Metropolitan

Religious Organization

The Metropolitan was the title given to the bishop of the Christian church in the capital city or metropolis (mother city) of civil provinces in the Roman Empire, first appearing in documents at the Council of Nicea, convened by the Emperor Constantine in AD 325. As the church expanded, following the organizational patterns of the civil government, ecclesiastical provinces (the diocese) were established under the jurisdiction of bishops. This system of administration and control has remained unchanged in the modern Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican churches. Some metropolitans were also granted the title of archbishop, and the archbishops of Canterbury and York have the three titles of Metropolitan, Archbishop, and primate of the Church of England. In ecclesiastical language of the present day, the term identifies church structures associated with the metropolis: the metropolitan church, metropolitan chapter, and the like.

Definitions

Blake McKelvey describes how American cities mushroomed in the early 1900s, taking on a new shape, new civic responsibilities, and new interrelationships: Larger cities were encircling neighboring towns, establishing new lines of communication, and exploring new sources of social and political power. The cities were rapidly expanding because of immigration, and the increasing urban populations spilled over the city boundaries; manufacturing moved to the suburban fringe because of overcrowded rail lines in the city. In 1910, the U.S. Bureau of the Census sought to capture the dynamic growth of urban areas by introducing a new term, the metropolitan district, for those urban areas with a population of 200,000 people, including a central city with a population of at least 100,000. In 1910, there were 15 such metropolitan areas. In 1930, the definition was extended down to include urban areas with a population of 200,000 but with cities of 50,000 or more people, and in 1940, there were 140 recognized metropolitan districts.

New definitions for metropolitan areas were issued in 1949 (for the 1950 census) using a county-based definition for the “standard metropolitan area” (SMA), and later definitions have evolved to standard metropolitan statistical area (SMSA), [Page 505]metropolitan statistical area (MSA), metropolitan area (MA), metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), and consolidated metropolitan statistical areas (CMSAs) to capture the complexity of ever-expanding metropolitan regions. In each instance, the underlying concept, according to the Metropolitan Area Standards Review Committee of the U.S. Office of Management and the Budget, is that of “a large population nucleus and adjacent communities that have a high degree of integration with that nucleus.” In 2007, nearly 85 percent of the U.S. population lived in metropolitan areas.

...