The Diocese

What is a Diocese?

The Church of England is organised into regions called a Diocese. Each Diocese has a mother church called a cathedral. The name of Diocese if often named after the city where the cathedral is found.

Each Diocese has a Bishop is charge and the Bishop of London is Richard Chartres. He is assisted by suffragan bishops for the different areas of the Diocese. Each Diocese is then divided into Deanery’s and then they are divided into parishes, each with their own parish church. The whole of England is divided in this way which means that every person in England lives in a parish and has a parish priest.

The Diocese of London covers 227 square miles of Greater London north of the Thames. It is split into five areas shown on the map below and has 479 church buildings.

The Diocese covers 18 London Boroughs and so if you live in one of those listed below then you are living in the Diocese of London.

• Barnet
• Brent
• Camden
• City of London
• Ealing
• Enfield
• Hackney
• Hammersmith & Fulham
• Harringay
• Harrow
• Hillingdon
• Hounslow
• Islington
• Kensington & Chelsea
• Richmond
• Spelthorne
• Tower Hamlets
• Westminster

The Church of England is part of the world-wide Anglican Church, and is organised into two provinces, each led by an Archbishop. Each province is divided into Dioceses, led by a Bishop. Altogether, there are 43 Dioceses in England.