View source for Parish

{{Short description|Ecclesiastical subdivision of a diocese}}
{{About|the Christian division|the civil division|Parish (administrative division)|other uses|Parish (disambiguation)}}
{{redirect|Parish priest|the book|Parish Priest (book)}}
[[File:BerndorfEnsembleMargaretenplatz.jpg|thumb|St Margarete Parish Church, [[Berndorf, Lower Austria]]]]
A '''parish''' is a territorial entity in many [[Christianity|Christian]] denominations, constituting a division within a [[diocese]]. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a [[priest#Christianity|priest]], often termed a '''parish priest''', who might be assisted by one or more [[curates]], and who operates from a [[parish church]]. In England, a parish historically often covered the same geographical area as a [[Manorialism|manor]]. Its association with the parish church remains paramount.<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/when-parishes-merge-or-close|author=Michael Trueman and Pete Vere|title=When Parishes Merge or Close|work=[[Catholic Answers]]|date=July 2007|volume=18|number=6|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130615133347/http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/when-parishes-merge-or-close|archive-date=2013-06-15}}</ref>

By extension the term ''parish'' refers not only to the territorial entity but to the people of its community or congregation as well as to church property within it. In England this church property was technically in ownership of the parish priest ''[[Ex officio member|ex officio]]'', vested in him on his institution to that parish.

==Etymology and use==
First attested in English in the late 13th&nbsp;century, the word ''parish'' comes from the [[Old French]] {{Lang|fro|paroisse}}, in turn from {{langx|la|paroecia}},<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3Dparoecia paroecia], Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, ''A Latin Dictionary'', on Perseus</ref> the [[Romanization of Greek|Romanisation]] of the {{langx|grc|παροικία|paroikia}}, "sojourning in a foreign land",<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dparoiki%2Fa παροικία], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> itself from {{lang|el|πάροικος}} (''paroikos''), "dwelling beside, stranger, sojourner",<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpa%2Froikos πάροικος], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> which is a compound of {{lang|el|παρά}} (''pará''), "beside, by, near"<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpara%2F παρά], Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus</ref> and {{lang|el|οἶκος}} (''oîkos''), "house".<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Doi%29%3Dkos1 οἶκος] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110629164225/http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Doi%29%3Dkos1 |date=June 29, 2011 }}, Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, ''A Greek-English Lexicon'', on Perseus.</ref>

As an ancient concept, the term "parish" occurs in the long-established Christian denominations: [[Catholic Church|Catholic]], [[Anglican Communion]], the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], and [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] churches, and in some [[Methodist]], [[Congregationalist]] and [[Presbyterianism|Presbyterian]] administrations.

The eighth Archbishop of Canterbury [[Theodore of Tarsus]] (c. 602–690) appended the parish structure to the [[Anglo-Saxons#Culture|Anglo-Saxon township]] unit, where it existed, and where [[minster (church)|minsters]] catered to the surrounding district.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Wells|first1=Samuel|title=What Anglicans Believe. An Introduction|date=2011|publisher=Canterbury Press|location=Norwich|isbn=978-1-84825-114-4|page=93|edition=First}}</ref>

==Territorial structure==
[[File:Parish boundary markers in Hereford.JPG|thumb|Parish boundary markers for St Peter's and St Owen's in [[Hereford]]]]
Broadly speaking, the parish is the standard unit in [[episcopal polity]] of church administration, although parts of a parish may be subdivided as a ''[[chapelry]]'', with a [[chapel of ease]] or [[filial church]] serving as the local place of worship in cases of difficulty to access the main parish church.

In the wider picture of ecclesiastical polity, a ''parish'' comprises a division of a [[Diocese|diocese or see]]. Parishes within a diocese may be grouped into a [[deanery]] or ''[[Vicar#Roman Catholic|vicariate forane]]'' (or simply ''vicariate''), overseen by a [[dean (Christianity)|dean]] or ''vicar forane'', or in some cases by an [[archpriest]]. Some churches of the [[Anglican Communion]] have deaneries as units of an [[archdeaconry]].

