The Church, too, must be a family, bishops, priests, deacons, religious and laity, supporting each other and sharing with each other the individual gifts given by God.
Pope John Paul II,
Heaton Park, Manchester, 31st May 1982

The Diocese

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The Chancellor

“In every curia a chancellor is to be appointed whose principal function, unless particular law establishes otherwise, is to take care that acts of the curia are gathered, arranged, and safeguarded in the archives of the curia.” (Canon 482.1)

Fr Christopher Dawson is the Chancellor and Judicial Vicar of the diocese.

The role of the Chancellor is to see that certain formal decisions of the Diocesan Bishop or of other Diocesan personnel are properly drawn up, made know to the interested parties and recorded. 

The Chancellor also exercises the Bishop’s authority to give certain marriage permissions and he processes the papers for the marriages of people living in the diocese who are solemnising their marriage outside the diocese.