Over 300 parishes, 400 churches, a multitude of people...

The Diocese of Winchester is one of the oldest and largest in the Church of England. Led by The Bishop of Winchester - The Right Reverend Michael Scott-Joynt - the Winchester Diocese is involved in all of the regular work which you would expect, but a great deal more behind the scenes. With departments of:

• Social Responsibility (caring for those who need our help in practical as well as spiritual ways);

• Ministry Development (allowing those who have a call to work with is to find a way to do so);

• Faith Development (encouraging the spread of God's word amongst the people of the Church), amongst young and old;

• Education (helping to run hundreds of schools in our region);

• Church House (providing support for all of this work)

the Church of England is an integral part of religious and more secular life in the region.

For more information about the work of our departments, please telephone Church House on 01962 844644.

For more information about the structure of the Church of England, click on the Church of England website logo at the top of the page.

1350 Years of Christian History

In AD648 Cenwalh, King of Wessex had a church built in Winchester. In AD670 Bishop Haeddi transferred the bishopric from Dorchester on Thames (Oxfordshire) to Winchester and Cenwalh's church became a Cathedral.

The city rapidly became the royal and ecclesiastical capital of Wessex and this, coupled with the fame of Saint Swithun (Bishop of Winchester 852-862), assisted the growth of the importance of the See of Winchester.

In 1079 a new Norman cathedral was built adjacent to the ancient Anglo Saxon cathedral which was in turn demolished to make way for the completion of the Norman nave.

The ancient diocese spread from the banks of the Thames in London to Dorset. Over the centuries other dioceses have been established from the Diocese of Winchester, most recently Portsmouth and Guildford in 1927.

It was during the reign of Henry VII (1485-1509), that the Channel Islands were transferred from the French diocese of Coutances to the Winchester Diocese.

Today...

...our Diocese covers most of Hampshire, an area of eastern Dorset and the Channel Islands, ministering to a population of 1.2 million. It includes urban areas - Andover, Basingstoke, Bournemouth and Southampton - as well as a significant rural ministry which accounts for over half our parishes. The diocese is led by the Right Reverend Michael Scott-Joynt, the 96th Bishop of Winchester, supported by the Suffragan Bishops of Basingstoke and Southampton. The diocese is divided into small units called parishes. We worship in 406 churches and in Winchester Cathedral - the mother church of the diocese.

Our community context
We serve God through a presence in every parish. Anglican clergy are there to serve and minister to the whole of the parish not just the church members. We are active in the community through our Church schools, industrial, rural, other specialist sector ministries and through our Social Responsibility department, collaborating with a wide range of statutory and voluntary agencies. We have over 300 clergy, 217 readers (authorised lay ministry) and over 30,000 regular worshippers. Over 20,000 young people attend our Church Schools throughout the diocese.

Our wider links
Our links go further than the borders of our diocese and the Church of England. We have strong links with the Diocese of Newcastle (UK) and overseas with the church in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire) and Myanmar (formerly Burma). We have strong links with other Churches at both local and national level, Bishop Michael meets regularly with his ecumenical colleagues, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Portsmouth and the Free Church Leaders. Through the work of our Inter Faith adviser we maintain links and dialogue with members of other faith communities- Jews, Sikhs, Muslims and Hindus.

at work

As we've already said above, the Diocese is led by the Bishop of Winchester, supported by two Suffragan Bishops (assistant bishops), of Basingstoke and Southampton. They, in turn, are supported by two Archdeacons (Winchester & Bournemouth), the clergy and lay staff located in Church House and around the Diocese.

There is also a church government structure, which exists to assist the Bishop and his staff in making certain decisions, to support and oversee the work of the Diocese, and to provide a system of democratic representation of its people. The Diocesan Synod consists of around 100 clergy and lay people, and meets twice a year. More regular meetings are held by the Diocesan Synod Standing Committee (which in some dioceses is entitled the Bishop's Council), again a mixture of clergy and lay people, and they are responsible for scrutinising in more depth the work of the Diocese and its staff. The Standing Committee delegates to a range of other committees more specific responsibilities, and they are responsible for overseeing directly the work of departments which support the Diocese as a whole.

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