Editing Archdeacon (section)

==Anglican Communion==
{{See also|List of archdeacons in the Church of England|List of archdeacons in the Church in Wales|List of archdeacons in the Church of Ireland}}
Archdeacons serve the church in part of a diocese by taking particular responsibility for all buildings, the welfare of clergy and their families and the implementation of diocesan policy for the sake of the Gospel.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=the-chapter |title= The chapter |publisher= Gloucester cathedral |access-date= 2012-03-30 |archive-date= 2012-03-25 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120325065711/http://www.gloucestercathedral.org.uk/index.php?page=the-chapter |url-status= dead }}</ref>  An archdeaconry is their territorial division; these vary in number according to the size of the diocese and in a few, mainly English, cases an assistant ([[Suffragan]]) Bishop will also stand in as Archdeacon, as applied to the [[Archdeaconry of Bodmin]] 1953–62 (which is one of two archdeaconries in the [[Diocese of Truro]]). A later, possibly lasting instance, is in the role of [[Bishop of Ludlow|Bishop suffragan]](-[[Archdeacon of Ludlow|Archdeacon]]) of Ludlow (in [[Shropshire]]).

They are usually styled ''[[Venerable#Anglicanism|The Venerable]]'' instead of their usual clerical style of ''[[The Reverend]]''. In the [[Church of England]] the role can only be held by a priest who has been ordained for at least six years. (This rule was introduced in 1840. The rule that they be in priests' orders was enacted in 1662.)<ref name = "autogenerated79" /> In the Church of England, the legal act by which a priest becomes an archdeacon is called a ''[[Collation (Christianity)|collation]]''. If that archdeaconry is annexed to a canonry of the cathedral, they will also be ''[[Installation (Christianity)|installed]]'' (placed in a stall) at that cathedral, in practice working largely in the chapter offices.

In some other Anglican churches they can be deacons instead of priests; such archdeacons often work with the bishop to help with deacons' assignments to congregations and assist the bishop at ordinations and other diocesan liturgies. The Anglican ordinal presupposes (it is policy by default) that every Archdeacon helps to examine candidates for ordination and presents the most suitable candidate(s) to the ordaining bishop.<ref name="autogenerated79" /> In some parts of the Communion where women cannot be consecrated as [[bishop]]s, the position is the most senior office a female cleric can hold: this being so, for instance, in the [[Anglican Diocese of Sydney#Women's ordination|(Anglican) Diocese of Sydney]].<ref>{{cite web | format = profile | title = Archdeacon Narelle Jarrett|url = http://sydneyanglicans.net/seniorclergy/archdeacon_jarrett/profile | publisher =Anglican Diocese of Sydney|access-date=8 June 2012}}</ref>

Very rarely, "lay archdeacons" have been arisen, most notably the former Anglican Communion Observer to the [[United Nations]], [[Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Leota]], who retained her title after having served as Archdeacon of [[Samoa]].{{citation needed|date=April 2019}}