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Church of Ireland

Portrait of John McDowell
Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell (2020-present)

Intro

The Church of Ireland is an autonomous Anglican church organized on an all-Ireland basis across the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It is the island's second-largest Christian church after the Roman Catholic Church and preserves episcopal governance and parts of the older Irish Christian tradition while rejecting papal supremacy.

Structure

The Church of Ireland follows the standard Anglican pattern of parishes gathered into dioceses and dioceses gathered into provinces. Today it has 11 dioceses or united dioceses, split between the Province of Armagh and the Province of Dublin, while the General Synod serves as the church's central legislative body.

The Archbishop of Armagh is the church's senior primate and public leader, while the Archbishop of Dublin leads the southern province. Several dioceses are united, reflecting centuries of consolidation after the church's older medieval structure was reduced.

Diocese Province Status
ArmaghArmaghSingle diocese and primatial see
ClogherArmaghSingle diocese
ConnorArmaghSingle diocese
Derry and RaphoeArmaghUnited diocese
Down and DromoreArmaghUnited diocese
Kilmore, Elphin and ArdaghArmaghUnited diocese
Cashel and OssoryDublinUnited diocese
Cork, Cloyne and RossDublinUnited diocese
Dublin and GlendaloughDublinUnited diocese and provincial see
Meath and KildareDublinUnited diocese
Tuam, Limerick and KillaloeDublinUnited diocese formed in 2022

Source(s)

Source: Image from Wikimedia Commons. The Commons file page does not display a named photographer in the fetched source, but the file is hosted on Wikimedia Commons and reused here under the license stated there.

Source: Intro adapted from the Wikipedia article "Church of Ireland". Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Source: Structure section adapted from the "Structure" section and linked diocesan list in the Wikipedia article "Church of Ireland". Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Title image uses the flag of Ireland from Wikimedia Commons as a free visual fallback because the more familiar Church of Ireland web logo is not clearly available from a free repository in the sources reviewed here. Public domain.