The Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh is a diocese of the Church of Ireland located in central Ireland. It is in the ecclesiastical province of Armagh.
It is one of twelve Anglican dioceses in the island of Ireland. The geographical remit covers all of County Leitrim, almost all of counties Cavan, Longford and Roscommon, plus smaller parts of counties Westmeath, Sligo, Donegal and Fermanagh.
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There had been two other cathedrals, but are now in ruins.
The historic sees of Kilmore and Ardagh were intermittently united in the 17th and 18th centuries until they were finally united in 1839. They were further merged with the see of Elphin in 1841 to form the current Diocese of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh. It is for this reason that the united diocese has two cathedrals in current use as well as a number of deconsecrated cathedrals.
Each of the dioceses is divided into a number parish groups.[1]
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The current Ordinary is the Right Reverend Kenneth Herbert Clarke, who was elected Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh by the Electoral College on 13 November 2000 and consecrated at a service in St Patrick's Cathedral, Armagh on 25 January 2001.[2]
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The three dioceses of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh were first created in the early and mid 12th-century. The sees of Elphin and Ardagh were established at the Synod of Rathbreasail in 1111 and the see of Kilmore (originally called Tirbrunensis, Triburnia or Tybruinensis) at the Synod of Kells in 1152.
Following the Reformation in the 16th century, the church in "communion with the Bishop of Rome" used the term "Catholic" to distinguish itself from the various Protestant churches.[3] The Parliament of Ireland broke communion when it created the Church of Ireland as the State Religion in the Kingdom of Ireland assuming possession of most Church property. The English-speaking minority mostly adhered to the either the Church of Ireland or, despite the political and economic advantages of membership in the state church, to Presbyterianism.
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