Diocese of Winchester

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The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England.

Founded in 676, it is one of the oldest and largest of the dioceses in England.

The area of the diocese incorporates:

• the majority of the county of Hampshire (including the city of Southampton), with the following exceptions:
  • the south-eastern quarter of the county (which together with the Isle of Wight constitutes the Diocese of Portsmouth)
  • an area in the north-east (belonging to the Diocese of Guildford)
  • a small area in the west (Diocese of Salisbury)
  • one parish in the north (Diocese of Oxford)

plus

• an area of eastern Dorset
• the Channel Islands (transferred from the diocese of Coutances during the reign of King Henry VII of England)

The diocese is divided into two Archdeaconries:

• the Archdeaconry of Winchester
  • comprises the Deaneries of Andover, Whitchurch, Basingstoke, Odiham, Winchester, Alresford and Alton
• the Archdeaconry of Bournemouth
  • comprises the Deaneries of Romsey, Eastleigh, Southampton, Lyndhurst, Christchurch and Bournemouth.

The Bishop of the Diocese is assisted by two suffragan bishops, the Bishops of Basingstoke and Southampton, to whom specific episcopal responsibilities are delegated within the Archdeaconries of Winchester and Bournemouth respectively.

The Deaneries of Guernsey and Jersey are not part of an Archdeaconry. Due to their distinctive history and separate civil government, they are not subject to the same methods of governance and systems of canon law as the rest of the Church of England.

The Diocese historically covered a much larger area, originally including the greater part of south-eastern England. In the most recent major alteration to Diocesan boundaries in 1927, the Archdeaconry of Surrey was removed to form the new Diocese of Guildford, and south-eastern Hampshire and the Isle of Wight to form the Diocese of Portsmouth.

The Bishop of Winchester is ex officio a Lord Spiritual of the Westminster Parliament, one of only five prelates of the Church of England with such automatic entitlement.

References

• Church of England Statistics 2002

See also

• Bishop of Winchester
• Winchester Cathedral

External links

• Diocesan website

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Coordinates: 51°03′39″N 1°18′47″W / 51.0607°N 1.3131°W / 51.0607; -1.3131

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