Dioceses Commission

Some readers will recall that I'm keen in principle on a thorough review of the way we do dioceses in the CofE. I'm not starry-eyed about the chances of good ideas being implemented. So it's interesting to note this: "The new Dioceses Commission was set up in 2008 and has a primary duty to keep under review the provincial and diocesan structure of the Church of England and in particular:
* the size, boundaries and number of provinces;
* the size, boundaries and number of dioceses and their distribution between the provinces;
* the number and distribution of bishops and the arrangements for episcopal oversight."
Now, if I'm reading this aright, they are looking first at West Yorkshire. The subtext here is that Bradford Diocese has been aknowledged, informally, to be financially unviable as a long-term entity despite giving per head of churchgoing CofE population which is among the highest in the country. In addition, Wakefield is a funny non-unitary entity, and Ripon and Leeds should never have been set up the way it was in the first place (there are some useful historical briefing papers in the links on this page: Dioceses Commission | Church of England). However, my concern is that piecemeal arrangements will not serve us well, so I've written to the commission chair to recommend that they keep Gareth Miller's proposals to the fore as a potential guiding light. I wouldn't be surprised if what emerges from their deliberations might be a kind of archdiocese of West Yorkshire (which would be like a mini-province terms) perhaps somewhat like London with episcopal areas. It might even then be able to recommend that Barnsley be returned to South Yorkshire's Sheffield diocese and consider letting Ripon return to its natural home in North Yorkshire, along with some of Bradford diocese, which could also return some of Lancashire's parishes to their most natural homes with Blackburn or Carlisle.

If you are so minded, please consider emailing the chair (Colin Podmore colin.podmore AT c-of-e.org.uk) of the commission recommending a long-term overview rather than a short-term expedient view. See the page linked at the header to this post or in the parentheses above. The commission members can be viewed here. Colin tells me that Gareth Miller's paper has been circulated to members. If you do email and hear anything further back, do let me know.