Diocese of Wakefield
Coordinates: 53°40′48″N 1°30′00″W / 53.680°N 1.500°W
| Diocese of Wakefield | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
| Ecclesiastical province | York |
| Archdeaconries | Halifax, Pontefract |
| Statistics | |
| Parishes | 188 |
| Churches | 234 |
| Information | |
| Cathedral | Wakefield Cathedral |
| Current leadership | |
| Bishop | Stephen Platten, Bishop of Wakefield |
| Suffragan | Tony Robinson, Bishop of Pontefract |
| Archdeacons | Peter Townley, Archdeacon of Pontefract Archdeacon of Halifax (Vacant) |
| Website | |
| wakefield.anglican.org | |
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The Diocese of Wakefield is a Church of England diocese based in Wakefield in West Yorkshire, covering Wakefield, Barnsley, Kirklees and Calderdale. The cathedral is Wakefield Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Wakefield.
The Diocese of Wakefield was created out of the then Diocese of Ripon in 1888 in response to the rapid expansion in population due to the Industrial Revolution. It extends north to south from the suburbs of Leeds to Barnsley and east to west from Kellington to Todmorden.
Contents |
[edit] History
After discussions in the mid-1870s as to where a new diocese in the West Riding of Yorkshire should be, Wakefield with a population of under 30,000, was chosen before Leeds and Bradford and Huddersfield and Halifax. Wakefield was then the county town of the West Riding and had a large medieval church.[1]
The new Diocese of Wakefield was taken out of the southern part of the Diocese of Ripon, which was formed in 1836 out of the vast Diocese of York, and divided the industrial area of the West Riding separating Wakefield, Huddersfield and Halifax from Leeds and Bradford which remained in Ripon. The diocese was enlarged in 1926 to include the deaneries of Hemsworth and Pontefract from the Diocese of York.[1]
As constituted in 1888, the diocese comprised the archdeaconries of Halifax and Huddersfield.[2] In 1927, the archdeaconries were reorganised into the archdeaconries of Halifax and of Pontefract. The old archdeaconry of Halifax, in the northwest, the deaneries of Halifax, Birstall and Dewsbury, became the archdeaconry of Pontefract, covering the deaneries of Barnsley, Birstal, Dewsbury, Pontefract and Wakefield in the east and the archdeaconry of Huddersfield, which covered the deaneries of Hemworth, Huddersfield, Pontefract, Silkstone and Wakefield, became the new archdeaconry of Halifax, covering the west (the deaneries of Halifax and Huddersfield).[3]
[edit] Future
Under the Dioceses Commission's Draft Reorganisation Scheme, the Diocese and See of Wakefield would be dissolved to facilitate the creation of a new Anglican Diocese of Leeds. The Archdeaconry of Halifax would become part of the new Huddersfield episcopal area; and the Archdeaconry of Pontefract would form the new Wakefield episcopal area. The suffragan see of Pontefract would be translated to Wakefield, and Wakefield Cathedral would become a seat for the new diocesan Bishop of Leeds (equal seats being Bradford Cathedral, Ripon Cathedral and possibly Leeds Pro-Cathedral). The canons from the colleges of the cathedrals would merge into a new diocesan college, the deans would retain day-to-day authority in their own cathedral, while one would become presiding dean of the college.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ a b History of the Secular and Diocesan Boundaries in Yorkshire, Church of England, http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1122193/chapter3.pdf, retrieved 2012-0131
- ^ London Gazette: no. 25876. pp. 6279–6281. 20 November 1888. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
- ^ London Gazette: no. 33248. pp. 1029–1034. 15 February 1927. Retrieved 31 January 2012.
- ^ Diocese Commission – The Draft Dioceses of Bradford, Ripon and Leeds and Wakefield Reorganisation Scheme
[edit] Bibliography
- Church of England Statistics 2002
- The Dioceses Commission's Yorkshire Review — A Guide to the Report
[edit] External links
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