BISHOP (EPISKOPOS)

(Greek for "overseer"). The duties peculiar to the office of a bishop are to preside over his diocese as the spiritual father, ordain priests and deacons, administer Chrism, consecrate church buildings, participate in ordaining bishops and in making the Chrism (Myron).

Bishops are successors to the apostles, and, from the historical point of view, the episkopate is an extentianoa of the apostolate.