Anglican Diocese of Manchester


The Diocese of Manchester is a Church of England diocese in the Province of York, England. Based in the city of Manchester, the diocese covers much of the county of Greater Manchester and small areas of the counties of Lancashire and Cheshire.

History

After passage of the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847, the Diocese of Manchester was founded on 1 September 1847, having previously been part of the Diocese of Chester.
The diocese was founded in accordance with the Third Report of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, appointed to consider the state of the Established Church in England and Wales, printed in 1836. It recommended the formation of the Bishopric of Manchester, and the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1836 was passed that year whereby the King, by Order-in-Council was empowered to carry into effect the recommendations of the commissioners. It provided that the sees of St. Asaph and Bangor should be united on the next vacancy in either, and on that occurring the Bishop of Manchester should be created.
The union of the sees never took place and the Bishopric of Manchester Act 1847 was brought forward which authorised the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to bring forward an alternative reorganisation scheme in Chambers which received royal assent and the bishopric was constituted.
The diocese on its creation in 1847 originally covered the historic hundreds of Salford, Blackburn, Leyland and Amounderness and the Parish of Leigh, which lay in the hundred of West Derby. However, with the creation of the Diocese of Blackburn in 1926, which took the three northern hundreds, Manchester was left with just the hundred of Salford and Leigh. The final boundary change to the diocese was in 1933, by annexing Wythenshawe from the Diocese of Chester.
At the same time the diocese was founded, the collegiate church in Manchester was elevated to cathedral status to become the Cathedral Church of St Mary, St Denys and St George where the bishop's throne is located.

Organisation

Bishops

The diocesan Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, is the ordinary of the diocese and is assisted by Mark Davies, Bishop suffragan of Middleton, and Mark Ashcroft, Bishop suffragan of Bolton. The Bishop of Middleton oversees the archdeaconries of Manchester and Rochdale, and the Bishop of Bolton the archdeaconries of Bolton and Salford. Alternative episcopal oversight is provided by the provincial episcopal visitor the Bishop suffragan of Beverley, Glyn Webster. He is licensed as an honorary assistant bishop of the diocese in order to facilitate his work there. Besides Webster, there are four retired honorary assistant bishops licensed in the diocese:
The diocese is divided into four archdeaconries, each divided into a number of deaneries.
Archdeaconry of Manchester
Archdeaconry of Bolton
Archdeaconry of Rochdale
Archdeaconry of Salford
The first, and thus far only, Archdeacon of Salford, since 2009, is David Sharples.