Diocese of Canterbury
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Diocese of Canterbury
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Coat of arms
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| Flag of the Diocese of Canterbury
Flag
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| Location | |
| Ecclesiastical province | Canterbury |
| Archdeaconries | Canterbury, Ashford, Maidstone |
| Coordinates | Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found. |
| Statistics | |
| Parishes | 261 |
| Churches | 335 |
| Information | |
| Cathedral | Canterbury Cathedral |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury |
| Suffragans | Trevor Willmott, Bishop of Dover Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough (AEO) Jonathan Goodall, Bishop of Ebbsfleet (AEO)[1] Rod Thomas, Bishop of Maidstone (AEO)[2] |
| Archdeacons | Philip Down, Archdeacon of Ashford and Joint Acting Archdeacon of Canterbury Stephen Taylor, Archdeacon of Maidstone and Joint Acting Archdeacon of Canterbury |
| Website | |
| canterbury.anglican.org | |
The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering eastern Kent which was founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. The diocese is centred on Canterbury Cathedral and is the oldest see of the Church of England.
For organisational purposes, the diocese is divided into three archdeaconries,[3] containing a total of fifteen deaneries:
- in the Archdeaconry of Canterbury — Canterbury, East Bridge, Reculver, Thanet and West Bridge;
- in the Archdeaconry of Ashford — Ashford, Dover, Elham, Romney and Tenterden and Sandwich;
- in the Archdeaconry of Maidstone — Maidstone, North Downs, [4] Ospringe, Sittingbourne, and the Weald.
Bishops
The diocesan bishop is the Archbishop of Canterbury, presently Justin Welby. However, because of his roles as metropolitan bishop of the Province of Canterbury, Primate of All England and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the archbishop (whose primary residence is at Lambeth Palace in London) is very often away from the diocese. Therefore, one of his suffragan bishops, the Bishop of Dover (Trevor Wilmott), is in many ways empowered to act almost as if he were the diocesan bishop.
There was, until 2009, another suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Maidstone, but it was decided in November 2010 that no further appointments would be made to that post.[5] Two further suffragans whose sees are located in the diocese — Ebbsfleet and Richborough — are really provincial episcopal visitors with a focus more wide-ranging than the local diocese. On 4 December 2014, it was announced that the see of Maidstone would be filled again in order to provide a further provincial episcopal visitor for particular conservative evangelical members of the Church who take a minority view on "headship".[2]
Besides the Archbishop and the Bishop of Dover, several other men are licensed as bishops in the diocese. Alternative episcopal oversight (for parishes in the diocese who reject the ministry of priests who are women) is provided by the provincial episcopal visitor (PEV) the Bishop suffragan of Richborough, Norman Banks. Unlike most in dioceses, Banks does not need to be licensed as an honorary assistant bishop since he is a suffragan in the diocese. There are four honorary assistant bishops licensed in the diocese:
- 2000–present: Michael Gear, retired former Bishop suffragan of Doncaster, lives in Yalding in the neighbouring diocese of Rochester.[6]
- 2003–present: A retired former Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Rochester, Michael Turnbull, lives in Sandwich.[7]
- 2008–present: In Thanington Without (in Canterbury itself) lives Richard Llewellin, a retired former Bishop at Lambeth (chief of staff for the Archbishop at Lambeth Palace.)[8]
- 2009–present: Graham Cray, retired Archbishops' Missioner and fresh expressions Team Leader and former Bishop suffragan of Maidstone lives in Harrietsham.[9]
See also
- John Wallis Academy — school in Ashford sponsored by the diocese
Notes
- ↑ Bishop of Ebbsfleet (Accessed 2 August 2013)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Thinking Anglicans – Appointment of a bishop who takes a conservative evangelical view on headship (Accessed 4 December 2014)
- ↑ Diocese of Canterbury — Order creating the Archdeaconry of Ashford
- ↑ Canterbury Diocese – People and Places
- ↑ Canterbury Diocese — Synod News
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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