Editing Diocese (section)

==Churches that have bishops, but not dioceses==
{{See also|Methodist Circuit|Episcopal area (United Methodist Church)}}
In the [[Free Methodist Church]], [[Global Methodist Church]], [[Evangelical Wesleyan Church]], [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] and [[United Methodist Church]], a bishop is given oversight over a geographical area called an [[Episcopal area (United Methodist Church)|episcopal area]]. Each episcopal area contains one or more [[Annual conferences within Methodism|annual conferences]], which is how the churches and clergy under the bishop's supervision are organized. Thus, the use of the term "diocese" referring to geography is the most equivalent in the United Methodist Church, whereas each annual conference is part of one episcopal area (though that area may contain more than one conference). 

In the [[Methodist Church of Great Britain|British Methodist Church]] and [[Methodist Church in Ireland|Irish Methodist Church]], the closest equivalent to a diocese is the '[[Methodist Circuit|circuit]]'. Each local church belongs to a circuit, and the circuit is overseen by a superintendent minister who has pastoral charge of all the circuit churches (though in practice they delegate such charge to other presbyters who each care for a section of the circuit and chair the local church meetings as deputies of the superintendent). This echoes the practice of the early church where the bishop was supported by a bench of presbyters. Circuits are grouped together to form districts. All of these, combined with the local membership of the church, are referred to as the "connexion". This 18th-century term, endorsed by [[John Wesley]], describes how people serving in different geographical centres are 'connected' to each other. Personal oversight of the Methodist Church is exercised by the president of the conference, a presbyter elected to serve for a year by the Methodist Conference; such oversight is shared with the vice-president, who is always a deacon or layperson. Each district is headed by a 'chair', a presbyter who oversees the district. Although the district is similar in size to a diocese, and chairs meet regularly with their partner bishops, the Methodist superintendent is closer to the bishop in function than is the chair. The purpose of the district is to resource the circuits; it has no function otherwise.{{citation needed|date=May 2015}}