The Diocese of Chester is in the province of York in the Church of England, part of the global Anglican Communion. We are linked with the Anglican Church of Melanesia in the Solomon Islands and the Dioceses of Aru and Boga in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Church of England comprises two Provinces, Canterbury and York. Each province is broken down into dioceses. There are 41 in England (42 including the Diocese in Europe). The Diocese of Chester was created in 1541 and assumed roughly its present dimensions in 1880.  It covers an area of 1030 square miles, approximately the old Victorian County of Chester, including parts which subsequently became absorbed into Merseyside and Greater Manchester. The Rivers Mersey and Tame approximately delineate the boundary with Liverpool and Manchester.  There are areas of dense urban population, mainly in the north, stretching from Birkenhead to East Manchester. There are prosperous suburban regions of West and South Wirral, Chester and south of Manchester, with a mainly rural heartland, bounded by the Derbyshire Pennines and the Welsh Border.  The overall population is around 1.6 million.