Primates in the Anglican Communion

Primates in the Anglican Communion are the most senior bishop or archbishop of one of the 40 churches of the Anglican Communion.[1] The Church of England, however, has two primates, the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Archbishop of York.

Variations

Some of these churches are stand-alone ecclesiastical provinces (such as the Church of the Province of West Africa), while others are national churches comprising several ecclesiastical provinces (such as the Church of England). Since 1978, the Anglican primates have met annually for an Anglican Communion Primates' Meeting at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who is regarded as the symbolic leader (though primus-inter-pares) of the Anglican primates. While the gathering has no legal jurisdiction, it acts as one of the informal instruments of unity among the autonomous provinces of the communion.

In stand-alone ecclesiastical provinces, the primate is the metropolitan archbishop of the province. In national churches composed of several ecclesiastical provinces, the primate will be senior to the metropolitan archbishops of the various provinces, and may also be a metropolitan archbishop. In those churches which do not have a tradition of archiepiscopacy, the primate is a bishop styled "primus" (in the case of the Scottish Episcopal Church), "presiding bishop", "president bishop", "prime bishop" or simply "primate". In the case of the Episcopal Church in the United States, which is composed of several ecclesiastical provinces, there is a presiding bishop who is its primate, but the individual provinces are not led by metropolitans.

Anglican primates may be attached to a fixed see (e.g., the Archbishop of Canterbury is invariably the Primate of All England), who may be chosen from among sitting metropolitans or diocesan bishops and retain the see (as with, for example, the Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia), or who may have no see (as in the Anglican Church of Canada). Primates are generally chosen by election (either by a synod consisting of laity, clergy and bishops, or by a House of Bishops). In some instances, the primacy is awarded on the basis of seniority among the episcopal college. In the Church of England, the primate, like all bishops, is appointed by the British sovereign, in the capacity of Supreme Governor of the established church, on the advice of the Crown Appointments Commission.

The United Churches of South India, of North India, of Pakistan and of Bangladesh have neither metropolitan (arch)bishops nor national primates. Instead, each has a Moderator of the Synod (and a Vice-Moderator), elected from among the bishops for a fixed term, who is ranked among the Anglican primates.[2]

Dual primates

In the Church of England and the Church of Ireland, the metropolitan of the second province has since medieval times also been accorded the title of primate. In England, the Archbishop of Canterbury is known as the "Primate of All England" [3] while the Archbishop of York as "Primate of England"[4] (see also Primacy of Canterbury). In Ireland both the Anglican and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Armagh are titled "Primate of All Ireland";[5][6] while both the Anglican and Roman Catholic Archbishops of Dublin are titled "Primate of Ireland".[6] As both of these positions pre-date the 1921 partition, they relate to the whole of Ireland. The junior primates of these churches do not normally participate in the Primates' Meeting.

List of current primates

Key
	Active primate		Male primate
	Inactive primate		Female primate
	Position vacant or acting primate

This is a list of the 40 current primates (including four moderators of united churches) in the worldwide Anglican Communion. The list is given according to the Anglican order of precedence, with the Archbishop of Canterbury as primus inter pares first and the others in order of seniority by their installation to their primacy.