===Outstations===
{{Other uses|Outstation (disambiguation){{!}}Outstation}}
{{distinguish|Mission station}}
An outstation is a newly created congregation, a term usually used where the church is [[evangelical]], or a [[Christian mission|mission]] and particularly in African countries,<ref name=cameroon/><ref name=tree/> but also historically in Australia.<ref>{{cite web | title=History | website= St Kevin's Parish, Eastwood |url=https://www.stkevinseastwood.org.au/history/ | language=pl | access-date=18 August 2020}}</ref> They exist mostly within the [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] and [[Church of England|Anglican]] parishes.<ref name=cameroon/><ref name=tree>{{cite web | title=The Outstation That Wanted to be a Real Parish| website=Leaves from the Tree | date=12 September 2011 | url=https://catholicmissionquest.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/the-outstation-that-wanted-to-be-a-real-parish/|first=Brandon|last=Zingsheim | access-date=18 August 2020}}</ref><ref name=southwark>{{cite web | title=Southwark Cathedral and the Anglican Church in Zimbabwe | website=[[Southwark Cathedral]] | date=1 August 1952 | url=https://cathedral.southwark.anglican.org/about-us/cathedral-community-and-congregation/southwark-cathedral-and-the-anglican-church-in-zimbabwe/ | access-date=18 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Brief History of St. Peter Society| website=St. Michael Catholic Church | date=11 November 2018 | url=http://www.stmichaelcatholicchurchketu.org/st_peter.html | access-date=18 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=Little by Little We Build our Church | website=Missionary Community of Saint Paul the Apostle | date=4 August 2019 | url=https://mcspa.org/little-by-little-we-build-our-church/ | access-date=18 August 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|author=Ball, Jeremy. |title=The 'Three Crosses' of Mission Work: Fifty Years of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) in Angola, 1880-1930|journal=Journal of Religion in Africa|volume=40|issue=3|year=2010|pages=331–357|doi=10.1163/157006610X532202|jstor=25801381}}</ref>

The Anglican Diocese of Cameroon describes their outstations as the result of [[outreach]] work "initiated, sponsored and supervised by the mother parishes". Once there is a big enough group of worshippers in the same place, the outstation is named by the bishop of the diocese. They are run by "[[catechist]]s/evangelists" or lay readers, and supervised by the creator parish or [[archdeaconry]].<ref name=cameroon>{{cite web | title=Diocese | website=Anglican Church Of Cameroon | date=22 August 2017 | url=http://anglicandioceseofcameroon.org/index.php/diocese | access-date=18 August 2020 | archive-date=16 June 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200616204547/http://anglicandioceseofcameroon.org/index.php/diocese | url-status=dead }}</ref>

Outstations are not self-supporting, and in poor areas often consist of a very simple structure. The parish priest visits as often as possible. If and when the community has grown enough, the outstation may become a parish and have a parish priest assigned to it.<ref name=tree/>

==Catholic Church==
[[File:Opatow church 20070430 0936.jpg|thumb|Saint Martin's Collegiate Parish Church in [[Opatów]], [[Poland]]]]
{{Main|Parish (Catholic Church)}}
{{See also|Team of priests in solidum}}
In the Catholic Church, each parish normally has its own [[parish priest]] (in some countries called [[pastor]] or [[Provost (religion)|provost]]), who has responsibility and canonical authority over the parish.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P1T.HTM Code of Canon Law, canon 519]: "The parish priest is the proper clergyman in charge of the congregation of the parish entrusted to him. He exercises the pastoral care of the community entrusted to him under the authority of the [[diocesan bishop]], whose ministry of Christ he is called to share, so that for this community he may carry out the offices of teaching, sanctifying and ruling with the cooperation of other priests or deacons and with the assistance of lay members of Christ's faithful, in accordance with the law".</ref>

