Editing Archdeacon (section)

{{Short description|Senior clergy position}}
{{About|the ecclesiastical title|other uses}}
{{More citations needed|date=January 2010}}
[[File:Протодиакон Владимир Назаркин и архидиакон Андрей Мазур.jpg|thumb|Protodeacon Vladimir Nazarkin (left) and archdeacon Andrei Mazur of the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] during procession.]]
An '''archdeacon''' is a senior clergy position in the [[Church of the East]], [[Chaldean Catholic Church]], [[Syriac Orthodox Church]], [[Anglican Communion]], [[St Thomas Christians]], [[Eastern Orthodox Church|Eastern Orthodox churches]] and some other [[Christian denomination]]s, above that of most [[clergy]] and below a [[bishop]]. In the [[High Middle Ages]] it was the most senior diocesan position below a bishop in the [[Catholic Church]]. An archdeacon is often responsible for administration within an archdeaconry, which is the principal subdivision of the [[diocese]]. The ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'' has defined an archdeacon as "A cleric having a defined administrative authority delegated to him by the bishop in the whole or part of the diocese."<ref name = "autogenerated79">{{Citation | title = The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church | editor-first = FL | editor-last = Cross | place = London | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1957 | page = 79}}.</ref> The office has often been described metaphorically as ''oculus episcopi'', the "bishop's eye".<ref>{{Citation|title=Medieval History |chapter-url=http://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Cambridge/I/VI-Church.html |volume=I |chapter=VI. Church |publisher=Third millennium library |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110210013918/http://www.third-millennium-library.com/MedievalHistory/Cambridge/I/VI-Church.html |archive-date=February 10, 2011 }}</ref>