Ordinary (church officer)

Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ecclesiastical legal system.

[2] In Eastern Christianity, a corresponding officer is called a hierarch[3] (from Greek ἱεράρχης hierarkhēs "president of sacred rites, high-priest"[4] which comes in turn from τὰ ἱερά ta hiera, "the sacred rites" and ἄρχω arkhō, "I rule").

The judicial vicar only has authority through his office to exercise the diocesan bishop's power to judge cases.

The violation of this rule is called eispēdēsis (Greek: εἰσπήδησις, "trespassing", literally "jumping in"), and is uncanonical.

"[21][22] Saint Cyprian of Carthage (258 AD) wrote:The episcopate is a single whole, in which each bishop enjoys full possession.

"[24] In Eastern Orthodox Christianity, the church is not seen as a monolithic, centralized institution, but rather as existing in its fullness in each local body.

He is, however, subject to the Sacred Canons of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and answers to the Synod of Bishops to which he belongs.

Pope Pius XI (left), depicted in this window at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace , Honolulu , was ordinary of the universal Church as well as the Diocese of Rome from 1922 to 1939. At the same time, Bishop Stephen Alencastre (facing viewer), Apostolic Vicar of the Sandwich Islands , was the ordinary of what is now the Diocese of Honolulu .