The Diocese of Hereford is a

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britain ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, pro ...

based in

Hereford Hereford () is a cathedral city, civil parish and the county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, south-west of Worcester and north-west of Gloucester. With a population ...

, covering

Herefordshire Herefordshire () is a county in the West Midlands of England, governed by Herefordshire Council. It is bordered by Shropshire to the north, Worcestershire to the east, Gloucestershire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Monmouthshire ...

, southern

Shropshire Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...

and a few parishes within

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

in England, and a few parishes within

Powys Powys (; ) is a Local government in Wales#Principal areas, county and Preserved counties of Wales, preserved county in Wales. It is named after the Kingdom of Powys which was a Welsh succession of states, successor state, petty kingdom and princi ...

and

Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The cathedral is

Hereford Cathedral Hereford Cathedral is the cathedral church of the Anglican Diocese of Hereford in Hereford, England. A place of worship has existed on the site of the present building since the 8th century or earlier. The present building was begun in 1079. S ...

and the bishop is the

Bishop of Hereford The Bishop of Hereford is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Hereford in the Province of Canterbury. The episcopal see is centred in the Hereford, City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in the Hereford Cathedr ...

. The diocese is one of the oldest in England (created in 676 and based on the minor sub-kingdom of the

Magonsæte Magonsæte was a minor sub-kingdom of the greater Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia, thought to be coterminous with the Diocese of Hereford. The British territory of Pengwern was conquered by Oswiu of Northumbria in 656, while he was overlord of t ...

) and is part of the

Province of Canterbury The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses). Overview The Province consist ...

Bishops

The diocesan

( Richard Jackson) was, until 2020, assisted by the Bishop suffragan of Ludlow (which see was created in 1981) — it has been announced that the suffragan See is not to be filled. The

provincial episcopal visitor A provincial episcopal visitor (PEV), popularly known as a flying bishop, is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who on grounds of theological conviction, "are unable to receive the ministry of ...

(for parishes in this diocese – among twelve others in the western part of the Province of Canterbury – who reject the ministry of priests who are women, since 1994) is the Bishop suffragan of Ebbsfleet, who is licensed as an

honorary assistant bishop An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop. Church of England In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...

of the diocese in order to facilitate his work there. Three retired bishops are licensed as assistant bishops in the diocese:

Michael Westall Michael Robert Westall (born 1939) was bishop of South-West Tanganyika from 2001 until 2006. Westall was educated at Queens' College, Cambridge and Ripon College Cuddesdon; and ordained in 1967. After a curacy at St Martin, Hereford he was a lec ...

( Bishop of South West Tanganyika) lives in

Kingstone, Herefordshire Kingstone is a civil parish and a large village in rural Herefordshire, England. It lies within the historic area of Archenfield, near the Welsh border, south-west of the city of Hereford. The parish church is dedicated to St. Michael and All An ...

. David Thomson, (

Bishop of Huntingdon The Bishop of Huntingdon is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Ely, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Huntingdon, the historic county town of Huntingdonshire, En ...

), lives in Hereford.

Michael Bourke Michael Gay Bourke (born 28 November 1941) was the second area and third overall Bishop of Wolverhampton from 1993 until 2007. Education and career Bourke studied Modern Languages at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge and then Theology at Cambrid ...

(

Bishop of Wolverhampton The Bishop of Wolverhampton is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Lichfield, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after the city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands; the ...

) also lives in the diocese.

Statistics

As reported in the Church of England's Statistics for Mission 2018, published in October 2019, the diocese had a population of 331,000, fewer than any other except

Sodor and Man The Diocese of Sodor and Man is a diocese of the Church of England. Originally much larger, today it covers just the Isle of Man and its adjacent islets. Today, the bishop's office is in Douglas and the cathedral is in Peel. The diocese is ''not ...

. With 402 churches, the population per church was 820, the lowest of any diocese and less than 60% of the 1420 in the next lowest, St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Average weekly church attendance was 8,700, a new low, down from 9,300 in 2017. The total worshipping community was estimated at 13,300, up from 11,700 in 2014, and 44% of these were aged over 70 years.

Archdeaconries and deaneries

The following deanery mergers have taken place: * Kington and Weobley before 1972 * Ross and Archenfield before 1979 *including Cathedral

Churches

''Last updated 25 November 2020.''

Outside deanery structures

Deanery of Abbeydore

Deanery of Bromyard

Deanery of Hereford

Deanery of Kington and Weobley

Closed churches in the area

Deanery of Ledbury

Deanery of Leominste

Deanery of Ross and Archenfield

Deanery of Bridgnorth

Deanery of Clun Forest

Deanery of Condover

Deanery of Ludlow

Deanery of Pontesbury

Deanery of Telford Severn Gorge

References

Sources

*''Haydn's Book of Dignities (1894)'' Joseph Haydn/Horace Ockerby, reprinted 1969 * ''Whitaker's Almanack'' 1883 to 2004, Joseph Whitaker and Sons Ltd/A&C Black, London
Church of England Statistics 2002

External links

* {{authority control Diocese of Hereford, 676 establishments

Religion in Herefordshire 7th-century establishments in England