Diocese of Truro

The diocese's area is that of the county of Cornwall, including the Isles of Scilly, as well as two parishes in neighbouring Devon (St Giles on the Heath and Virginstow). It was formed on 15 December 1876 from the Archdeaconry of Cornwall in the Diocese of Exeter. It is, therefore, one of the younger dioceses.[1] The Christian faith, however, has been present in the region since at least the 4th century – more than 100 years before there was an Archbishop of Canterbury. Many of the communities in the diocese, as well as the parish churches, bear a Celtic saint's name, which is a reminder of the links with other Celtic lands, especially Ireland, Wales and Brittany.

The Diocese of Truro is involved directly and indirectly through its Board of Social Responsibility and in the life of its parishes in tackling some of the economic problems that Cornwall is wrestling with and works closely with statutory and voluntary agencies. There are 313 church buildings.

The diocesan See is vacant following Philip Mounstephen's translation to Winchester on 10 October 2023. There is a suffragan Bishop of St Germans (which see was created in 1905) whose current bishop is Hugh Nelson); at some periods there have also been assistant bishops, including John Wellington (formerly Bishop of Shantung) and Bill Lash, both retired from sees abroad.[2] The provincial episcopal visitor for parishes in the diocese, among twelve other dioceses in the western part of the Province of Canterbury, which do not accept the ministry of women priests, is the suffragan Bishop of Ebbsfleet. He is licensed as an honorary assistant bishop of the diocese in order to facilitate his ministry.

The most recent suffragan Bishop of Plymouth in the neighbouring Diocese of Exeter, John Ford, was also licensed as an honorary assistant bishop in Truro diocese.[3] A former Bishop of St Germans, Roy Screech, lives in St Austell.[4]

Coat of arms of the Diocese of Truro

Flag of the Diocese of Truro, consisting of the coat of arms in the canton of a Saint George's Cross

The arms of the diocese include a saltire gules on which are a crossed sword and key: below this is a fleur de lys sable, all surrounded by a border sable charged with 15 bezants. The saltire is the cross of St Patrick, taken to be the emblem of the Celtic church; the sword and key are emblems of Ss Peter and Paul, the patrons of Exeter Cathedral, and the fleur de lys represents St Mary, patron of the cathedral. The border is derived from the arms of the Duchy of Cornwall.[8] They were designed by the College of Heralds in 1877 and are blazoned thus:

"Argent, on a saltire gules, a key, ward upward, in bend, surmounted by a sword, hilt upward, in bend sinister, both or. In base, a fleur de lys sable. The whole within a bordure sable, fifteen bezants. Ensigned with a mitre."[9]

In 2003 a campaign group was formed called Fry an Spyrys ("Free the Spirit" in Cornish) which is dedicated to disestablishing the Church of England in Cornwall and to reconstituting the Diocese of Truro as an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. Its most vociferous member is the founder, the Revd Andy Phillips, who also writes under the pen-name "An Bucca". Its chairman is Garry Tregidga of the Institute of Cornish Studies. Phillips states there has been constant speculation that the diocese might be merged back into the Diocese of Exeter for budgetary reasons.

The possibility of a merger was aired unofficially in March 2003, during debate surrounding the formulation of the Dioceses, Pastoral and Mission Measure, which would allow diocesan commissions to make proposals for the reorganisation of dioceses, including their dissolution. However, such a merger has yet to be proposed by any official body within the Church of England. When the possibility was raised by Fry an Spyrys in 2004 it was denied by a Church of England spokesman and also by representatives of the Truro and Exeter dioceses[10] Since then the Diocese of Truro has shown some financial and administrative resilience. Diocesan reorganisation and the People of God campaign rallied human resources and led (by 2007) to a tight but stable financial situation. More recently Lord Lloyd of Berwick, who chairs Parliament's Ecclesiastical Committee, reported to the House of Lords that there are no plans to abolish the Diocese of Truro and to merge it with the Diocese of Exeter.[11]

A 2018 case review commissioned by the diocese reported that four bishops, Maurice Key, Peter Mumford, Michael Ball[12] and Richard Llewellin, had failed to respond to disclosures of abuse by a leading diocesan figure.[13] The diocese had failed to investigate the accusations against Jeremy Dowling, a lay preacher and synod member, who rose to influential positions including communications officer to the bishop. Dowling was jailed in 2015 for seven years, and again in 2016 for a further eight years, for a series of indecent assaults on boys while teaching at a Cornish school during the 1960s and 70s. Kim Stevenson, a criminal justice expert, said the report made "sadly familiar reading" and she contrasted the situation in Britain with that in Australia where those who concealed or did not act on evidence of a sexual offence faced prosecution.[14][15][16][17]

Grade I: buildings of exceptional interest. Grade II*: particularly important buildings of more than special interest. Grade II: buildings that are of special interest, warranting every effort to preserve them.

Last fully updated 26 September 2018.

• Truro Cathedral School

• Donaldson, Aug. B. (1902) The Bishopric of Truro: the first twenty-five years, 1877–1902. London: Rivingtons (online version)

Books by Charles Henderson

• The Cornish Church Guide Truro: Blackford, 1925 (only in part by Henderson)
  • Contents:- Part I: Historical. Celtic kalendar; History of the ancient bishopric in Cornwall(*); Additional notes on the ancient bishopric; List of bishops, from AD 931 to the present time; The restoration of the Cornish bishopric(*); Parochial history: notes on all the parishes; Particulars of the formation of new ecclesiastical parishes; The architecture of the Cornish parish church (*); Cornish church plate(*); The Celtic crosses of Cornwall; The holy wells of Cornwall(*). Part II: Administrative(*). Sections marked (*) are not by Henderson.
• The Cornish Church Guide and Parochial History of Cornwall. Truro: D. Bradford Barton, 1964 (a reissue of "Parochial History of Cornwall", the author's principal contribution to The Cornish Church Guide published in 1925) ISBN 0-85153-052-4
• The Ecclesiastical History of Western Cornwall. 2 vols. Truro: Royal Institution of Cornwall; D. Bradford Barton, 1962

• Diocesan website
• Church of England Statistics 2002 Archived 3 February 2007 at the Wayback Machine