About the Karnataka Central Diocese


It was in St. George’s Cathedral, Madras on 27th September 1947 that the roots of the CSI were formally established, and from which new growth was to come.  14 new dioceses were created with the total membership of over 1 million, about half of them from the Anglican tradition and the rest divided between the Methodist and SIUC. Subsequent years have seen further addition. The Mysore diocese was one of the 14 new dioceses created when the CSI was formed in 1947. It had with in it a Christian community 39,537 and a communicant membership of 13,912. It was formed into 8 area councils- Bangalore civil, Bangalore city, Mysore, Shimoga, Hassan, Bellary, Tumkur and Kolar Gold Fields.

In 1963 a part of the Bombay diocese of the CIPBC (church of India Pakistan Burma and Ceylon) was transferred to the Mysore diocese. This greatly increased the strength of the CSI community in the northern region and also added to it Christian from a different church tradition. It is in this situation the synod executive in 1968 came up with a statement, “from the point of view of pastoral care and evangelistic concern, a diocese needs to be small enough for its people to have a sense of belonging together and of sharing a common purpose, and small enough for its bishop to know and care for all his people, especially his presbyters and to be an effective sign of their unity”.

The historic resolution for the creation of three dioceses was put to the diocesan council which met in Bangalore from 7th-10th November 1969. The three diocese created under the resolution were: the Mysore northern diocese with an area of 63,000sq.kilometers and a CSI community of 21,000: the Mysore southern diocese with an area of 43,500 sq.kilometers and a CSI community of 26,000; the Mysore central diocese with an area of 20,000sq.kilomaters and CSI community of 28,000. It was further agreed that if the name of the state was changed the names of the dioceses were also to be changed accordingly. Thus the Mysore central diocese was called as Karnataka central diocese (1971-72).

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