About the diocese

The Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney is in the north-east of Scotland and comprises the City of Aberdeen, most of Aberdeenshire, a small part of Moray, and the Northern Isles of Orkney and Shetland.  The Diocese has 41 churches.

The Acting Bishop is The Rt Rev Dorsey McConnell, former Bishop of Pittsburgh, during the suspension of The Rt Rev’d Anne Dyer. Bishop Dorsey took on the role on 1 November 2023, replacing Bishop John Armes who had been Acting Bishop for the previous 12 months. A list of the former bishops of the United Diocese and Aberdeen and Orkney is available here.

The Pro-cathedral for the Diocese is St Mary’s Carden Place, Aberdeen.

The Diocesan Office is in Marischal College, close to the site of the consecration of the first bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, Samuel Seabury.  Seabury was ordained in 1784, by the then Bishop of Aberdeen and Primus of the Scottish Episcopal Church, Robert Kilgour, his coadjutor the Right Revd John Skinner and the Bishop of Moray, Arthur Petrie.  The consecration took place in the former St Andrew’s Chapel in Longacre, a site long since lost to redevelopment which was situated near the city’s Marischal College.

A plaque in the Marischal College quadrangle commemorates the consecration, which effectively gave birth to the world wide Anglican Communion.  The Diocese continues to maintain strong links with the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut.  Aberdeen and Orkney is also linked with the Diocese of Mthatha, in South Africa.