#	Province	Primate	Person	Date of birth & age	Consecration[lower-roman 1]	Took office[lower-roman 2]
1	Church of England	The Archbishop of Canterbury  & Primate of All England	Justin Welby	(1956-01-06) 6 January 1956	28 October 2011	4 February 2013
2	Anglican Church of South America	The Presiding Bishop of South America  & Bishop of Argentina	Gregory Venables	(1949-12-06) 6 December 1949	November 1993	2001–2010 10 November 2016 – present
3	Anglican Church in Japan	The Primate of Japan  & Bishop of Hokkaido	Nathaniel Makoto Uematsu	1952 (age 67–68)	1997	23 May 2006
4	Hong Kong Anglican Church (Episcopal)	The Archbishop of Hong Kong  & Bishop of Hong Kong Island	Paul Kwong	1950 (age 69–70)	25 March 2006	26 September 2007
5	Anglican Church of Southern Africa	The Archbishop of Cape Town  & Primate of Southern Africa	Thabo Makgoba	(1960-12-15) 15 December 1960	25 May 2002	31 December 2007
6	Church of the Province of Myanmar (Burma)	The Archbishop of Myanmar  & Bishop of Yangon	Stephen Than Myint Oo	1958 (age 61–62)	2005	17 February 2008
7	Anglican Church of Chile	The Primate of Chile,  Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of Chile & Bishop of Santiago	Tito Zavala	(1954-10-16) 16 October 1954	1998	2010–2016 (South America) 4 November 2018 – present (Chile)
8	Church of the Province of Central Africa	The Archbishop of Central Africa  & Bishop of Northern Zambia	Albert Chama	unknown	2003	20 March 2011
10 [lower-roman 3]	Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia	The Senior Bishop of the New Zealand Dioceses,  Primate of New Zealand  & Bishop of Taranaki	Philip Richardson	1958 (age 61–62)	1999	1 May 2013
11	Anglican Church of Mexico	The Archbishop of Mexico  & Bishop of Northern Mexico	Francisco Moreno	(1950-08-13) 13 August 1950	5 March 2010	16 June 2013
12	The Episcopal Church in the USA	The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church	Michael Curry	(1953-03-13) 13 March 1953	17 June 2000	1 November 2015
13	Church of the Province of South East Asia	The Archbishop of South East Asia  & Bishop of West Malaysia	Ng Moon Hing	(1955-11-12) 12 November 1955	5 May 2007	22 February 2016
14	Church of the Province of Melanesia	The Archbishop of Melanesia  & Bishop of Central Melanesia	George Takeli	1959 (age 60–61)	August 2009	17 April 2016
15	Anglican Church of Kenya	The Primate and Archbishop of All Kenya  & Bishop of All Saints' Cathedral	Jackson Ole Sapit	(1964-06-12) 12 June 1964	2005	3 July 2016
16	Province of the Anglican Church of Burundi	The Archbishop of Burundi  & Bishop of Makamba	Martin Nyaboho	1955 (age 64–65)	1997	21 August 2016
17	Province of the Anglican Church of the Congo	The Archbishop of the Congo  & Bishop of Kindu	Masimango Katanda	unknown	1996	11 September 2016
18	Episcopal Church in the Philippines	The Prime Bishop of the Philippines	Joel Pachao	(1956-07-29) 29 July 1956	25 May 1992	16 May 2017
18a[lower-roman 4]	Church of Pakistan	The Moderator of the Church of Pakistan  & Bishop in Peshawar	Humphrey Peters	unknown	2011	20 May 2017
19	Scottish Episcopal Church	The Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church  & Bishop of Moray, Ross and Caithness	Mark Strange	(1961-11-02) 2 November 1961	23 October 2007	27 June 2017
20	Province of the Episcopal Church of Sudan	The Archbishop of Khartoum  & Primate of Sudan	Ezekiel Kondo	1957 (age 62–63)	2003	30 July 2017
21	Church of the Province of the Indian Ocean	The Archbishop of the Indian Ocean  & Bishop of Seychelles	James Wong	1960 (age 59–60)	19 April 2009	27 August 2017
22	Anglican Church of Papua New Guinea	The Archbishop of Papua New Guinea	Allan Migi	1960 (age 59–60)	2000	3 September 2017
22a[lower-roman 4]	Church of North India	The Moderator of the Church of North India  & Bishop in Jabalpur	Prem Chand Singh	(1962-12-12) 12 December 1962	2004	October 2017
23	Church in Wales	The Archbishop of Wales  & Bishop of Swansea and Brecon	John Davies	(1953-02-06) 6 February 1953	2 May 2008	2 December 2017
23a[lower-roman 3]	Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia	Te Pīhopa o Aotearoa,  Primate of New Zealand  & Te Pīhopa o Te Tairāwhiti	Don Tamihere	1972 (age 47–48)	11 March 2017	8 April 2018
24	Province of the Episcopal Church of South Sudan	The Archbishop of Juba  & Primate of South Sudan	Justin Badi Arama	1964 (age 55–56)	2001	22 April 2018
25	Anglican Church of Tanzania	The Archbishop of Tanzania  & Bishop of Tanga	Maimbo Mndolwa	1968 (age 51–52)	4 September 2012	20 May 2018
26	Anglican Episcopal Church of Brazil	The Primate of Brazil  & Bishop of Curitiba	Naudal Alves Gomes		2000	3 June 2018
27	Church of the Province of Rwanda	The Archbishop of Rwanda  & Bishop of Shyira	Laurent Mbanda	1954 (age 65–66)	May 2010	10 June 2018
28	Anglican Church of Korea	The Presiding Bishop of the Anglican Church of Korea  & Bishop of Daejeon	Moses Nag Jun Yoo		unknown	10 August 2018
29	Anglican Church in Central America	The Primate of Central America  & Bishop of Panama	Julio Murray	1958 (age 61–62)	19 August 2000[7]	August 2018[8]
29a[lower-roman 4]	Church of Bangladesh	The Moderator of the Church of Bangladesh  & Bishop in Kustia	Samuel Mankhin	unknown	8 November 2009	5 December 2018
30	Church of the Province of West Africa	The Primate of West Africa,  Metropolitan Archbishop of West Africa & Bishop of Liberia	Jonathan Hart	(1953-01-09) 9 January 1953	2 March 2008	3 March 2019
30a[lower-roman 3]	Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia	The Bishop of Polynesia  & Primate of New Zealand	Fereimi Cama	(1955-03-02) 2 March 1955[9]	10 March 2019	10 March 2019
31	Church in the Province of the West Indies	The Archbishop of the West Indies  & Bishop of Jamaica	Howard Gregory		17 May 2017	28 May 2019
32	Anglican Church of Canada	The Primate of Canada	Linda Nicholls		2 February 2008	16 July 2019
33	Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East	The President Bishop and Primate of the Church in Jerusalem  & Bishop in Cyprus and the Gulf	Michael Lewis	1953 (age 66–67)	1999	17 November 2019
33a[lower-roman 4]	Church of South India	The Moderator of the Church of South India  & Bishop of South Kerala	Dharmaraj Rasalam	(1956-05-19) 19 May 1956[10]	23 July 2011[10]	11 January 2020[11]
34	Church of Uganda	The Archbishop of Uganda  & Bishop of Kampala	Stephen Kaziimba	(1962-08-15) 15 August 1962	26 October 2008	1 March 2020
35	Church of Nigeria	The Archbishop of Abuja  & Primate of All Nigeria	Henry Ndukuba	(1961-07-18) 18 July 1961	September 1999	25 March 2020[12]
36	Anglican Church of Australia	The Primate of Australia  & Archbishop of Adelaide	Geoffrey Smith	1958/1959 (age 60–61)[13]	25 July 2007	7 April 2020[14]
37	Church of Ireland	The Archbishop of Armagh  & Primate of All Ireland	John McDowell	1956 (age 63–64)	23 September 2011[15]	28 April 2020[16]
38	Episcopal/Anglican Province of Alexandria	The Archbishop of Alexandria	Mouneer Anis	(1952-04-08) 8 April 1952	15 May 2000	29 June 2020[17]

