The Diocese of Calcutta,
Church of North India
The Church of North India (CNI) is the dominant united Protestant church in northern India. It was established on 29 November 1970 by bringing together the Protestant churches working in northern India. It is a province of the worldwide Anglica ...
was established in 1813 as part of the
Church of England
The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Brit ...
. It is led by the
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution.
In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...
of
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...
and the first bishop was
Thomas Middleton (1814–1822) and the second
Reginald Heber (1823–1826). Under the sixth bishop
Daniel Wilson (1832–1858), the see was made Metropolitan (though not made an Archbishopric) when two more dioceses in India came into being (Madras, 1835, and Bombay, 1837).
Calcutta was made a
metropolitan see
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a t ...
by
letters patent on 10 October 1835 and in 1930 was included in the
Church of India, Burma and Ceylon (from 1948 the
Church of India, Pakistan, Burma, and Ceylon) until 1970. In 1970, the
Church of the Province of Myanmar,
Church of Ceylon
The Church of Ceylon ( si, ලංකා සභාව) is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka. It is an extra-provincial jurisdiction of the Archbishop of Canterbury, who serves as its Metropolitan. It was established in 1845 with the appointment ...
and the
Church of Pakistan were separated from the province.
The Anglican dioceses in Northern India merged with the
United Church of Northern India (Congregationalist and Presbyterian), the
Methodist Church (British and Australian Conferences), the
Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India, the
Church of the Brethren in India, and the
Disciples of Christ to form the Church of North India in the same year.
In 1842 (after Madras and Bombay dioceses had been erected), her jurisdiction was described as "
Presidency of Bengal
The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...
". The diocese currently has jurisdiction over the corporation limits of
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
and the Districts of
Hooghly &
Howrah in the state of
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...
. The bishop's seat (
cathedra) is located in the city of
Kolkata
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...
at
St. Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Gra ...
. The current bishop is
Paritosh Canning.
List of Bishops of Calcutta
Assistant bishops
John Richardson was appointed assistant bishop for, and Commissary for the Metropolitan, in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1950, and remained an assistant bishop of Calcutta until the
Diocese of Andaman and Nicobar was erected from Calcutta diocese in 1966. At that point, he became an assistant bishop of the new diocese, where he served until 1977.
William Arthur Partridge (12 February 191218 December 1992; called Arthur) was assistant Bishop in Nandyal from 1953 until the erection of the
Diocese of Nandyal in 1963. He returned to the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...
and served as an
Assistant Bishop of Hereford.
M. D. (Manonmani David) Srinivasan was appointed an assistant bishop of the Anglican diocese in 1964 and consecrated a bishop in January 1985.
John Banerjee was appointed assistant bishop of Lahore in 1931. He travelled to Australia in 1936 and was presented as Metropolitan of India.
See also
*
Christianity in West Bengal
Christianity in West Bengal, India, is a minority religion. According to the 2011 census of India, there were 658,618 Christians in West Bengal, or 0.72% of the population. Although Mother Teresa worked in Kolkata (Calcutta), Christianity is ...
*
Christianity in India
Christianity is India's third-largest religion with about 27.8 million adherents, making up 2.3 percent of the population as of the 2011 census. The written records of the Saint Thomas Christians state that Christianity was introduced to th ...
*
Church of North India
The Church of North India (CNI) is the dominant united Protestant church in northern India. It was established on 29 November 1970 by bringing together the Protestant churches working in northern India. It is a province of the worldwide Anglica ...
*
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Calcutta
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Calcutta ( la, Archidioecesis Calcuttensis) is an ecclesiastical Latin Church territory of the Catholic Church in India.
History
The archdiocese was originally erected as the Apostolic Vicariate ...
References
CNI Diocese of Calcutta – Bishops
*Cross, F. L. (ed.; 1957) ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. Oxford U. P.; pp. 686–88: "India, Christianity in"
External links
– A History of the Church of England in India, SPCK, 1924
Diocese of Kolkata, CNI – Official WebsiteArchived
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop of Calcutta
*
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commer ...
1813 establishments in British India
Church of North India
Anglican dioceses in Asia
Christianity in Kolkata
Church of India, Burma and Ceylon