Diocese of Monmouth

Diocese of Monmouth

Esgobaeth Mynwy
Location
Ecclesiastical provinceWales
ArchdeaconriesMonmouth, Newport, Gwent Valleys
Statistics
Parishes125
Churches184
Information
CathedralNewport Cathedral
Current leadership
BishopCherry Vann
Map
Map of the dioceses in the Church in Wales
Map of the dioceses in the Church in Wales
Website
monmouth.churchinwales.org.uk

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. Reasons for not choosing the title of Newport included the existence of a Catholic Bishop of Newport until 1916. 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, then a parish church; in the meantime the new diocese, as it covers more or less the territory of the county of Monmouth, was named the "Diocese of Monmouth". Prior to 1921 the area had been the archdeaconry of Monmouth.

It is headed by Cherry Vann, Bishop of Monmouth. She was elected the eleventh bishop in September 2019 and enthroned in Newport Cathedral on 1 February 2020.

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". It covers the entire historic county of Monmouthshire, plus the ancient parish of Llanedeyrn (which was in the historic county of Glamorgan), minus a few areas on the Wales-England border (Dixton, Llangua and Welsh Bicknor).

In local government terms, the territory of the diocese covers the unitary authority areas of: