Anglican Diocese of Melbourne
diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia in Victoria
The Anglican Diocese of Melbourne is the metropolitan diocese of the Province of Victoria in the Anglican Church of Australia. The diocese was founded from the Diocese of Australia by letters patent of 25 June 1847 and includes the cities of Melbourne and Geelong and also some more rural areas. The cathedral church is St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne.
The incumbent archbishop of the diocese is Ric Thorpe, who was elected on 24 May 2025 and installed on 30 November 2025. He was translated from the Diocese of London, where he was the suffragan Bishop of Islington.
History
The diocese was founded from the Diocese of Australia by letters patent of 25 June 1847 and includes the cities of Melbourne and Geelong and also some more rural areas. The cathedral church is St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne. The ordinary of the diocese is the Archbishop of Melbourne.
Areas of episcopal care
The Diocese of Melbourne is divided into areas of episcopal care in which assistant bishops exercise a pastoral role on behalf of the archbishop. These areas are divided into archdeaconries with further subdivision into area deaneries.
“Anglican Diocese of Melbourne” enters the record as diocese of the Anglican Church of Australia in Victoria. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Anglican, Diocese and Melbourne can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Anglican Diocese of Melbourne” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Anglican, Diocese and Melbourne provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4763494. VIAF identifies the subject as 140394623. Authority coordinates are -37.817, 144.968. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1847 and 2025.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Anglican Diocese of Melbourne”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Anglican Diocese of Melbourne primary sources, Anglican Diocese of Melbourne archive and Anglican research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Anglican Diocese of Melbourne” 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.