Diocese of Monmouth
The
Diocese of Monmouth is a
diocese of the
Church in Wales. Despite the name, its
cathedral is located not in
Monmouth but in
Newport — the
Cathedral Church of St Woolos. This apparent anomaly arose in 1921 when the diocese was created (from the eastern part of the
Diocese of Llandaff) with no location for the cathedral yet chosen. Various options were being considered, such as restoring
Tintern Abbey, building from scratch on Ridgeway Hill in Newport, and (the eventual choice) upgrading St. Woolos's, then a parish church; in the meantime the new diocese, as it covers more or less the territory of the
traditional county of
Monmouth, was named the "Diocese of Monmouth". Prior to 1921 the area had been the
archdeaconry of Monmouth.
It is headed by the
Bishop of Monmouth, at present the Rt Revd Dominic Walker OGS (elected in
2003).
In its own words, the diocese "covers the south east corner of
Wales, from
Monmouth south to
Chepstow, westwards along the '
M4 corridor' to
Newport and the outskirts of
Cardiff, northwards into the
south eastern valleys and east into the rural areas around
Usk,
Raglan,
Abergavenny and the
Herefordshire border".
In
local government terms, the territory of the diocese covers the City of
Newport,
Monmouthshire, the county boroughs of
Blaenau Gwent and
Torfaen, part of the City of Cardiff, part of the county borough of
Caerphilly, and even a (very) small part of Herefordshire in
England.
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Diocese of Monmouth
