The Bishop of Guildford is the Ordinary 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 ...

Diocese of Guildford __NOTOC__ The Diocese of Guildford is a Church of England diocese covering eight and half of the eleven districts in Surrey, much of north-east Hampshire and a parish in Greater London. The cathedral is Guildford Cathedral and the bishop is the ...

in the

Province of Canterbury The Province of Canterbury, or less formally the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces which constitute the Church of England. The other is the Province of York (which consists of 12 dioceses). Overview The Province consist ...

. The title had first appeared as a suffragan See in the

Diocese of Winchester The Diocese of Winchester forms part of the Province of Canterbury of the Church of England. Founded in 676, it is one of the older dioceses in England. It once covered Wessex, many times its present size which is today most of the historic enl ...

in 1874. The

Bishop suffragan of Guildford The Bishop of Guildford was a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Winchester in the Province of Canterbury. In the late nineteenth century there were three suffragan bishops of Guildford appointed to assist six successive Bishops ...

assisted the

Bishop of Winchester The Bishop of Winchester is the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Winchester in the Church of England. The bishop's seat (''cathedra'') is at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire. The Bishop of Winchester has always held ''ex officio'' (except ...

in overseeing that diocese. Under

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother ...

, the Diocese of Guildford was created out of the north-eastern part of the Diocese of Winchester in 1927. The diocese covers the western half of the County of

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant ur ...

. The see is in the town of

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Spirit which was built as a cathedral 1936 to 1965. The bishop's residence is Willow Grange, Jacobs Well — to the north of Guildford. The incumbent bishop is Andrew Watson, 10th Bishop of Guildford, since the confirmation of his election on 24 November 2014.

List of bishops

Assistant bishops

Among those who have served as assistant bishops of the diocese have been: *19301955 (d.): Cyril Golding-Bird,

Archdeacon of Dorking The Archdeacon of Dorking is a senior ecclesiastical officer in the Diocese of Guildford, responsible for clergy discipline and church buildings within the area of her/his archdeaconry. History The Archdeaconry of Dorking is a subdivision of the ...

(until 1936), then of Surrey (until 1949); former Bishop of Kalgoorlie and of Mauritius *In 1952, Freddy Hawkes, Bishop suffragan of Kingston, retired to

Oxted Oxted is a town and civil parish in the Tandridge district of Surrey, England, at the foot of the North Downs. It is south south-east of Croydon in Greater London, west of Sevenoaks in Kent, and north of East Grinstead in West Sussex. Oxt ...

. He did some bishop's work in retirement, such as an ordination in 1956. *19551967 (res.): Basil Dale, Rector of

Haslemere The town of Haslemere () and the villages of Shottermill and Grayswood are in south west Surrey, England, around south west of London. Together with the settlements of Hindhead and Beacon Hill, they comprise the civil parish of Haslemere in ...

(1955–1962), full-time assistant bishop (1962–1967) and former

Bishop of Jamaica The Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands is a diocese of the Church in the Province of the West Indies. It was originally formed as the Diocese of Jamaica, within the Church of England, in 1824. At that time the diocese included the ...

*19631983 (res.): St John Pike, Vicar of Ewshot (1963–1971), Vicar of Botleys with Lyne and Long Cross (1971–1983) and former

Bishop of Gambia and the Rio Pongas The Diocese of Gambia and Guinea was founded in 1935 and had been renamed the Diocese of Gambia and The Rio Pongas by 1940. Today it is simply styled the Diocese of Gambia, is one of 17 dioceses in the Church of the Province of West Africa, and com ...

*19641972 (ret.): Lucian Usher-Wilson, Vicar of

Churt Churt is a village and civil parish in the borough of Waverley in Surrey, England, about south of the town of Farnham on the A287 road towards Hindhead. A clustered settlement is set in areas acting as its green buffers, which include the ...

and former

Bishop of Mbale The Anglican dioceses of Eastern Uganda are the Anglican presence in (roughly) the Eastern Region, Uganda; they are part of the Church of Uganda. The remaining dioceses of the Church are in the areas of Buganda, of Northern Uganda, of Ankole an ...

References

* ''Whitaker's Almanack'' to 2004, Joseph Whitaker and Sons Ltd/A&C Black, London {{Anglican Bishops & Archbishops - Great Britain

Bishops of Guildford 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 c ...