The Diocese of Gloucester 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 Brit ...

diocese In 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 provinces were administratively associ ...

based in

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

, covering the non-metropolitan county of

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of ...

. The cathedral is

Gloucester Cathedral Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, in Gloucester, England, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to ...

and the bishop is the

Bishop of Gloucester The Bishop of Gloucester is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Gloucester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the County of Gloucestershire and part of the County of Worcestershire. The see's centre of governan ...

. It 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 ...

History

The diocese was founded during the

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

on 3 September 1541 from part of the

Diocese of Hereford The Diocese of Hereford is a Church of England diocese based in Hereford, covering Herefordshire, southern Shropshire and a few parishes within Worcestershire in England, and a few parishes within Powys and Monmouthshire in Wales. The cathedral i ...

and the Diocese of Worcester. In 1542 the

Diocese of Bristol The Diocese of Bristol is an ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Church of England in the Province of Canterbury, England. It is based in the city of Bristol and covers South Gloucestershire and parts of north Wiltshire, as far east ...

was created to cover Bristol. Gloucester diocese was briefly dissolved and returned to Worcester again from 20 May 1552 until Queen Mary re-divided the two Sees in 1554. On 5 October 1836, the Diocese of Bristol was merged back into the Gloucester diocese, which became the Diocese of Gloucester and Bristol until Bristol became an independent diocese again on 9 July 1897, whereupon the Gloucester diocese resumed the name Diocese of Gloucester. The diocese has twinning links with the dioceses of Dornakal and Karnataka Central in the

Church of South India The Church of South India (CSI) is a united Protestant Church in India. It is the result of union of a number of mainline Protestant denominations in South India after independence. The Church of South India is the successor of a number of P ...

, Västerås in Sweden, El Camino Real in California, USA, and Western Tanganyika in Tanzania. It is currently supporting the work of the Diocese of Western Tanganyika to build a new high school.

Organisation

The diocese is divided into two archdeaconries: Cheltenham, headed by the

Archdeacon of Cheltenham The Archdeacon of Cheltenham is a senior cleric in the Diocese of Gloucester who is responsible for some pastoral care and discipline of clergy in the Cheltenham archdeaconry. The archdeaconry was created as the Archdeaconry of Cirencester in the ...

, Phil Andrew, and Gloucester, headed by the

Archdeacon of Gloucester The Archdeacon of Gloucester is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Diocese of Gloucester, England whose responsibilities include the care of clergy and church buildings within the area of the ''Archdeaconry of Gloucester.'' History The first ...

, Hilary Dawson. The Archdeaconry of Cheltenham consists of the deaneries of Cheltenham, Cirencester, North Cotswold, and Tewkesbury, and the Archdeaconry of Gloucester consists of the deaneries of Forest South, Gloucester City, Severn Vale, Stroud, and Wotton.

Bishops

The diocesan

Rachel Treweek Rachel Treweek (née Montgomery; born 4 February 1963 at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire) is an Anglican bishop who sits in the House of Lords as a Lord Spiritual. Since June 2015, she has served as Bishop of Gloucester, the first female diocesan bi ...

(the first female diocesan bishop in the Church of England), is assisted by the Bishop suffragan of Tewkesbury,

Robert Springett Robert Wilfrid Springett (born 15 September 1962) is a British Anglican bishop. He has served as the Bishop of Tewkesbury (a suffragan bishop in the Diocese of Gloucester) since his consecration as a bishop on 30 November 2016. He previously s ...

. 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 – that 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. There are six former bishops licensed as honorary assistant bishops in the diocese: *2003–present: Former Bishop suffragan of Swindon

Peter Firth Peter Macintosh Firth (born 27 October 1953) is an English actor. He is best known for his role as Sir Harry Pearce in the BBC One programme '' Spooks''; he is the only actor to have appeared in every episode of the programme's ten-series lif ...

, lives in Winchcombe and is also licensed in the

. *2010–present: Retired former Bishop suffragan of Warrington David Jennings lives in

Northleach Northleach is a market town and former civil parish, now in parish Northleach with Eastington, in the Cotswold district, in Gloucestershire, England. The town is in the valley of the River Leach in the Cotswolds, about northeast of Cirenceste ...

and is also licensed in the

Diocese of Oxford The Diocese of Oxford is a Church of England diocese that forms part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Oxford (currently Steven Croft), and the bishop's seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. It contain ...

. *2013–present: Bob Evens, retired former Bishop suffragan of Crediton, lives in

Charlton Kings Charlton Kings is a contiguous village adjoining Cheltenham in Gloucestershire, England. The area constitutes a civil parish of 10,396 residents (2011). Landscape Charlton Kings is situated in the west foothills of the north-south Cotswold ...

. *2014–present: Anthony Priddis, retired

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 City of Hereford where the bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is in the Cathedral Church of Sa ...

, lives in

Bridstow Bridstow is a village and civil parish in Herefordshire, England, 2 km (1.2 miles) west of Ross-on-Wye and 17 km (10.6 miles) south-east of Hereford. The parish is bounded to the east and south by the River Wye. The A40 road linking the M50 moto ...

in Hereford diocese. *2014–present: retired

Bishop of Guildford The Bishop of Guildford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Guildford in the Province of Canterbury. The title had first appeared as a suffragan See in the Diocese of Winchester in 1874. The Bishop suffragan of Guildford assis ...

Christopher Hill lives in Ruardean.

Notes

References

Church of England Statistics 2002

External links

Diocese of Gloucester
{{authority control

Religion in Gloucestershire 1541 establishments in England Religious organizations established in the 1540s Dioceses established in the 16th century