The Anglican Diocese of Grafton is one of the 23 dioceses of the

Anglican Church of Australia The Anglican Church of Australia, formerly known as the Church of England in Australia and Tasmania, is a Christian church in Australia and an autonomous church of the Anglican Communion. It is the second largest church in Australia after the R ...

. The diocese is located in north-east

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

and covers the area from the

Queensland ) , nickname = Sunshine State , image_map = Queensland in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Queensland in Australia , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , established_ ...

border to

Port Macquarie Port Macquarie is a coastal town in the local government area of Port Macquarie-Hastings. It is located on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, about north of Sydney, and south of Brisbane. The town is located on the Tasman Sea co ...

in the south and west to the

Great Dividing Range The Great Dividing Range, also known as the East Australian Cordillera or the Eastern Highlands, is a cordillera system in eastern Australia consisting of an expansive collection of mountain ranges, plateaus and rolling hills, that runs rough ...

. Created in 1914 as a result of a division of the previous

Diocese of Grafton and Armidale The Anglican Diocese of Armidale is a diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia located in the state of New South Wales. As the Diocese of Grafton and Armidale, it was created (from the Diocese of Newcastle) by letters patent in 1863. When the ...

it has 22 parishes and 3 transitional ministry districts and an

Anglicare Anglicare Australia is the national umbrella community services body of agencies associated with each diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia. Anglicare is also a brand name under which many Australian Anglican community services agencies ope ...

organisation seeking to support community and social needs within the diocese. The cathedral church is the Cathedral Church of Christ the King in Grafton. The Church of St Thomas at Port Macquarie was built by an early Governor of New South Wales,

Thomas Brisbane Major General Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, 1st Baronet, (23 July 1773 – 27 January 1860), was a British Army officer, administrator, and astronomer. Upon the recommendation of the Duke of Wellington, with whom he had served, he was appoint ...

. It is the fifth oldest church building in Australia. The current Bishop of Grafton, Murray Harvey, is the 12th bishop of the diocese. He was installed at Christ Church Cathedral, Grafton, on 29 September 2018.

Sarah Macneil Sarah Macneil (born 1955) is a retired Anglican bishop in Australia. She was the Bishop of Grafton in the Anglican Church of Australia. She was consecrated and installed as bishop on 1 March 2014, becoming the first woman in Australia to lead a d ...

the 11th Bishop of Grafton become the first woman to lead an Australian diocese as bishop. Macneil announced her resignation on 17 November 2017, to be effective from 3 March 2018. The bishop is based in Grafton.

Bishops

Cathedral

The cathedral church is Christ Church Cathedral in Grafton which was designed by

John Horbury Hunt John Horbury Hunt (1838 – December 30, 1904) was a Canadian-born Australian architect who worked in Sydney and rural New South Wales from 1863. Life and career Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, the son of a builder, Hunt was trained in B ...

and commenced in 1884 during the episcopacy of Bishop James Turner and completed to its present stage in 1937. The building is of brick construction in a

Gothic Revival style Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

with towering arches and ornate

stained glass windows Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

. An

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

was installed in 1884 by George Fincham of

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

which was replaced in 1992 by a 1903 instrument brought from London by Peter D.G. Jewkes Pty Ltd of Sydney. The cathedral is a

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

listed building.Visit NSW website.
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Deans of Grafton

The following individuals have served as Deans of Grafton:

Church schools

The diocese also has a number of church-based schools providing education across a range of age groups.

References

External links

* {{authority control Grafton 1914 establishments in Australia Anglican Church of Australia Ecclesiastical Province of New South Wales Grafton, New South Wales John Horbury Hunt buildings