Church of Ceylon
Intro
The Church of Ceylon is the Anglican church in Sri Lanka and remains an extraprovincial jurisdiction linked directly to the Archbishop of Canterbury rather than belonging to a self-governing Anglican province. Its modern structure dates from the nineteenth century, when Anglican missionary work on the island led to the creation of the Diocese of Colombo, and it later expanded into a two-diocese church with a second see at Kurunegala.
Structure
The Church of Ceylon is a small national Anglican body with two dioceses under the metropolitan authority of Canterbury. Its bishops oversee clergy, parishes, schools, and mission work across Sri Lanka rather than through a larger provincial synod shared with neighboring countries.
Colombo is the historic senior diocese and covers most of the island, while Kurunegala was created in 1950 to provide a second diocesan center for the interior and north-central parts of the country.
| Diocese | Current bishop | Coverage | Founded |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colombo | Dushantha Lakshman Rodrigo | Western, Southern, Eastern, Northern, and Uva provinces, plus Ratnapura, Nuwara Eliya, and Puttalam districts | 1845 |
| Kurunegala | Keerthisiri Fernando | Kurunegala, Kandy, Matale, Kegalle, Anuradhapura, and Polonnaruwa districts | 1950 |
Source(s)
Source: Image from Wikimedia Commons by Roger Harris. Licensed under CC BY 3.0.
Source: Intro adapted from the Wikipedia article "Church of Ceylon". Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Source: Structure summary and diocesan table adapted from the "Dioceses of Colombo and Kurunegala" section of the Wikipedia article "Church of Ceylon". Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Title image uses the flag of Sri Lanka from Wikimedia Commons, used as a fallback identifier because no clear denomination logo was found; the file is marked public domain there.