What in most English-speaking countries is termed the "parish priest" is referred to as the "pastor" in the [[United States]], where the term "parish priest" is used of any priest assigned to a parish even in a subordinate capacity. These are called "assistant priests",<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P1T.HTM| title = Code of Canon Law, canon 545 in the English translation by the Canon Law Society of Great Britain and Ireland, assisted by the Canon Law Society of Australia and New Zealand and the Canadian Canon Law Society}}</ref> "parochial vicars",<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P1U.HTM| title = Code of Canon Law, canon 545 in the English translation by the Canon Law Society of America}}</ref> "[[curate#Catholic Church|curates]]", or, in the United States, "associate pastors" and "assistant pastors".

Each diocese (administrative region) is divided into parishes, each with their own central church called the [[parish church]], where religious services take place. Some larger parishes or parishes that have been combined under one parish priest may have two or more such churches, or the parish may be responsible for [[chapels]] (or [[chapels of ease]]) located at some distance from the [[mother church]] for the convenience of distant parishioners.<ref>Alston, G.C. (1908).[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03574b.htm "Chapel"]. New Advent - Catholic Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2013-09-02.</ref> In addition to a parish church, each parish may maintain auxiliary organizations and their facilities such as a [[rectory]], [[church hall|parish hall]], [[parochial school]], or [[convent]], frequently located on the same campus or adjacent to the church. Part of the parish is the oratory (also called a patronage, parish center, or youth center), a location that is designated for the youth ministry of the Catholic Church and also a youth gathering place with facilities such as music rooms and football pitches.

Normally, a parish comprises all Catholics living within its geographically defined area, but non-territorial parishes can also be established within a defined area on a personal basis for Catholics belonging to a particular [[particular Church|rite]], language, nationality, or community.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P1T.HTM| title = can. 518}}</ref> An example is that of personal parishes established in accordance with the 7 July 2007 ''[[motu proprio]]'' ''[[Summorum Pontificum]]'' for those attached to the pre-[[Vatican II]] liturgy.<ref>{{cite web| url = http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/summorum-pontificum.html| title = ''Summorum Pontificum'', article 10| access-date = 2012-12-17| archive-date = 2012-10-10| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121010043928/http://www.sanctamissa.org/en/resources/summorum-pontificum.html| url-status = dead}}</ref>

==Lutheran Churches==
In the [[Lutheran Church]]es, parishes (Swedish: ''socken'' or ''församling'') are territorial, meaning that they include the people living within its boundaries.<ref name="ClemenssonAndersson2004">{{cite book |last1=Clemensson |first1=Per |last2=Andersson |first2=Kjell |title=Your Swedish Roots |date=2004 |publisher=Ancestry Publishing |isbn=978-1-59331-276-3 |page=32 |language=en}}</ref>

At the end of the 19th century, the [[Church of Sweden]] possessed 2,000 parishes.<ref name="ClemenssonAndersson2004"/>

==Anglican Churches==
===Church of England===
{{Main|Parish (Church of England)|Church of England#Structure|Church of England parish church}}
{{See also|Advowson}}
[[File:Hasfield Parish Church.jpg|thumb|St Mary's parish church in [[Hasfield]], [[Gloucestershire]]]]
The [[Church of England]]'s geographical structure uses the local parish church as its basic unit. The parish system survived the [[Protestant Reformation|Reformation]] with the Anglican Church's [[Church of England#Secession from Rome|secession from Rome]] remaining largely untouched; thus, it shares its roots with the [[Catholic Church]]'s system described above. Parishes may extend into different counties or hundreds and historically many parishes comprised extra outlying portions in addition to its principal district, usually being described as 'detached' and intermixed with the lands of other parishes. Church of England parishes nowadays all lie within one of [[List of Church of England dioceses|42 dioceses]] divided between the provinces of [[Province of Canterbury|Canterbury]], 30 and [[Province of York|York]], 12.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dioceses|publisher=Church of England|url=https://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/dioceses.aspx|access-date=8 September 2021}}</ref>

