definition
strict definition
ecclesiastical division
Parishes and church districts, drawn by a religious body for its own congregations.
An ecclesiastical division is a division whose areas are drawn by a religious body to assign residents to a congregation. The body defines and changes them, and the areas answer to it rather than to any civil authority.
Their boundaries follow the reach of a congregation and are redrawn when congregations merge or are founded. Divisions of different denominations cover the same ground independently of one another, so several may overlap.
Where such an area is old, its name often survives as the everyday name of a quarter, and the civil boundary that later took the name may differ. The area itself remains ecclesiastical as long as a religious body maintains it.
Related definitions
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administrative division
Official named areas a municipality maintains, without a council of their own. -
cadastral division
Land-register areas holding the parcels, usually the pre-merger village boundaries. -
electoral division
Constituencies drawn to elect someone to a body above, redrawn as population shifts. -
judicial division
Areas assigning a place to the court competent for it, so a matter is heard in the right one. -
military division
Areas under military authority, such as a garrison, training ground or closed zone. -
natural division
Areas set by the terrain itself, such as a valley, a basin, a range or an island group. -
planning division
Areas a plan or program applies to, lasting only as long as the program does. -
political division
Areas with an elected council or representative of their own, set by the municipality. -
postal division
Delivery areas of a postal operator, cut for routes rather than for places. -
protected division
Conservation areas where what may be done with the land is restricted by law. -
school division
Catchment areas assigning an address to the school it is entitled to attend. -
service division
Supply and response areas of a utility or emergency service, cut by network and driving time. -
statistical division
Areas cut for counting, kept stable over time, often named after the quarter they contain. -
tenure division
Areas a use right runs over, such as a hunting, forestry or fishing ground. -
traditional division
Territories held under customary law, recognized by those who live under it. -
vernacular division
Names people use for parts of a place, with edges nobody has ever fixed by an authority.