What is "rural dean"

Rural \Ru"ral\, a. [F., fr. L. ruralis, fr. rus, ruris, the country. Cf. Room space, Rustic.]

1. Of or pertaining to the country, as distinguished from a city or town; living in the country; suitable for, or resembling, the country; rustic; as, rural scenes; a rural prospect.

   Here is a rural fellow; . . . He brings you figs.
   --Shak.

2. Of or pertaining to agriculture; as, rural economy.

   Rural dean. (Eccl.) See under Dean.

   Rural deanery (Eccl.), the state, office, or residence, of a rural dean.

   Syn: Rustic.

   Usage: Rural, Rustic. Rural refers to the country itself; as, rural scenes, prospects, delights, etc. Rustic refers to the character, condition, taste, etc., of the original inhabitants of the country, who were generally uncultivated and rude; as, rustic manners; a rustic dress; a rustic bridge; rustic architecture, etc.

   We turn To where the silver Thames first rural grows.
   --Thomson.

   Lay bashfulness, that rustic virtue, by; To manly confidence thy throughts apply.
   --Dryden.

Dean \Dean\, n. [OE. dene, deene, OF. deien, dien, F. doyen, eldest of a corporation, a dean, L. decanus the chief of ten, one set over ten persons, e. g., over soldiers or over monks, from decem ten. See Ten, and cf. Decemvir.]

1. A dignitary or presiding officer in certain ecclesiastical and lay bodies; esp., an ecclesiastical dignitary, subordinate to a bishop.

   Dean of cathedral church, the chief officer of a chapter; he is an ecclesiastical magistrate next in degree to bishop, and has immediate charge of the cathedral and its estates.

   Dean of peculiars, a dean holding a preferment which has some peculiarity relative to spiritual superiors and the jurisdiction exercised in it. [Eng.]

   Rural dean, one having, under the bishop, the especial care and inspection of the clergy within certain parishes or districts of the diocese.

2. The collegiate officer in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, England, who, besides other duties, has regard to the moral condition of the college.
   --Shipley.

3. The head or presiding officer in the faculty of some colleges or universities.

4. A registrar or secretary of the faculty in a department of a college, as in a medical, or theological, or scientific department. [U.S.]

5. The chief or senior of a company on occasion of ceremony; as, the dean of the diplomatic corps; -- so called by courtesy.

   Cardinal dean, the senior cardinal bishop of the college of cardinals at Rome.
   --Shipley.

   Dean and chapter, the legal corporation and governing body of a cathedral. It consists of the dean, who is chief, and his canons or prebendaries.

   Dean of arches, the lay judge of the court of arches.

   Dean of faculty, the president of an incorporation or barristers; specifically, the president of the incorporation of advocates in Edinburgh.

   Dean of guild, a magistrate of Scotch burghs, formerly, and still, in some burghs, chosen by the Guildry, whose duty is to superintend the erection of new buildings and see that they conform to the law.

   Dean of a monastery, Monastic dean, a monastic superior over ten monks.

   Dean's stall. See Decanal stall, under Decanal.

In the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a "rural deanery" (often referred to as a deanery). In some Church of England dioceses rural deans have been formally renamed as area deans.