The Bishop of Ripon was a diocesan bishop's title which took its name after the

city A city is a human settlement of notable size.Goodall, B. (1987) ''The Penguin Dictionary of Human Geography''. London: Penguin.Kuper, A. and Kuper, J., eds (1996) ''The Social Science Encyclopedia''. 2nd edition. London: Routledge. It can be def ...

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the ...

in North Yorkshire, England.

History

Though one ancient Bishop of Ripon is known, the modern see of Ripon was established in 1836 from parts of the

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...

s of

Chester Chester is a cathedral city and the county town of Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Dee, close to the English–Welsh border. With a population of 79,645 in 2011,"2011 Census results: People and Population Profile: Chester Loca ...

and

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

. In the same year, the

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by ...

in Ripon was raised to the status of

cathedral church A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denomination ...

. From 1905, the bishops of Ripon were assisted by the suffragan bishops of Knaresborough in overseeing the diocese. In 1999, the see changed its name to the

Diocese of Ripon and Leeds The Diocese of Ripon (Diocese of Ripon and Leeds from 1999 until 2014) was a former Church of England diocese, part of the Province of York. Immediately prior to its dissolution, it covered an area in western and northern Yorkshire as well a ...

, reflecting the growing importance of

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by popul ...

, the largest city within the diocese and one of the fastest-growing cities in Britain. The diocesan bishop lived in Hollin House, a six-bedroom house in Weetwood, North Leeds, having moved there from Ripon in August 2008. The only bishop of ''Ripon and Leeds'' was

John Packer John Richard Packer (born 10 October 1946) is a retired British Anglican bishop. He was the only Bishop of Ripon and Leeds, serving from the renaming of the diocese from Ripon in 2000 to his 2014 retirement (prior to his former diocese's merge ...

, who signed ''John Ripon and Leeds'', retired on 31 January 2014. The Diocese of Ripon and Leeds was dissolved on 20 April 2014 and its former territory was added to the new Diocese of Leeds. The first area Bishop of Ripon was James Bell,The Transformation Programme – Archbishop appoints interim area bishops
(Accessed 10 January 2014) who had previously been the suffragan Bishop of Knaresborough and area bishop in Ripon; and acting diocesan

Bishop of Ripon and Leeds The Bishop of Ripon was a diocesan bishop's title which took its name after the city of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England. History Though one ancient Bishop of Ripon is known, the modern see of Ripon was established in 1836 from parts of th ...

until the dissolution of that diocese. The second and current area Bishop of Ripon is

Helen-Ann Hartley Helen-Ann Macleod Hartley (born 28 May 1973) is a British Anglican bishop and academic who has served as the Bishop of Newcastle since 2023. She previously served as Bishop of Waikato in New Zealand from 2014 to 2017 and area Bishop of Ripon i ...

List of bishops

Assistant bishops

Among those who served as "Assistant Bishop of Ripon" were: *1883–1884:

Isaac Hellmuth Isaac Hellmuth (December 14, 1819 – 28 May 1901), second Anglican Bishop of the Diocese of Huron, was the founder of Huron University College and the University of Western Ontario, one of Canada's leading universities. He was also founder of H ...

, former

Bishop of Huron The Diocese of Huron is a diocese of the Ecclesiastical Province of Ontario of the Anglican Church of Canada. The diocese comprises just over 31,000 square kilometres in southwestern Ontario, sandwiched between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. Its ...

and friend to Bickersteth

References

{{Bishops of Ripon (modern diocese) Diocese of Ripon and Leeds Diocese of Ripon