We at Anglicans Online sometimes use the word ‘peculiar’ in a place where you might be expecting the name of a province or a diocese. This ancient word has taken on somewhat of a different meaning in modern times, but the original use is preserved in the structure of the Anglican Church and the English legal system.

The most common ecclesiastical use of the word is as part of the phrase ‘Royal Peculiar’. Westminster Abbey is a Royal Peculiar, as is the chapel at Windsor Castle and the Palace of Holyrood. Its meaning is approximately ‘outside the expected structure of things’. Normally, for example, one would expect Westminster Abbey to be part of the Diocese of London, because that is where it is located. But it is a peculiar, so it is under the special jurisdiction of the English monarch. Hence the phrase ‘Royal Peculiar’. It is common in researching old legal records to see mention of a ‘Peculiar Court’; this was a special court that had jurisdiction outside the usual structure of such things.

Usually the affiliation of an ecclesiastical entity such as a church is determined by its location. A church in Iowa would be part of the Diocese of Iowa, for example. For various reasons it sometimes arises that a church is part of a diocese or province that is far away from that church. We refer to this as a ‘peculiar jurisdiction’, but we intend the traditional meaning of the word ‘peculiar’ and not the contemporary meaning.