There are 42 dioceses of the Church of England. [1] These cover England, the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands and a small part of Wales. The Diocese in Europe is also a part of the Church of England, [1] and covers the whole of continental Europe, Morocco and the post-Soviet states. [2] The structure of dioceses within the Church of England was initially inherited from the Catholic Church as part of the English Reformation. [3] During the Reformation a number of new dioceses were founded, [4] but no more were then created until the middle of the 19th century, [5] when dioceses were founded mainly in response to the growing population, especially in the northern industrial cities. [6] The most recent diocese to be established was the Diocese of Leeds, which came into being on 20 April 2014. [7] Prior to that, no new dioceses had been created since 1927. Leeds was created by combining three previous dioceses: the Diocese of Bradford, the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, and the Diocese of Wakefield. [7]
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The 42 current dioceses are divided into two provinces. The Province of Canterbury in the south comprises 30 dioceses and the Province of York in the north comprises 12. [1] The archbishops of Canterbury and York have pastoral oversight over the bishops within their province, along with certain other rights and responsibilities. [8] Each diocese has one cathedral, except for the Diocese of Leeds, which has three that are considered co-equal. Of all the dioceses, Derby has the smallest cathedral: Derby Cathedral takes up only 10,950 square feet (1,000 m2). [9] One diocese dates back to the 6th century, eight date back to the 7th century, two to the 10th century, five to the 11th century, two to the 12th century, five to the 16th century, seven to the 19th century, and ten to the 20th century. The territories administered by the various dioceses generally accord with the counties as they existed before the Local Government Act 1972.
