IHI doubts

The concept ecclesiastical organization refers in general to the hierarchical order into which the/a church (ecclesia) is organized/ is established as an institution.

The Roman Church's (since it was founded in Rome) organization has an episcopal basis (I didn't say this in class but here it goes, we will repeatedly use this term) which means it is based on the rule of (arch)bishops. If you refer to two of the PP slides you will see its hierarchical organization.

1. The Pope is at the apex: he is the head of Christendom.
2. Below the Pope the archbishops are in charge of their provinces/archbishoprics.
3. Further down come the bishops in charge of dioceses/bishoprics.
4. At the bottom of the scale are the parish priests responsible for their parishes.

This means, in very very rough terms, that the Pope presides over a unified Christendom which, for the sake of its governance, is divided into archbishoprics, which in turn comprise a larger number of bishoprics, which are made up of parishes.

This is the episcopal organization the English church accepted after Whitby when the King of Northumbria ruled in favour of the Roman stream. England, the land though not the country because the latter did not exist, became united under the Pope. St Augustine had become the first archbishop of Canterbury (an old old Roman church he had consecrated) and from that time until the early 16th c, the archbishop of Canterbury was the highest representative of the Pope in England.

Monastic organization means an order based on loosely organized monasteries (from the Greek monos--alone). Monasteries are isolated, self-sustained religious institutions where monks--headed by an abbot--lead lives of complete seclusion devoted to working, praying, and studying.

The Celtic churches in Ireland and Scotland did not have an episcopal organization but a monastic one. Each monastery was an autonmous centre where the abbot was all powerful. This was so because the Christian Celts had been separated from Rome by distance and by a barrier of barbarian kingodoms for almost two centuries. They had not been in contact with Rome at all (this was not the age of the comunications revolution! It was a period know as the Dark Ages).

When the Celtic stream accepted Roman rule at Whitby, the abbots in Celtic monasteries agreed to come under the jurisdiction of a bishop.

There is a very good Catholic Encyclopaedia online called New Advent. I suggest you all try it. Same goes for the official Vatican site. Happy hunting.