Diocese of Toronto | |
---|---|
Location | |
Ecclesiastical province | Ontario |
Statistics | |
Parishes | 257 |
Information | |
Rite | Anglican |
Cathedral | Cathedral Church of St. James, Toronto |
Current leadership | |
Bishop | Colin Johnson |
Suffragans | 4 |
Website | |
toronto.anglican.ca |
The Diocese of Toronto is an administrative division of the Anglican Church of Canada covering the central part of southern Ontario. It has the most members of any Anglican diocese in Canada. It is also one of the biggest Anglican dioceses in the Americas in terms of numbers of parishioners, clergy and parishes. Presently there are 257 parishes in the diocese and over 80,000 Anglicans identified on parish rolls. The oldest of the seven dioceses comprising the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario, it was founded in 1839.
In 1839, the area of the current Diocese of Toronto made up a fifth of what was then (also) known as the Diocese of Upper Canada, which comprised the current Dioceses of Huron, Ontario, Algoma, and Niagara, which were respectively set apart in 1857, 1861, 1873, and 1875.
The Cathedral Church of St. James is the centre of the Anglican Diocese of Toronto. The church originated as The English Church when it was first erected in 1803. It later became the seat of the Anglican bishop and was reconsecrated as the Cathedral Church of St. James in 1830. The church remained under the direction of John Strachan for most of the nineteenth century, who was later buried on the cathedral grounds in 1867.
Its first bishop was John Strachan who became the bishop of Toronto in 1839, after being ordained in the Anglican Church in 1803 and later becoming the archdeacon of York in 1827.
The current Archbishop of Toronto (and Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario) is the Most Reverend Colin Johnson, who is assisted by four suffragan bishops, styled "area bishops", each with oversight of a geographical region of the diocese. The episcopal areas and their respective suffragan/area bishops are:
Each episcopal area has its own bishop and some have an archdeacon, although all function with delegated authority of the diocesan bishop who retains jurisdiction for the whole diocese.
Linda Nicholls was elected Suffragan Bishop of Toronto on the third ballot at an electoral synod on November 17, 2007, at St. Paul's Bloor Street. She was consecrated on February 2, 2008, at the Cathedral Church of St. James (Toronto), becoming the third female Anglican bishop in the Diocese of Toronto and the fourth in the Anglican Church in Canada.