Diocese of Truro

Coordinates: 50°14′24″N 5°01′05″W / 50.240°N 5.018°W / 50.240; -5.018

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The Diocese of Truro forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England.

Geography and history

See also Christianity in Cornwall

Its area is that of the county of Cornwall including the Isles of Scilly. It was formed on December 15, 1876 from the Archdeaconry of Cornwall in the Diocese of Exeter, it is thus one of the younger dioceses.^[1] However, the Christian faith has been alive in the region since at least the fourth century AD--more than 100 years before there was an Archbishop of Canterbury. Many of the communities in the diocese, as well as the parish churches, bear a Celtic saint's name, which is a reminder of the links with other Celtic countries, especially Ireland, Wales, and above all Brittany.

Truro Cathedral from St Mary's Street

The Diocese of Truro is involved directly and indirectly through its Board of Social Responsibility and in the life of its parishes in tackling some of the economic problems that Cornwall is wrestling with and works closely with statutory and voluntary agencies. There are 313 church buildings--visible signs of the involvement and commitment to serve the people of Cornwall.

Suffragan and assistant bishops

The first modern Bishop of St Germans was appointed in 1905. At some periods there have also been assistant bishops, including John Wellington (formerly Bishop of Shantung) and W. Q. Lash, both retired from sees abroad.^[2]

Archdeaconries

The diocese is divided into two Archdeaconries:

• the Archdeaconry of Bodmin (est. 1878)^[3]
  • includes Deaneries of Trigg Minor and Bodmin, East Wivelshire, Stratton, Trigg Major, and West Wivelshire
• the Archdeaconry of Cornwall
  • includes Deaneries of St Austell, Carnmarth North, Carnmarth South, Kerrier, Penwith, Powder and Pydar

The names of the older deaneries (before 1875) are based on those of the ancient hundreds though the boundaries do not always correspond. East and West (Wivelshire) must have originally had a Cornish name but it is not recorded (Wivel may be from an Anglo-Saxon personal name 'Wifel').^[4]

Future

In 2003 a campaign group was formed called Fry an Spyrys (free the spirit in Cornish) [1] which is dedicated to disestablishing the Church of England in Cornwall and to reconstituting the Diocese of Truro as an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. Its most vociferous member is the founder, the Revd Andy Phillips, who also writes under the pen-name An Bucca. Its chairman is Dr Garry Tregidga of the Institute of Cornish Studies. Phillips states there has been constant speculation that the diocese might be merged back into the Diocese of Exeter for budgetary reasons. Such a move would not sit comfortably with the Cornish nationalist rhetoric of Phillips' blog.Andy Phillips's weblog

The possibility of a merger was aired unofficially in March 2003, during debate surrounding the formulation of the Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure, which would allow diocesan commissions to make proposals for the reorganisation of dioceses, including their dissolution. However, such a merger has yet to be proposed by any official body within the Church of England. When the possibility was raised by Fry an Spyrys in 2004 it was denied by a Church of England spokesman and also by representatives of the Truro and Exeter dioceses ^[5] Since then the Diocese of Truro has shown some financial and administrative resilience. Diocesan reorganisation and the 'People of God' campaign rallied human resources and led (by 2007) to a tight but stable financial situation. More recently Lord Lloyd of Berwick, who chairs Parliament's Ecclesiastical Committee, reported to the House of Lords that there are no plans to abolish the Diocese of Truro and to merge it with the Diocese of Exeter.^[6]

List of churches in the diocese

References

• Church of England Statistics 2002

1. ^ London Gazette. December 15, 1876.
2. ^ Brown, H. Miles (1976). A Century for Cornwall. Truro: Blackford
3. ^ Brown, H. Miles (1976). A Century for Cornwall. Truro: Blackford; p. 26
4. ^ Thomas, Charles (1964) "Settlement History in Early Cornwall: I; the antiquity of the hundreds" (In: Cornish Archaeology. 3. St Ives: Cornwall Archaeological Society, pp. 70-79)
5. ^ Western Morning News, 10th February 2004.
6. ^ Press Association, 24 October 2007

See also

• Bishop of Truro
• Truro
• Truro Cathedral

External links

• Diocesan website

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