Each parish normally has its own parish priest (either a [[vicar]] or [[Rector (ecclesiastical)|rector]], owing to the vagaries of the feudal [[tithe]] system: rectories usually having had greater income) and perhaps supported by one or more [[curate]]s or [[deacon]]s—although as a result of ecclesiastical [[Benefice#Pluralism in England|pluralism]] some parish priests might have held more than one parish [[advowson|living]], placing a curate in charge of those where they did not reside. Now, however, it is common for a number of neighbouring parishes to be placed under one [[benefice]] in the charge of a priest who conducts services by rotation, with additional services being provided by [[lay reader]]s or other non-ordained members of the church community.

A [[chapelry]] was a subdivision of an [[ecclesiastical parish]] in [[England]], and parts of [[Lowland Scotland]] up to the mid 19th century.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vision of Britain {{!}} Administrative Units Typology {{!}} Status definition: Chapelry |url=https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/types/status_page.jsp?unit_status=Ch |access-date=2024-02-16 |website=www.visionofbritain.org.uk}}</ref> It had a similar status to a [[Township (England)|township]] but was so named as it had a [[Chapel of ease|chapel]] which acted as a subsidiary place of worship to the main parish church.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/types/status_page.jsp?unit_status=Tn |title=Status details for Township |work=Vision of Britain through time |access-date=24 February 2008}}</ref>

In England [[Civil parishes in England#History|civil parishes]] and their governing [[Parish councils in England|parish councils]] evolved in the 19th century as ecclesiastical parishes began to be relieved of what became considered to be civic responsibilities. Thus their boundaries began to diverge. The word "parish" acquired a secular usage. Since 1895, a parish council elected by public vote or a (civil) parish meeting administers a civil parish and is formally recognised as the level of local government below a [[Districts of England|district council]].

The traditional structure of the Church of England with the parish as the basic unit has been exported to other countries and churches throughout the [[Anglican Communion]] and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] but does not necessarily continue to be administered in the same way.

===Church in Wales===
[[File:St James's Church, Manorbier - geograph.org.uk - 928738.jpg|thumb|[[St James's Church, Manorbier|St James's]] church in [[Manorbier]], [[Pembrokeshire]], is a parish church dating from the 12th century and is a Grade I listed building]]
{{main|Church in Wales}}
The Church in Wales was [[Welsh Church Act 1914|disestablished]] in 1920 and is made up of six dioceses. It retained the parish system and parishes were also civil administration areas until [[Community (Wales)|communities]] were established in 1974, but did not necessarily share the same boundaries. The reduction in the numbers of worshippers, and the increasing costs of maintaining often ancient buildings, led over time to parish reorganisation, parish groupings and Rectorial Benefices (merged parishes led by a Rector).

In 2010, the Church in Wales engaged the Rt Rev [[Richard Harries]] (Lord Harries of Pentregarth), a former Church of England Bishop of Oxford; Prof [[Charles Handy]]; and Prof Patricia Peattie, to carry out a review into the organisation of the Church and make recommendations as to its future shape. The group published its report ("Church in Wales Review") in July 2012 and proposed that parishes should be reorganised into larger Ministry Areas (Ardaloedd Gweinidogaeth). It stated that "the parish system, as originally set up ... is no longer sustainable" and suggested that the Ministry Areas should each have a leadership team containing lay people as well as clergy, following the principles of "collaborative ministry".<ref>{{cite report |last1=Harries |first1=Richard |last2=Handy |first2=Charles |last3=Peattie |first3=Patricia |date=July 2012 |title=Church in Wales Review |publisher=The Church in Wales |url=https://churchinwales.contentfiles.net/media/documents/Church_in_Wales_Review_2012.pdf |access-date=26 January 2025}}</ref> Over the next decade, the six dioceses all implemented the report, with the final Ministry Areas being instituted in 2022. In the [[Diocese of Saint Asaph]] (Llanelwy), they are known as Mission Areas (Ardaloedd Cenhadaeth).

