Size of Diocese

[Naomi4Christ]

The visit from the bishop thread led me to wonder what kind of dioceses we are in. There is obviously a huge diversity in this, as in all things Anglican.

As well as the size of your diocese, what other characteristics does it have? Large/small geographical area, urban/rural, diversity of churchmanship, role of bishop and diocesan staff, etc.

 

[Naomi4Christ]

The visit from the bishop thread led me to wonder what kind of dioceses we are in. There is obviously a huge diversity in this, as in all things Anglican.

As well as the size of your diocese, what other characteristics does it have? Large/small geographical area, urban/rural, diversity of churchmanship, role of bishop and diocesan staff, etc.

OK, I'll go first

My diocese has just over 150 parishes, spread over a very small area - maybe 30 miles across by 15 miles. It is mixture of urban (dormitory towns, market towns) and rural. The socio-economic status is very high overall, but there is much diversity.

Churchmanship is also very diverse with the highest of high and lowest of low worship styles and everything in between. Theologically, there is the most Anglo Catholic, the most liberal, the most evangelical and the most charasmatic.

The bishop is seen as a servant of the parishes, providing the support we need to do our jobs (spreading the word), and we have a good diocesan staff who can provide specific support.

 

[karen freeinchristman]

My diocese is about 900 square miles large, with over 300 places of worship including urban and rural parishes. The diocese is split into 18 deaneries, and besides the diocesan bishop there are also two suffragan bishops. The duties of the bishops are general oversight, in administrative, pastoral and personal matters.

The socio-economic range is from very posh (where the professional footballers live) to the quite poor. The churchmanship does vary, but I would say the majority is fairly broad, with some very low evangelical and very high churches smattered about.

 

[Timothy]

We have under 15 parishes. Quite a large geographiic area, we spread all over Cyprus, plus parishes in the Gulf, as far south as Yemen.

The bishop is a great guy who supports and helps the parishes. In recent years while serving as the region's Primate, he's been less involved in individual parish work, unfortunately. He's retiring early next year, so we'll see what the next guy is like!

The parish churchmanship is drifting slowly downwards, we've gone from one evangelical parish to two and one (that being mine) which has a lowish church evangelical chaplain who is drifting the parish lower. The rest are mostly fairly broad church.

 

[longhair75]

Good morning friends

The Nebraska Diocese has 59 parishes with a membership of about 10,000 people.

We are a very rural state, with a population of 1,700,00 people.

 

[AngCath]

Diocese of West Texas has 92

 

[AngCath]

oh and the diocese has 20,000+ members i remember correctly

 

[ChasingADream]

The Anglican Diocese of Niagara contains 102 parishes, I believe.

 

[ebia]

Hmm,

Ours has an area of 65,000 km^2 (25,000 square miles - vast compared to anything in the UK). We're not quite in the farthest corner but it takes us 4 hours to drive to the Cathedral from here. Historically it's been pretty Catholic but these days it's much more moderate. I don't know what the population is, but mostly it's empty space - the only big regional centres are Bendigo (about 100,000) and Mildura (about 30,000).

There are about 35 parishes - I say about because one or two of them barely exist or are run as co-operating parishes with the Uniting Church and (at the other extreme), ours is about to split into two parishes.

Total membership of the diocese - haven't a clue.