Consultation About the Scottish Dioceses

The Scottish bishops have begun a consultation concerning the number of Scottish dioceses. The Church primarily exists for mission: to proclaim in every way the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Diocesan and parish structures exist to promote our missionary work. The bishops want to know if our mission is best supported by our present structures or if an alternative arrangement would be better.

In each diocese the same three questions were used to foster discernment, beginning with mission before examining structures. The three questions were:

The following three questions will be used to focus discernment:

1. 1. 1. Where do we see good examples of mission in our parishes, deanery, diocese and country?
      2. Where does mission need to develop or even begin? What are the barriers to better mission and what can encourage it?
      3. Does the present structure of eight dioceses in Scotland support mission? Does our diocese already have all that it needs? Would it help if we were to share resources with another diocese or dioceses? Would it help if our diocese merged with another diocese?

In Argyll and the Isles both the Diocesan Pastoral Council and all the clergy were invited to participate in two separate sessions. The discussions were thoughtful, honest and open, lasting for more than four hours each. From these two sessions Bishop Brian collated a report and sent it to the Bishops’ Conference.

Each bishop has now submitted a diocesan report and the bishops will meet on June 11^th 2026 and prayerfully discuss what the clergy and laity have said. They will then propose one or several possible ways forward which the Bishops’ Conference will then publicise.

You can read (i) our diocesan collated report which was submitted to the Conference and the initial (ii) clergy’s report and (iii) Diocesan Pastoral Council’s report from which the collated report was written.

The consultation’s method was Conversation in the Spirit. The report’s findings are divided into three sections (i) Convergences – points everyone agreed upon (ii) Divergences – where there was differences of opinion and (iii) areas that need more study.