Diocese of Worcester

The Diocese of Worcester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England.

History
The diocese was founded in 680 by St Theodore of Canterbury to minister to the kingdom of the Hwicce, one of the many Anglo Saxon petty-kingdoms of that time. The original borders of the diocese are believed to be based on those of that ancient kingdom.

On its creation the diocese included what is now southern and western Warwickshire (an area known as Felden). In 1837 the north and east of Warwickshire (Arden) which formed the archdeaconry of Coventry in the then Diocese of Lichfield and Coventry was transferred to the Diocese of Worcester. In 1905 an area in northern Warwickshire was split off as the Diocese of Birmingham, and in 1918 an area approximating to the rest of Warwickshire was made the Diocese of Coventry.

The area of the diocese incorporates:
 * Worcestershire
 * Northern Gloucestershire
 * parishes now in the West Midlands towns of
 * Dudley
 * Sandwell
 * and villages on the south-east edge of Wolverhampton

Archdeaconries and deaneries
The diocese is divided into two Archdeaconries containing a total of thirteen deaneries:
 * the Archdeaconry of Worcester
 * comprises the Deaneries of Evesham, Malvern, Martley & Worcester West, Pershore, Upton and Worcester East.
 * the Archdeaconry of Dudley
 * comprises the Deaneries of Bromsgrove, Droitwich, Dudley, Kidderminster, Kingswinford, Stourbridge and Stourport.