Diocese of Wessex
| Diocese of Winchester | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Location | |
| Ecclesiastical province | Canterbury |
| Archdeaconries | Bournemouth, Winchester |
| Statistics | |
| Parishes | 306 |
| Churches | 410 |
| Information | |
| Cathedral | Winchester Cathedral |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Tim Dakin, Bishop of Winchester |
| Suffragans |
Jonathan Frost, Bishop of Southampton David Williams, Bishop of Basingstoke |
| Archdeacons | Peter Rouch, Archdeacon of Bournemouth Paul Moore, Archdeacon for Mission Development Richard Brand, Archdeacon of Winchester |
| Website | |
| winchester.anglican.org | |
The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Founded in 676, it is one of the oldest and largest of the dioceses in England.
The area of the diocese incorporates the majority of the county of Hampshire, including the city of Southampton, with the following exceptions:
Outside Hampshire, the diocese includes an area of eastern Dorset.
The diocese is divided into two geographical Archdeaconries:
Additionally, it was announced on 6 April 2014 that Paul Moore had been appointed to the new role of "Archdeacon for Mission Development"; Moore has no geographical archdeaconry but instead leads the diocese in developing its mission.
The diocese historically covered a much larger area, including the greater part of south-eastern England. In the most recent major boundary changes in 1927, the Archdeaconry of Surrey was removed to form the new Diocese of Guildford, and south-eastern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight were removed to form the Diocese of Portsmouth.
The Bishop of Winchester is ex officio a Lord Spiritual of the Westminster Parliament, one of only five prelates of the Church of England with such automatic entitlement. The bishop is also Prelate of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, that office having been held by every Bishop of Winchester since the Order was created.
The Bishop of Winchester (Tim Dakin) heads the diocese and is assisted by two suffragan bishops, the Bishops of Southampton (Jonathan Frost) and of Bakingstoke (David Williams), who are informally responsible for the north and south of the diocese respectively (roughly corresponding to the archdeaconries of Winchester and Bournemouth). From 1895 until the suffragan See of Basingstoke was created in 1973, the Bishop of Southampton was the suffragan bishop for the whole diocese.
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Wikipedia