Diocese of Ely | |
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Armorials of Bishop of Ely: Gules, three ducal coronets or
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Location | |
Ecclesiastical province | Canterbury |
Archdeaconries | Cambridge, Huntingdon and Wisbech |
Statistics | |
Parishes | 309 |
Churches | 339 |
Information | |
Cathedral | Ely Cathedral |
Current leadership | |
Bishop | Stephen Conway, Bishop of Ely |
Suffragan | David Thomson, Bishop of Huntingdon |
Archdeacons |
Hugh McCurdy, Archdeacon of Huntingdon and Wisbech Alex Hughes, Archdeacon of Cambridge |
Website | |
ely.anglican.org |
The Diocese of Ely is a Church of England diocese in the Province of Canterbury. It is headed by the Bishop of Ely, who sits at Ely Cathedral in Ely. There is one suffragan (subordinate) bishop, the Bishop of Huntingdon. The diocese now covers the modern ceremonial county of Cambridgeshire (excluding the Soke of Peterborough) and western Norfolk. The diocese was created in 1109 out of part of the Diocese of Lincoln.
The diocese is ancient, and the area of Ely was part of the patrimony of Saint Etheldreda. A religious house was founded in the city in 673. After her death in 679 she was buried outside the church, and her remains were later reburied inside, the foundress being commemorated as a great Anglian saint.
The diocese has had its boundaries altered various times. From an original diocese covering the historic county of Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely, Bedfordshire and Huntingdonshire were added in 1837 from the Diocese of Lincoln, as was the Sudbury archdeaconry in Suffolk from the Diocese of Norwich. In 1914 Bedfordshire became part of the Diocese of St Albans, and western Suffolk became part of the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich, whilst Ely took a western part of the Diocese of Norwich. Peterborough remains the seat of the Diocese of Peterborough.