Diocese of Gippsland

{{Diocese

The Anglican Diocese of Gippsland is located in the Gippsland region of Victoria, Australia, extending from Phillip Island to Mallacoota. It has existed as a diocese since 1902, when the Right Reverend Arthur Wellesley Pain was installed at the first Bishop of Gippsland.

The cathedral church of the diocese is the Cathedral Church of St Paul, Sale. The current Bishop of Gippsland is the Right Reverend John McIntyre, who was installed at the Cathedral on 18 February 2006.

History of the Diocese
The Diocese of Gippsland was created after a movement to divide up the Diocese of Melbourne which, as the oldest Anglican diocese in Victoria, had existed since 1847. Talk began of this as early as 1885 and in 1900 a Bill was passed to create the Diocese of Sandhurst-Beechworth. Debate continued after this decision and eventually led to another Bill in 1901, with which three new diocese were created. Along with Ballarat and Wangaratta, the Diocese of Gippsland would come into existence in the following year.

The Bishop of each of these diocese was elected by a body made up of the Bishop of Melbourne, four members of the Melbourne Bishopric Election Board, four clergy from the area in question and four laymen. Reverend Canon Arthur Wellesley Pain was chosen to be the first to reside over the Diocese of Gippsland. He was consecrated as a bishop in St Andrew's Cathedral in Sydney, having previously ministered at St John's, Darlinghurst in Sydney. He was then installed as Bishop of Gippsland in the Cathedral of St Paul in Gippsland on 10 July 1902.

Gippsland's Bishops
1902 - 1917 Arthur Wellesley Pain

1917 - 1942 George Harvard Cranswick

1942 - 1954 Donald Burns Blackwood

1955 - 1958 Edwin John Davidson

1959 - 1974 David Arthur Garnsey

1975 - 1980 Graham Richard Delbridge

1980 - 1987 Neville James Chynoweth

1987 - 1994 Colin Davies Sheumack

1994 - 2001 Arthur Vivian Lucas Jones

2001 - 2005 Jeffrey William Driver

2006 - pres. John Charles McIntyre