Page:Distinguished Churchmen.djvu/125

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THE DEAN OF MANCHESTER
97

secured, ensuring more direct episcopal oversight and relationship if the Church is to keep pace with work extending over so huge an area and affecting so enormous a population. The population cannot be much, if at all, short of 3,000,000 of people, and though by the creation of the Bishopric Suffragan of Burnley, and with the help of an assistant Bishop, who is Vicar of Blackburn, the Bishop of Manchester is supplied with valuable assistance, there is a growing feeling, especially in the north and north-eastern parts of the Diocese, that more Diocesan Bishops are needed to bring the forces of Episcopacy to bear upon the operations of the National Church. A movement is now being made to this end, happily with the cordial sanction of the Bishop of Manchester, and a committee appointed by the Diocesan Conference exists, charged with the duty of considering how subdivision may best be brought about.”

P.S.—Since this interview took place a meeting of the Manchester Diocesan Conference has been held, and the question of the sub-division of the Diocese again discussed. The qualifications of different districts for the honour of becoming the centre of a Diocese caused some difficulty in arriving at a final decision; but, as a solution, the Bishop suggested that the Dean of Manchester and the Vicar of Rochdale should, by virtue of their offices, be made Suffragan Bishops. The report was