Diocese of Gloucester

Diocese of Gloucester Church of England
Province:	Canterbury
Arms of the Bishop of Gloucester
Gloucester Cathedral
Bishop:	Rachel Treweek
Cathedral:	Gloucester Cathedral
Organisation
Archdeaconries:	Cheltenham, Gloucester
No. of parishes:	323
No. of churches:	396
Details
Website:	gloucester.anglican.org

The Diocese of Gloucester is a Church of England diocese which covers the greater part of Gloucestershire, though the south-west of the county is within the Diocese of Bristol. It is within the Province of Canterbury.

The cathedral of the diocese is Gloucester Cathedral, in the City of Gloucester, the seat of the Bishop of Gloucester.

History

The diocese was founded during the Reformation in 1541 from part of the Diocese of Hereford and the Diocese of Worcester. In 1542 the Diocese of Bristol was created to cover Bristol, but on 5 October 1836 it was merged back with Gloucester diocese as the Diocese of Gloucester and Bristol; Bristol became an independent diocese again on 9 July 1897.

Outside and missionary links

The diocese has twinning links with the dioceses of Dornakal and Karnataka Central in the Church of South India, Västerås in Sweden, El Camino Real in California, USA, and Western Tanganyika in Tanzania. It is currently supporting the work of the Diocese of Western Tanganyika to build a new high school.

Organisation

The diocese is divided into two archdeaconries, headed respectively by the Archdeacon of Cheltenham and the Archdeacon of Gloucester. The Archdeaconries cover:

• Archdeaconry of Cheltenham: the deaneries of Cheltenham, Cirencester, North Cotswolds, and Tewkesbury and Winchcombe;
• Archdeaconry of Gloucester: the deaneries of Forest, Gloucester City, Severn Vale, Stroud, & Wotton.

Bishops

The Bishop of Gloucester presides over the diocese, assisted by one suffragan, the Bishop of Tewkesbury. In 2015 the first woman to be appointed a diocesan bishop was appointed as Bishop of Gloucester became the first in the Church of England to receive a woman as diocesan bishop.

The bishop's residence is Bishopscourt, Gloucester.

Bishops of Gloucester
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1541	1549	John Wakeman	Previously last Abbot of Tewkesbury.
1550	1554	John Hooper	Also Bishop of Worcester (1550–1554); deprived of both sees.
1554	1558	James Brooks	Died in office.
1558	1562	See vacant
1562	1579	Richard Cheyney	Formerly a Prebendary of Westminster Abbey. Also held Bristol in commendam (1562–1579); died in office.
1579	1581	See vacant
1581	1598	John Bullingham	Also Bishop of Bristol (1581–1589).
1598	1604	Godfrey Goldsborough	Formerly a Prebendary of Worcester.
1604	1607	Thomas Ravis	Formerly Dean of Queen's College, Oxford; elected 4 March 1604; translated to London.
1607	1610	Henry Parry	Formerly Dean of Chester; translated to Worcester.
1610	1612	Giles Thomson	Formerly Dean of Windsor; consecrated 9 June 1611; died in office.
1612	1624	Miles Smith	Formerly a Canon-resident of Hereford.
1625	1646	Godfrey Goodman	Formerly Dean of Rochester; sequestrated 1640 and formally deprived 1646; apostated and died in Rome in 1655.
1646	1660	See was abolished during the Commonwealth and the Protectorate.
1660	1672	William Nicholson	Formerly Archdeacon of Brecon.
1672	1681	John Pritchett	Formerly Vicar of St Giles, Cripplegate.
1681	1690	Robert Frampton	Formerly Dean of Gloucester; deprived in 1690.
1691	1714	Edward Fowler	Formerly a Prebendary of Gloucester; died in office.
1715	1722	Richard Willis	Formerly Dean of Lincoln; translated to Salisbury.
1722	1731	Joseph Wilcocks	Formerly a Prebendary of Westminster; translated to Rochester.
1731	1733	Elias Sydall	Translated from St David's.
1734	1752	Martin Benson	Formerly a Prebendary of Durham.
1752	1759	James Johnson	Formerly a Canon-resident of St Paul's, London.
1759	1779	William Warburton	Formerly Dean of Bristol and preacher of Lincoln's Inn.
1779	1781	The Hon. James Yorke	Translated from St David's; translated to Ely.
1781	1789	Samuel Hallifax	Translated to St Asaph.
1789	1802	Richard Beadon	Formerly Archdeacon of London; translated to Bath & Wells.
1802	1815	George Huntingford	Formerly Warden of Winchester College.
1815	1824	The Hon. Henry Ryder	Translated to Lichfield & Coventry.
1824	1830	Christopher Bethell	Translated to Exeter.
1830	1836	James Monk	Translated to Gloucester and Bristol.
Bishops of Gloucester and Bristol
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1836	1856	James Monk	Translated from Gloucester; died in office.
1856	1861	Charles Baring	Translated to Durham.
1861	1863	William Thomson	Previously Dean of Queen's College, Oxford; translated to York.
1863	1897	Charles Ellicott, DD	Previously Dean of Exeter; translated to Gloucester.
Bishops of Gloucester
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1897	1905	Charles Ellicott, DD	Hitherto Bishop of Gloucester & Bristol.
1905	1923	Edgar Gibson, DD
1923	1945	Arthur Headlam
1946	1953	Clifford Woodward	Translated from Bristol.
1954	1962	Wilfred Askwith, KCMG, DD	Translated from Blackburn.
1962	1975	Basil Guy, MA	Formerly Bishop of Bedford
1975	1992	John Yates, MA	Formerly Bishop of Whitby
1992	1993	Peter Ball, MA, CGA	Formerly Bishop of Lewes
1993	2003	David Bentley, BA	Formerly Bishop of Lynn
2004	21 November 2014	Michael Perham, MA	Formerly Dean of Derby. Retired 21 November 2014; had stepped back from public ministry on 2 August 2014.
5 August 2014	15 June 2015	Martyn Snow, Bishop suffragan of Tewkesbury	acting diocesan bishop
15 June 2015	incumbent	Rachel Treweek	Election confirmed 15 June 2015.
Source(s):

Outside links

• Diocese of Gloucester

References

• Church of England Statistics 2002