The Diocese of Worcester forms part of the Province of Canterbury in England.
The diocese was founded in around 679 by St Theodore of Canterbury at Worcester to minister to the kingdom of the Hwicce, one of the many Anglo Saxon petty-kingdoms of that time. The original borders of the diocese are believed to be based on those of that ancient kingdom.
Covering an area of 671 square miles (1,740 km2) it has parishes in:
- the County of Worcestershire
- the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley
- northern Gloucestershire
- urban villages along the edge of the south-east of the Metropolitan Borough of Wolverhampton
- the Metropolitan Borough of Sandwell
Currently the diocese has 190 parishes with 281 churches and 163 stipendiary clergy.
The diocese is divided into two Archdeaconries:
- the Archdeaconry of Worcester
- the Archdeaconry of Dudley
On its creation the diocese included what is now southern and western Warwickshire (an area known as Felden). In 1837 the north and east of Warwickshire (Arden) which formed the archdeaconry of Coventry in the then Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry was transferred to the diocese of Worcester. In 1905 an area in northern Warwickshire was split off as the Diocese of Birmingham, and in 1918 an area approximating to the rest of Warwickshire was made the Diocese of Coventry.
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