The present Bishop of Wakefield points out in his foreword that the diocese "was set up in 1888 as a rather tardy response to the Industrial Revolution in this part of West and South Yorkshire", and faces absorption, with Bradford, and Ripon and Leeds diocese in what appears to be almost the status quo before 1888! It would be very helpful to examine in detail the "tardy response" because it would clearly have implications for a number of other dioceses. The detail of that history is here, but it does not necessarily answer the questions one would like to ask. From 1888 the assumption seems to have been that a quantitative rather than a qualitative response needed to be made to the new diocese’s needs. One might say that the idea was to go on doing what had been done – but to do more of it, rather than try novel or radical solutions to the needs of various areas of diocesan life. Why does this not work in the 21st century, and did it ever work?