Hierarchy
The Church in England and Wales has five provinces: Birmingham, Cardiff, Liverpool, Southwark and Westminster. There are 22 dioceses which are divided into parishes (for comparison, the Church of England and Church in Wales currently have a total of 50 dioceses). In addition to these, there are two dioceses covering England and Wales for specific groups which are the Bishopric of the Forces and the Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainians.
The Catholic Bishops in England and Wales come together in a collaborative structure known as the Bishops' Conference. Currently the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Gerard Nichols, is the President of the Bishops' Conference. For this reason in the global Catholic Church (outside England), he is de facto Primate of England though not in the eyes of English law and the established Church of England. Historically, the avoidance of the title of "Primate" was to eschew whipping up anti-Catholic tension, in the same way the bishops of the restored hierarchy avoided using current titles of Anglican Sees (Archbishop of Westminster rather than "Canterbury" or "London"). However, the Archbishop of Westminster had certain privileges: he was the only Metropolitan in the country until 1911 (when the archdioceses of Birmingham and Liverpool were created) and he has always acted as leader at meetings of the English bishops.
Although the bishops of the restored hierarchy took "new" titles, like that of Westminster, they saw themselves very much in continuity with the pre-Reformation Church. Westminster in particular saw itself as the continuation of Canterbury, hence the similarity of the coat of arms of the two Sees (with Westminster believing it has more right to it since it features the pallium, no longer given to Anglican archbishops). At the back of Westminster Cathedral is a list of Popes and, alongside this, a list of Catholic Archbishops of Canterbury, beginning with Augustine of Canterbury, and the year they received the pallium. After Cardinal Pole, the last Catholic incumbent of Canterbury, the names of the Catholic Vicars Apostolic or titular bishops (from 1685) are recorded and then the Archbishops of Westminster, in one unimpaired line, from 597 to the present, according to the archdiocese of Westminster. To highlight this continuity or unimpaired line today, the installation rites of pre-Reformation Catholic Archbishops of Canterbury and earlier Archbishops of Westminster were used at the recent installation of the new Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Gerard Nichols.
Diocese | Province | Approximate Territory | Cathedral | Creation |
---|---|---|---|---|
01Diocese of Arundel and Brighton Bishop of Arundel and Brighton |
15Southwark | Surrey and Sussex | Cathedral Church of Our Lady and St Philip Howard | 201965 (from Diocese of Southwark) |
02Archdiocese of Birmingham Archbishop of Birmingham |
01Birmingham | West Midlands, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Oxfordshire north of the Thames | Metropolitan Cathedral Church and Basilica of St Chad | 021850 (elevated to Archdiocese 1911) |
03Diocese of Brentwood Bishop of Brentwood |
19Westminster | Historic County of Essex (including North-east Greater London) |
Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Helen | 171917 (from Archdiocese of Westminster) |
04Archdiocese of Cardiff Archbishop of Cardiff |
04Cardiff | Eastern Glamorgan, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire | Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St David | 031850 (originally as Diocese of Newport and Menevia; as Diocese of Newport from 1895; elevated to Archdiocese of Cardiff 1916) |
05Diocese of Clifton Bishop of Clifton |
02Birmingham | Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire | Cathedral Church of Ss Peter and Paul | 041850 |
06Diocese of East Anglia Bishop of East Anglia |
20Westminster | Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk | Cathedral Church of St John the Baptist | 211976 (from Diocese of Northampton) |
07Diocese of Hallam Bishop of Hallam |
08Liverpool | South Yorkshire, High Peak, North Derbyshire, Chesterfield, Bassetlaw | Cathedral Church of St Marie | 221980 (from Dioceses of Leeds and Nottingham) |
08Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle |
09Liverpool | Tyne and Wear, Northumberland, County Durham | Cathedral Church of St Mary | 051850 (originally as Diocese of Hexham; as Hexham and Newcastle from 1861) |
09Diocese of Lancaster Bishop of Lancaster |
10Liverpool | Cumbria and Northern Lancashire | Cathedral Church of St Peter | 181924 (from Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle and Archdiocese of Liverpool) |
10Diocese of Leeds Bishop of Leeds |
11Liverpool | Historic West Riding of Yorkshire excluding South Yorkshire | Cathedral Church of St Anne | 131878 (from Diocese of Beverley) |
11Archdiocese of Liverpool Archbishop of Liverpool |
07Liverpool | Merseyside north of the Mersey, West Lancashire, Isle of Man | Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Christ the King | 061850 (elevated to Archdiocese 1911) |
12Diocese of Menevia Bishop of Menevia |
05Cardiff | Brecknockshire, Cardiganshire, Carmarthenshire, Pembrokeshire, Radnorshire and Western Glamorgan | Cathedral Church of St Joseph | 161898 (from Vicariate Apostolic of Wales) |
13Diocese of Middlesbrough Bishop of Middlesbrough |
12Liverpool | Historic North Riding of Yorkshire, historic East Riding of Yorkshire, York | Cathedral Church of St Mary the Virgin | 141878 (from Diocese of Beverley) |
14Diocese of Northampton Bishop of Northampton |
21Westminster | Northamptonshire, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire north of the Thames | Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Thomas | 071850 |
15Diocese of Nottingham Bishop of Nottingham |
22Westminster | Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Rutland, Lincolnshire | Cathedral Church of St Barnabas | 081850 |
16Diocese of Plymouth Bishop of Plymouth |
16Southwark | Cornwall, Devon, Dorset | Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface | 091850 |
17Diocese of Portsmouth Bishop of Portsmouth |
17Southwark | Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Berkshire and Oxfordshire south of the Thames, The Channel Islands | Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist | 151882 (from Diocese of Southwark) |
18Diocese of Salford Bishop of Salford |
13Liverpool | Part of Greater Manchester, South-east Lancashire | Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist | 101850 |
19Diocese of Shrewsbury Bishop of Shrewsbury |
03Birmingham | Cheshire, Shropshire, the Wirral and Manchester south of the Mersey | Cathedral Church of Our Lady Help of Christians and Saint Peter of Alcantara | 111850 |
20Archdiocese of Southwark Archbishop of Southwark |
14Southwark | Kent, Greater London south of the Thames | Metropolitan Cathedral Church of St George | 121850 (elevated to Archdiocese 1965) |
21Archdiocese of Westminster Archbishop of Westminster |
18Westminster | Hertfordshire, historic County of Middlesex (i.e. North-west Greater London) | Metropolitan Cathedral Church of the Most Precious Blood | 011850 |
22Diocese of Wrexham Bishop of Wrexham |
06Cardiff | Anglesey, Caernarfonshire, Denbighshire, Flintshire, Merionethshire and Montgomeryshire | Cathedral Church of Our Lady of Sorrows | 241987 (from Diocese of Menevia) |
23Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainians Bishop Hlib Lonchyna |
23Westminster | Great Britain | Cathedral Church of the Holy Family in Exile | 191957 |
24Bishopric of the Forces Bishop Richard Moth |
24Holy See | HM Forces both in Britain and abroad | Cathedral Church of St Michael and St George | 231986 |
25Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham Monsignor Keith Newton |
25Holy See | Former Anglican clergy, religious and laity resident in England and Wales | To be announced | 252011 |
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“In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.”
—Laurence J. Peter (19191990)