The Diocese of Argyll was an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of Scotland in the Middle Ages. The Diocese was led by the Bishop of Argyll, and was based at Lismore.
During the Scottish Reformation, the majority of the Scottish established church broke communion with the Pope. The establishment oscillated for a number of years over the question of whether to retain the order of bishops as leaders in the church, as the Church of England had done. Eventually the presbyterians, those who do not have bishops, became the majority of the establishment and the post-Reformation Church of Scotland. However, the Scottish Episcopal Church continued to appoint bishops for the ancient dioceses of Scotland. In 1688, the diocese was held with the Diocese of Ross because of a shortage of bishops in the Episcopal Church. This union often included the dioceses of Moray or Caithness through the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1819, the ancient Diocese of the Isles was added, and, in 1847, Alexander Ewing became the first Bishop of Argyll and the Isles. In 1878, the Roman Catholic Church founded a new diocese of the same name. Both the Episcopal and Catholic dioceses are now based in Oban.
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Lismore is an island of some 2,351 hectares in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The climate is damp and mild, with over 166 centimetres (65 in) of rain recorded annually. This fertile, low-lying island was once a major centre of Celtic Christianity, with a 6th-century monastery associated with Saint Moluag, and later became the seat of the medieval Bishop of Argyll. There are numerous ruined structures including a broch and two 13th-century castles.
Argyll, sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland.
The Bishop of Argyll and the Isles is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Argyll and the Isles in the Province of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland.
The Bishop of Argyll and The Isles is the Ordinary of the Scottish Episcopal Diocese of Argyll and the Isles.
The Cathedral Church of St Columba in Oban is the seat of the Roman Catholic Bishop of Argyll and the Isles and mother church of the Diocese of Argyll and the Isles. The cathedral is located on the sea front at the northern end of Oban.
The Bishop of Brechin is a title held successively, since c. 1150: (firstly) by bishops of the Catholic church until the Reformation of 1560; (secondly) by bishops of the Church of Scotland until that church declared itself presbyterian in 1689; and (thirdly) by bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church since then. The seat of the bishops of Brechin until 1689 was Brechin Cathedral which then became the High Kirk of Brechin in the Church of Scotland. That building ceased to function as a place of worship in November 2021. The current bishop of Brechin leads the Diocese of Brechin in the Scottish Episcopal Church, with its cathedral in Dundee.
The Bishop of Argyll or Bishop of Lismore was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Argyll, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. It was created in 1200, when the western half of the territory of the Bishopric of Dunkeld was formed into the new diocese. The bishops were based at Lismore. The Bishopric of Argyll, like other Scottish bishoprics, passed into the keeping of the Scottish Episcopal Church after the Scottish Reformation.
The Bishop of Dunblane or Bishop of Strathearn was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Dunblane or Strathearn, one of medieval Scotland's thirteen bishoprics. It was based at Dunblane Cathedral, now a parish church of the Church of Scotland. The bishopric itself certainly derives from an older Gaelic Christian community. According to legend, the Christian community of Dunblane was derived from the mission of St. Bláán, a saint originally associated with the monastery of Cenn Garath (Kingarth) on the Isle of Bute. Although the bishopric had its origins in the 1150s or before, the cathedral was not built nor was the seat (cathedra) of the diocese fixed at Dunblane until the episcopate of Clement.
Saint Moluag was a Scottish missionary, and a contemporary of Saint Columba, who evangelized the Picts of Scotland in the sixth century. Saint Moluag was the patron saint of Argyll as evidenced by a charter in 1544, from the Earl of Argyll, which states "in honour of God Omnipotent, the blessed Virgin, and Saint Moloc, our patron". The House of Lorne became the kings of Dalriada and eventually united with the Picts to become the kings of Scots.
The Diocese of Argyll and The Isles is in the west of Scotland, and is one of the seven dioceses of the Scottish Episcopal Church. It is perhaps the largest of the dioceses, but has the smallest number of church members. As a united diocese, Argyll and The Isles has two cathedrals: St John's in Oban and the Cathedral of The Isles in Millport, Isle of Cumbrae.
St. Moluag's Cathedral is located on the Scottish island of Lismore just off the coast of Oban. As a congregation of the Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, the present-day parish church of 1749 stands on the site of the choir of the abandoned 13th-century cathedral, incorporating much of its material, but wrapped in 18th-century design.
Charles Petre Eyre (1817–1902) was a Roman Catholic clergyman who was appointed the first Roman Catholic archbishop of Glasgow since the Scottish Reformation. He served as archbishop from 1878 to 1902.
The re-establishment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Scotland took effect on 15 March 1878. This followed the restoration of the English hierarchy in 1850.
The Archdiocese of Glasgow is the metropolitan see of the Province of Glasgow in the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. The episcopal seat of the developing diocese was established by Saint Kentigern in the 6th century AD. It is one of two Latin Church metropolitan archdioceses of the Roman Catholic Church: the only archdioceses in Scotland. It is the elder of the two bishoprics. Innocent VIII first raised Glasgow a metropolitan archbishopric in 1492. The Metropolis has the dioceses of Motherwell and Paisley as suffragans within the Ecclesiastical Province.
The Outer Hebrides are a unique religious area in contemporary Scotland and Britain. The northern island is dominated by Calvinist 'free churches', and has been described as "the last bastion of Sabbath observance in the UK". It is also home to a unique form of Gaelic psalm singing known as precenting. The southern islands of South Uist and Barra are the last remnants of native pre-Reformation Scottish Catholicism. Barra was once dubbed "the island the Reformation did not reach".
The Archdeacon of Argyll was the only archdeacon in the diocese of Argyll, acting as a subordinate of the Bishop of Argyll. Regarding his supporting churches, it is known that archdeacon held a quarter of parish church of Eilean Munde as a prebend.
George Kennedy Buchanan Henderson was a Scottish Anglican bishop in the 20th century. He was Bishop of Argyll and The Isles and elected Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church.