An ecclesiastical province is a unit of religious government existing in certain Christian churches, especially in the Roman Catholic Church and in the Anglican Communion.

Roman Catholic Church

In the Roman Catholic Church, a province consists of a metropolitan archdiocese and a number of other particular churches, usually dioceses, known as suffragan sees. The archbishop of the metropolitan see is the metropolitan of the province. The authority of the metropolitan over the suffragan sees is very limited (for example, during a vacancy, a metropolitan can name a temporary administrator if the College of Consultors of the diocese fails to elect one within a set time and the Pope has not named an apostolic administrator). Thus, the metropolitan is not an ordinary with respect to the ecclesiastical province. In the United States, Roman Catholic ecclesiastical provinces typically follow state lines, with less populous states being typically

Anglican Communion

In the Anglican Communion, national churches are often by themselves considered a "province", whether or not their head bears the title of Archbishop; the Church of England divides England into two provinces under the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and uses the term suffragan bishop in the sense that the Roman Catholic Church uses "auxiliary bishop". The Anglican Church of Australia, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church of Ireland, the Church of Nigeria and the Episcopal Church in the United States of America are all also divided into two or more provinces. In Anglican churches, the title archbishop may be used, but none have archdioceses. Kirchenprovinz Provincia eclesiástica Province ecclésiastique Provincia ecclesiastica Kerkprovincie Metropolia (religia) Cerkvena pokrajina