An Anglican bishop governs a diocese, ordains its priests and deacons, confirms its members, and, particularly within the Church of England, sits alongside the clergy and laity of the diocese's synod in a governance structure that gives lay and clerical representatives a formal, ongoing role in diocesan decision-making considerably more institutionalized than in most Roman Catholic dioceses, reflecting the Church of England's post-Reformation development of synodical government at every level from the parish to the national Church. Bishops of the Church of England additionally hold a constitutional role unique among Anglican provinces: twenty-six senior diocesan bishops sit as Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords, giving the established Church a direct, if limited, voice in the United Kingdom's national legislature.
Women have been eligible for ordination as bishops in the Church of England since 2014, following earlier and often contentious debate, a change that had already been adopted earlier by several other Anglican provinces, including the Episcopal Church in the United States, whose first woman bishop was consecrated in 1989, and later opposed by other provinces entirely, illustrating how thoroughly the Communion's single historic office has diverged in practice across its now independently governed member churches.