Diocese of Peterborough
| Diocese of Peterborough Church of England | |
| Province: | Canterbury |
|---|---|
 | |
 Peterborough Cathedral | |
| Bishop: | Donald Allister |
| Cathedral: | Peterborough Cathedral |
| Organisation | |
| Archdeaconries: | Northampton, Oakham |
| No. of parishes: | 352 |
| No. of churches: | 386 |
| Details | |
| Website: | peterborough-diocese.org.uk |
The Diocese of Peterborough is a diocese of the Church of England which covers Northamptonshire and Rutland, and forms part of the Province of Canterbury.
The seat of the Bishop of Peterborough is the Peterborough Cathedral ('the Cathedral Church of St Peter, St Paul and St Andrew, Peterborough'), an ancient church of Barnack stone now surrounded by the modernity of Peterborough New Town. The cathedral was originally the abbey church of a monastery founded in AD 655 of which the church was built in its present form between 1118 and 1238.
History
The cathedral may be ancient, but the diocese is a child of the Henrician Reformation. It was founded at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1541, carved out of the vast Diocese of Lincoln.
Peterborough was of six wholly new bishoprics founded under King Henry VIII; on 4 September 1541, the King issued letters patent converting the abbey church of Peterborough Abbey into a cathedral church for the new diocese, with a dean and chapter and ecclesiastical staff. The last abbot, John Chambers, was consecrated in his former abbey church on 23 October 1541 as the first Bishop of Peterborough.
Until 1927 the Peterborough diocese also covered Leicestershire, but in that year the Diocese of Leicester was founded,[1] and the then Bishop of Peterborough, Cyril Bardsley, moved to become the first diocesan Bishop of Leicester since the Middle Ages.
A link with the Anglican Church of Kenya Diocese of Bungoma was formed by the two bishops following the Lambeth Conference in 1998.
Organisation
The Diocese is divided into two Archdeaconries:
- The Archdeaconry of Northampton, and
- The Archdeaconry of Oakham.
The Bishop of Peterborough is also commissioned as an Assistant Bishop in the neighbouring Diocese of Ely and in that capacity he provides pastoral care to the parishes in the Peterborough urban area that lie south of the River Nene in Huntingdonshire; these parishes include Stanground, Orton, Woodston, Yaxley and Fletton.[2][3][4]
Bishops
The Diocese is presided over by the Bishop of Peterborough, an office founded in 1557. He is assisted by a suffragan, the Bishop of Brixworth: the suffragan see of Brixworth was created by Order in Council on 26 July 1988.[5]
| Bishops of Peterborough | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| From | Until | Incumbent | Notes |
| 1541 | 1556 | John Chambers | Last Abbot of Peterborough Abbey. Died in office |
| 1557 | 1559 | David Pole | Deposed |
| 1560 | 1585 | Edmund Scambler | Translated to Norwich |
| 1585 | 1600 | Richard Howland | Died in office |
| 1601 | 1630 | Thomas Dove | Died in office |
| 1530 | 1632 | William Piers | Translated to Bath & Wells |
| 1533 | 1634 | Augustine Lindsell | Translated to Hereford |
| 1634 | 1638 | Francis Dee | Died in office |
| 1639 | 1646 | John Towers | Deprived of office |
| 1646 | 1660 | None (Commonwealth period) | |
| 1660 | 1663 | Benjamin Lany | Translated to Lincoln |
| 1663 | 1679 | Joseph Henshaw | Died in office |
| 1679 | 1695 | William Lloyd | Translated from Llandaff; Translated to Norwich |
| 1685 | 1690 | Thomas White | Deprived of office |
| 1691 | 1718 | Richard Cumberland | Died in office |
| 1718 | 1728 | White Kennett | Died in office |
| 1729 | 1747 | Robert Clavering | Translated from Llandaff; died in office |
| 1747 | 1757 | John Thomas | Translated to Salisbury |
| 1757 | 1764 | Richard Terrick | Translated to London |
| 1764 | 1769 | Robert Lamb | Died in office |
| 1769 | 1794 | John Hinchliffe | Died in office |
| 1794 | 1813 | Spencer Madan | Translated from Bristol; died in office |
| 1813 | 1819 | John Parsons | Died in office |
| 1819 | 1839 | Herbert Marsh | Translated from Llandaff; died in office |
| 1839 | 1864 | George Davys | Died in office |
| 1864 | 1868 | Francis Jeune | Died in office |
| 1868 | 1891 | William Magee | Translated to York |
| 1891 | 1897 | Mandell Creighton | Translated to London |
| 1897 | 1916 | Edward Glyn | |
| 1916 | 1923 | Frank Woods | Translated to Winchester |
| 1924 | 1927 | Cyril Bardsley | Translated to Leicester |
| 1927 | 1949 | Claude Blagden | |
| 1949 | 1956 | Spencer Leeson | Died in office |
| 1956 | 1961 | Robert Stopford | Previously Bishop of Fulham; Translated to London |
| 1961 | 1972 | Cyril Easthaugh | Previously Bishop of Kensington |
| 1972 | 1984 | Douglas Feaver | |
| 1984 | 1995 | Bill Westwood | Previously Suffragan Bishop of Edmonton |
| 1996 | 2009 | Ian Cundy | Died in office |
| 2010 | incumbent | Donald Allister | Previously Archdeacon of Chester |
Outside links
References
- ↑ London Gazette: no. 33220. pp. 7321–7322. 12 November 1926. Retrieved 2007-09-24.
- ↑ "Bridging the divide in a city". Diocesan website - press releases (Diocese of Ely (archived)). 29 July 2004. Archived from the original on October 14, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20071014213050/http://ely.anglican.org/news_events/media/press/details.html?id=26. Retrieved 22 May 2016.
- ↑ "Bishops bridge boundaries aboard boat" Peterborough Telegraph 2 August 2004
- ↑ "Bishop Donald becomes Assistant Bishop in the Diocese of Ely" on the Peterborough Diocese website
- ↑ London Gazette: no. 51444. p. 9349. 18 August 1988. Retrieved 7 May 2014.
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