman (Oxford University Press, 2006)
  2. The Study of Anglicanism – Stephen Sykes, John Booty and Jonathan Knight, eds. (SPCK, revised edition 1998)
  3. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church – F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone, eds. (Oxford University Press, 3rd revised edition 2005)
  4. A History of Ecclesiastical Dress – Janet Mayo (Batsford, 1984)
  5. The Canons of the Church of England – Church of England (Church House Publishing, 7th edition 2012)