Ecclesiastical province
An ecclesiastical province is a unit of religious government existing in certain Christian churches, notably the Roman Catholic Church.It consists of a metropolitan archdiocese and a number of other dioceses known as suffragan sees. The archbishop of the metropolitan see is the Metropolitan of the province, though these days his authority over the suffragan sees is very limited (for example, during a vacancy, a Catholic metropolitan can name a temporary administrator if the College of Consultors fail to elect one within a set time, and the Pope has not named an apostolic administrator). In the United States Catholic ecclesiastical provinces typically follow state lines, less populous states being typically grouped into provinces, more populous states being a province by themselves, California being the only state in multiple provinces.
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 not for the bishops of dioceses in the provinces, but for assisting bishops within each diocese.