[1] This is the meaning taken in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (the Septuagint), and later adopted by the Christian community to refer to the assembly of believers.
From the second half of the 2nd century, the bishops of these provinces were accustomed to assemble on important occasions for common counsel in synods.
From the end of that century the summons to attend these increasingly important synods was usually issued by the bishop of the capital or metropolis of the province, who also presided over the assembly, especially in the East.
Thus in the East during the 3rd century the bishop of the provincial metropolis came gradually to occupy a certain superior position, and received the name of metropolitan.
[3] At the First Council of Nicaea (325) this position of the metropolitan was taken for granted, and was made the basis for conceding to him definite rights over the other bishops and dioceses of the state province.
In North Africa the first metropolitan appears during the 4th century, the Bishop of Carthage being recognized as primate of the dioceses of Northern Africa; metropolitans of the separate provinces gradually appear, although the boundaries of these provinces did not coincide with the divisions of the empire.
The migration of the nations, however, prevented an equally stable formation of ecclesiastical provinces in the Christian West as in the East.
However, at the end of antiquity the existence of church provinces as the basis of ecclesiastical administration was fairly universal in the West.
[3] In the Catholic Church, a province consists of a metropolitan archdiocese and one or more (1–13) suffragan dioceses headed by diocesan bishops or territorial prelatures and missions sui iuris.
The following are some examples: Historical development of ecclesiastical provinces in the Eastern Orthodox Church was influenced by strong tendencies of internal administrative centralization.
Since the Fourth Ecumenical Council (451), Patriarch of Constantinople was given the right to consecrate metropolitan bishops in all regions that were placed under his supreme jurisdiction.
[9] In time, previous administrative autonomy of original ecclesiastical provinces was gradually and systematically reduced in favor of patriarchal centralization.
The newly created Archbishopric of Ohrid (1018) was structured as a single ecclesiastical province, headed by an archbishop who had jurisdiction over all of his suffragan bishops.
[10] By the end of Middle Ages, each autocephalous and autonomous church in Eastern Orthodoxy was functioning as a single, internally integrated ecclesiastical province, headed by a local patriarch or archbishop.
For example, each Benedictine abbey is an independent foundation, but will often choose to group themselves into congregations based on historical connections.