THE P RTAL
October 2014
UK Pages - page 15
A Rose by any Anglican
other name….
News
The question of names is sometimes a complicated matter.
The Revd Paul Benfield traces ecclesiastical names
of a new Diocese for West Yorkshire and the Dales
W
hen the
Diocese Commission was consulting about the possible formation of a new diocese in
Yorkshire there was a feeling in the dioceses which were to be dissolved that, since it covered such a
wide area, it would be better if it were called by a descriptive regional title, rather than a see city.
However, the legal advice
received was that a diocese
must be named after a place at
which the see is located and a
regional title was not permitted.
Therefore, the new diocese
in Yorkshire is the Diocese of
Leeds, but, according to the legal
scheme which sets it up, ‘It may
be known as the Diocese of West
Yorkshire and the Dales’.
requesting legislation
wanting to have their own bishops.
The Council resolved that bishops
could be appointed only in cities
in which there had been bishops
previously and in cities with a
large enough population to justify
one. So a bishop could not be
appointed for a region. However,
only about 100 years after that
Council, the Diocese of Man
was formed (to which was added
Sodor around the year 1000).
The residents of Yorkshire
were not happy with this and
so the diocesan synods of both
Bradford and Ripon and Leeds,
before they were abolished,
passed resolutions requesting legislation to permit the
name of a diocese to be a region or a city.
In Scotland there were also
dioceses named after regions
such as The Isles. The Suffragan
Bishops Act 1534 allowed for the
appointment of suffragan bishops
and named suitable sees, one of which was the Isle of
Wight (though this has never been used as a see).
This request came before General Synod in
November 2013 and Synod agreed that legislation
should be introduced to enable dioceses in the Church
of England ‘to be named by reference either to a city or
substantial town or to a geographical area.’
named after a geographical region
A question which had to be addressed is whether, if
a diocese is to be named after a geographical region,
the see must necessarily have that same name. So, for
example, if the new Yorkshire diocese were legally
called ‘West Yorkshire and the Dales’ must the see
In February 2014, a draft measure to achieve this have that same title or could the diocesan bishop be
was given first consideration and the draft measure (as now) the Bishop of Leeds?
was sent for revision in committee, following the
usual procedure. It was now that the issues which had
This raises the question as to the bishop having a seat
been referred to in the two debates in Synod could be from which he teaches, but in the case of the Bishop
properly addressed and it became clear that the matter of Leeds he has seats in cathedrals in Bradford, Ripon
was not quite as simple as the good folk of Yorkshire and Wakefield, but none in Leeds which is the city of
might have thought.
his see (although there is provision for a pro-Cathedral
in Leeds at some future date).
the Council of Sardica
The starting point of the discussions had to be the
It will be interesting to see how these questions are
Council of Sardica in or about 343AD which grappled answered and whether pragmatism wins over strict
with the problem of villages and petty towns all ecclesiology.
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