Joe - it was yourself who raised the debate when replying to the original posting which had the subject title of Portsea 1891. You can always change the subject of a message thread if the matter being debated strays from the original as we have (above). You stated that many of us would have preferred St Mary to be the cathedral with the "us" meaning members of your family rather than the list subscribers. Why the Authorities chose St Thomas as the Cathedral as opposed to St Mary is maybe archived in the Church records, given the long history of both buildings. Portsmouth only obtained City status in 1926 with the Diocese being created a year later as you correctly state. Possibly the fact that the current St Mary structure was only bult in the 1880's may have been a factor? Linda & Tony >>>>The diocese of Portsmouth wasn`t created until 1927 so what has that got to do with 1891 >>>this is not intended for the list so I`m not trimming the footer. Iwas replying to John Ridley as well as you >>>popular opinion has little to do with ecumenical fact, and popular opinion of the time would rather have seen >>>St Marys` as the Cathedral, >>>Regards Joe Austen in North Queensland. OZ