Diocese of Canterbury

The Diocese of Canterbury is a Church of England diocese covering eastern Kent, founded by St. Augustine of Canterbury in 597. It is centred on Canterbury Cathedral, and is the oldest see of the Church of England.

The diocesan bishop is the Archbishop of Canterbury. However, because of his roles as Metropolitan of the Province of Canterbury, Primate of All England and head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, the archbishop (whose primary residence is at Lambeth Palace in London) is often away. Therefore one of his suffragan bishops, the Bishop of Dover, is given the additional title of "Bishop in Canterbury" and is in many ways empowered to act almost as if he were the diocesan bishop. There was, until 2009, another suffragan bishop, the Bishop of Maidstone, but it was decided in November 2010 that no further appointments would be made to that post. (Two further suffragans with titular settlements located in the diocese — Ebbsfleet and Richborough — are really provincial episcopal visitors with a focus more wide-ranging than the local diocese.)

For organisational purposes, the diocese is divided into three archdeaconries, containing a total of fifteen deaneries:

• in the Archdeaconry of Canterbury — Canterbury, East Bridge, Reculver, Thanet and West Bridge;
• in the Archdeaconry of Ashford — Ashford, Dover, Elham and Sandwich;
• in the Archdeaconry of Maidstone — Maidstone, North Downs, Romney and Tenterden, Ospringe, Sittingbourne, and the Weald.