See also

• Anglican Communion
• List of current patriarchs

Notes

1. The date the person was consecrated as an Anglican (or United Church) bishop.
2. The date the person became primate (usually by the confirmation of their election or by their installation, enthronement or investiture in office).
3. Three bishops representing each of the three tikanga share the Primacy and the style of Archbishop.
4. The moderators of the Churches of Bangladesh, of North India, of Pakistan and of South India are not, strictly speaking, primates, but they nonetheless rank with and participate alongside the Communion's primates.

References

1. Anglican Communion – Primates' Meetings (Accessed 6 July 2013)
2. https://www.anglicancommunion.org/structures/instruments-of-communion/primates-meeting/what-is-a-primate.aspx
3. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Canterbury" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
4. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Ancient See of York" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
5. Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Armagh" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
6. James Murray, Enforcing the English Reformation in Ireland (Cambridge University Press 2011 ISBN 978-0-52136994-7, pp. 41-43; MacGeoghegan, James, The History of Ireland, Ancient and Modern (1844), James Duffy, Dublin, p. 337
7. (Accessed 24 April 2018)
8. (Accessed 24 April 2018)
10. CSI Synod news — Consecration of the new bishop Rasalam (Accessed 20 February 2020)
11. Anglican Communion News Service, 13 January 2020 — New Moderator elected for the united Church of South India (Accessed 20 February 2020)
12. "Archbishop Henry Ndukuba installed as new Primate of the Church of Nigeria". Anglican Communion News Service. Anglican Communion Office. 31 March 2020. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
13. Gailberger, Jade (4 December 2016). "Our new Anglican Archbishop Geoffrey Smith lines up vision for future". The Advertiser. Retrieved 12 March 2017.
14. "Archbishop Geoffrey Smith elected Primate of the Anglican Church of Australia". Anglican Communion News Service. Anglican Communion Office. 7 April 2020. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
17. "The Episcopal / Anglican Province of Alexandria officially inaugurated as 41st Province of the Anglican Communion". Anglican Communion News Service. Retrieved 2 July 2020.

External links

• Anglican Communion - Primates
• Anglican Online