==Presbyterian Churches==
===Church of Scotland===
{{Anchor|Scotland}}<!-- [[Parishes of Scotland]] redirects here -->
{{anchor|Church of Scotland}}<!-- [[Church Of Scotland parish]] redirects here -->
{{See also|History of local government in Scotland|List of Church of Scotland parishes|Civil parishes in Scotland}}
The parish is also the basic level of church administration in the [[Church of Scotland]]. Spiritual oversight of each parish church in [[Scotland]] is responsibility of the congregation's [[Kirk Session]]. Patronage was regulated in 1711 ([[Church Patronage (Scotland) Act 1711|Patronage Act]]) and abolished in 1874, with the result that [[Minister (Christianity)|minister]]s must be elected by members of the congregation. Many parish churches in Scotland today are "linked" with neighbouring parish churches served by a single minister. Since the [[Local Government (Scotland) Act 1929|abolition of parishes as a unit of civil government in Scotland]] in 1929, Scottish parishes have purely ecclesiastical significance and the boundaries may be adjusted by the local Presbytery.

==Methodist Church==
In the [[United Methodist Church]] congregations are called parishes, though they are more often simply called congregations and have no geographic boundaries. A prominent example of this usage comes in ''The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church'', in which the committee of every local congregation that handles staff support is referred to as the committee on Pastor-Parish Relations.  This committee gives recommendations to the bishop on behalf of the parish/congregation since it is the United Methodist Bishop of the [[Episcopal area (United Methodist Church)|episcopal area]] who appoints a pastor to each congregation. The same is true in the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] and the [[Christian Methodist Episcopal Church]].

In New Zealand, a local grouping of Methodist churches that share one or more [[minister of religion|ministers]] (which in the United Kingdom would be called a [[Methodist Circuit|circuit]]) is referred to as a parish.

==See also==
* [[Parish church]]
* [[Parish pump]]
* [[Parish register]]s: [[Birth certificate]], [[Marriage certificate]], [[Death certificate]]
* [[Collegiate church]]
* [[Priory|Priory church]]
* [[Cathedral]]
* [[Parochial school]]

== References ==
=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Sources ===
{{Refbegin}}
* Sidney Webb, Beatrice Potter.   ''English Local Government from the Revolution to the Municipal Corporations.''   London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1906
* James Barry Bird. ''The laws respecting parish matters: containing the several offices and duties of churchwardens, overseers of the poor, constables, watchmen, and other parish officers : the laws concerning rates and assessments, settlements and removals of the poor, and of the poor in general.''   Publisher	W. Clarke, 1799
{{Refend}}

==Further reading==
*Hart, A. Tindal (1959) ''The Country Priest in English History''. London: Phoenix House
*--do.-- (1958) ''The Country Clergy in Elizabethan & Stuart Times, 1558-1660''. London: Phoenix House
*--do.-- (1955) ''The Eighteenth Century Country Parson, circa 1689 to 1830'', Shrewsbury: Wilding & Son
*--do.-- & Carpenter, E. F. (1954) ''The Nineteenth Century Country Parson; circa 1832-1900''. Shrewsbury: Wilding & Son

==External links==
{{wiktionary}}
{{EB1911 poster|Parish}}
* [http://www.crockford.org.uk/ ''Crockford's Clerical Directory'']
* [https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/may/16/in-praise-of-civil-parishes In praise of ... civil parishes] Editorial in ''The Guardian'', 2011-05-16.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Church parishes| ]]
[[Category:Christian terminology]]
[[Category:Anglican organizations]]
[[Category:Types of Eastern Orthodox organization|Parishes]]