Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki
anglican diocese in New Zealand
The Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki is one of the thirteen dioceses and hui amorangi (Māori bishoprics) of the Anglican Church in Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia. The diocese covers the area from the Waikato to the area surrounding Mount Taranaki in the North Island of New Zealand.
History
The diocese was established in 1926 as the Diocese of Waikato, with Cecil Arthur Cherrington being the first bishop. In 2010, the name of the diocese was changed to the Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki. This reflects the structure of the diocese (since the passage of the Shared Diocesan Episcopacy Statute 2007), with two bishoprics and two co-ordinary (presiding) bishops. That statute was amended in 2017 (before Hartley's translation) to clarify that when one See is vacant, the other bishop also holds that See as sole diocesan bishop — as has been the case since 2018. With the diocese unable to afford two bishops, Richardson established a commission in December 2018 to review the dual-episcopacy arrangement.
Cathedra
When resident in Hamilton, the seat of the Bishop of Waikato and Taranaki is at St Peter's Cathedral; and when resident in Taranaki, the seat of the Bishop is at the Taranaki Cathedral.
The incumbent Bishop of Waikato and Taranaki is Philip Richardson (who has been the archbishop of the New Zealand dioceses since 1 May 2013). Richardson had previously been the only suffragan Bishop in Taranaki in the Waikato diocese from 1999 until the co-diocesan arrangement started in 2008.
“Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki” enters the record as anglican diocese in New Zealand. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Diocese, Waikato and Taranaki can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4763518. Authority coordinates are -37.792, 175.286. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1926, 2010, 2007 and 2017.
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This entry incorporates text from “Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.