The Diocese of Newcastle is a Church of England diocese based in Newcastle upon Tyne, covering the historic county of Northumberland (and therefore including the part of Tyne and Wear north of the River Tyne), as well as the area of Alston Moor in Cumbria (historic Cumberland).

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Diocese of Newcastle Dioecesis Novicastrensis
Coat of arms
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Location
Ecclesiastical province	York
Archdeaconries	Lindisfarne, Northumberland
Statistics
Parishes	177
Churches	242
Information
Cathedral	Newcastle Cathedral
Language	English
Current leadership
Bishop	Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle
Suffragan	Mark Wroe, Bishop of Berwick
Archdeacons	Catherine Sourbut Groves, Archdeacon of Lindisfarne Rachel Wood, Archdeacon of Northumberland
Website
www.newcastle.anglican.org

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The diocese came into being on 23 May 1882,^[1] and was one of four created by the Bishoprics Act 1878 (41 & 42 Vict. c. 68) for industrial areas with rapidly expanding populations. The area of the diocese was taken from the part of the Diocese of Durham which was north of the River Tyne, and was defined in the legislation as comprising:^[1]

"....the county of Northumberland, and the counties of the towns of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Berwick-upon-Tweed, and to include such detached parts of any other county as are under any Act of Parliament deemed to form part of the county of Northumberland, or have been or can be transferred to the county of Northumberland by the justices in general or quarter sessions assembled, and to include also the ancient common law parish of Alston with its chapelries in the county of Cumberland...."

The cathedral is Newcastle Cathedral (until 1882 the Parish Church of St Nicholas) and the diocesan bishop is Helen-Ann Hartley, Bishop of Newcastle.

The diocesan Bishop of Newcastle is the ordinary of the diocese and is assisted by the Bishop of Berwick. Alternative episcopal oversight (for parishes in the diocese who reject the ministry of priests who are women) is provided by the provincial episcopal visitor (PEV) the Bishop suffragan of Beverley, Stephen Race. He is licensed as an honorary assistant bishop of the diocese in order to facilitate his work there.

On 28 November 2015, Frank White, then the full-time assistant bishop, presented a proposal to the Diocesan Synod (within which diocese Berwick now lies) to revive the abeyant Suffragan See of Berwick.^[2][3] The Dioceses Commission approved the petition to revive the See^[4] and Mark Tanner was consecrated Bishop of Berwick on 18 October 2016; he later vacated the post upon his translation to Chester. Mark Wroe, formerly Archdeacon of Northumberland, was consecrated as Bishop of Berwick on 5 January 2021.^[5]

Besides Race, there are five retired honorary assistant bishops licensed in the diocese:

• 2003–present: A retired Bishop suffragan of Bedford, John Richardson, lives in Bewcastle, Cumbria and is also licensed in Carlisle diocese.^[6]
• 2005–present: Stephen Pedley, retired Bishop suffragan of Lancaster, lives in Warden, Northumberland.^[7]
• 2014–present: Stephen Platten, Rector of St Michael Cornhill (Diocese of London) and retired Bishop of Wakefield (also in London and Southwark dioceses.)^[8]
• 2014–present: John Packer, Bishop of Ripon and Leeds and former Bishop suffragan of Warrington, retired in 2014 to Cullercoats.^[9][10]
• 2021–present: John Sentamu, former Archbishop of York^[11]

This table is drawn from the above lists.