(1)Where a rural deanery is vacant or a rural dean is unable by reason of illness or absence to carry out any or all of his functions, the bishop of the diocese in which the rural deanery is may appoint by an instrument under his hand another person to perform any or all of the rural dean’s functions for a period specified in the instrument.
(2)A power of appointment under this section may be exercised by the appointment of two or more persons and by the division among them, whether territorially or otherwise, of the function or functions to be performed.
(3)A statement in a document issued in the performance of any such function that the person by whom the document is signed or executed has been duly appointed under this section to perform that function shall be conclusive evidence of that fact.
(4)The bishop of a diocese may by order declare that the office of rural dean shall, in any deanery in that diocese, be called the office of area dean; and, accordingly, in any enactment (including this section), Canon or other instrument references to a rural dean shall be construed as including references to an area dean.