Welcome to the Diocese of Winchester website

The Diocese of Winchester is a structure to enable a very complicated organisation of spiritual, political, social and heritage significance for the region to operate as effectively as possible bring the life and light of the Gospel of Christ to people of all outlooks and background.

Part of the Church of England

The Church of England, while rooted firmly in Christian and national history is committed to looking forward into the future as it seeks to serve a generation of people experiencing accelerating change. The Church has often found this painful and there are many issues – women bishops, for example – that are still moving through the processes of change.

An Anglican diocese has a number of ‘layers’: the Parishes and chaplaincies are often the most visible, but they are a unity with the administrative centre with its various supportive departments handling things like training for ministry, finance, Safeguarding and property issues. Holding all this together is a structure of senior clergy including our two Archdeacons and three bishops.

Winchester has a Diocesan Bishop and two ‘Suffragans’, the Bishops of Basingstoke and Southampton respectively. Governance is by means of ‘Bishop in Synod’ and our diocese is one of the five most senior among the Church of England’s 44 dioceses. Our diocesan Bishop is one of the 27 ‘Lords Spiritual’ in the House of Lords.

• Welcome
• History, Facts & Figures
• Bishop of Winchester
• Winchester Cathedral
• Role of the Church of England
• Map of the Diocese
• Who's Who in the Diocese
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Departments
• Diocesan Registry
• Synodical Governance
• Diocesan Resources Room
• Chaplaincies & Special Ministeries
• Vacancies
• Diocesan Directory
• What's on
• Clergy Counselling Service
• The e-news
• Newcastle Partnership