The Bishop of Chichester 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 Britai ...

Diocese of Chichester The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was founded in 681 as the ancient Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey, until the see was translated to Chichester in 1075. The cath ...

in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the counties of

East East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fac ...

and

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

. The see is based in the City of Chichester where the bishop's seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity. On 3 May 2012 the appointment was announced of Martin Warner,

Bishop of Whitby The Bishop of Whitby is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of York, in the Province of York, England. The title takes its name after the town of Whitby in North Yorkshire; the See was erected under the ...

, as the next Bishop of Chichester. His enthronement took place on 25 November 2012 in Chichester Cathedral. The bishop's residence is The Palace, Chichester. Since 2015, Warner has also fulfilled the diocesan-wide role of

alternative episcopal oversight A provincial episcopal visitor (PEV), popularly known as a flying bishop, is a Church of England bishop assigned to minister to many of the clergy, laity and parishes who on grounds of theological conviction, "are unable to receive the ministry of ...

, following the decision by Mark Sowerby, then Bishop of Horsham, to recognise the orders of priests and bishops who are women. Between 1984 and 2013, the Bishop of Chichester, in addition to being the diocesan bishop, also had specific oversight of the Chichester Episcopal Area (the then Archdeaconry of Chichester), which covered the coastal region of West Sussex along with Brighton and Hove.

Earliest history at Selsey

The episcopal see at

Selsey Selsey is a seaside town and civil parish, about eight miles (12 km) south of Chichester in West Sussex, England. Selsey lies at the southernmost point of the Manhood Peninsula, almost cut off from mainland Sussex by the sea. It is bounde ...

was founded by Saint

Wilfrid Wilfrid ( – 709 or 710) was an English bishop and saint. Born a Northumbrian noble, he entered religious life as a teenager and studied at Lindisfarne, at Canterbury, in Francia, and at Rome; he returned to Northumbria in about 660, and ...

, formerly Bishop of the Northumbrians, for the Anglo-Saxon

Kingdom of Sussex la, Regnum Sussaxonum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of the South Saxons , capital = , era = Heptarchy , status = Vassal of Wessex (686–726, 827–860)Vassal of Mercia (771–796) , governm ...

in the late 7th century. He was granted land by

Æthelwealh of Sussex Æthelwealh ( ''fl.'' – ) was ruler of the ancient South Saxon kingdom from before 674 till his death between 680 and 685. He was baptised in Mercia, becoming the first Christian king of Sussex. He was killed by a West Saxon prince, Cædwall ...

to build a cathedral at Selsey. However, shortly afterwards

Cædwalla of Wessex Cædwalla (; 659 – 20 April 689 AD) was the King of Wessex from approximately 685 until he abdicated in 688. His name is derived from the Welsh Cadwallon. He was exiled from Wessex as a youth and during this period gathered forces and ...

conquered the

, but he confirmed the grant to Wilfrid. The bishop's seat was located at

Selsey Abbey Selsey Abbey was founded by St Wilfrid in AD 681 on land donated at Selsey by the local Anglo-Saxon ruler, King Æðelwealh of Sussex, Sussex's first Christian king. The Kingdom of Sussex was the last area of Anglo-Saxon England to be evangeli ...

. Nine years after the

Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Con ...

, in 1075, the Council of London enacted that episcopal sees should be removed to cities or larger towns. Accordingly, the see at Selsey was removed to

Chichester Chichester () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publi ...

. Some sources claim that Stigand, the last Bishop of Selsey, continued to use the title Bishop of Selsey until 1082, before adopting the new title Bishop of Chichester, indicating that the transfer took several years to complete.Dallawa
History of the Western Division of the county of Sussex, Volume 1 p. 25
accessed 18 June 2016

List of bishops

Assistant bishops

Among those who were called Assistant Bishop of Chichester, or coadjutor bishop, were: *19301937 (d.): Henry Southwell,

Canon Precentor According to both Catholic and Anglican canon law, a cathedral chapter is a college of clerics ( chapter) formed to advise a bishop and, in the case of a vacancy of the episcopal see in some countries, to govern the diocese during the vacancy. In ...

Chichester Cathedral Chichester Cathedral, formally known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in West Sussex, England. It was founded as a cathedral in 1075, when the seat of ...

and Provost of

Lancing College Lancing College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) in southern England, UK. The school is located in West Sussex, east of Worthing near the village of Lancing, on the south coast of England. ...

, former

Bishop of Lewes The Bishop of Lewes is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester, in the Province of Canterbury, England. The title takes its name after Lewes, the county town of East Sussex East Sussex i ...

*19391953 (ret.): Charles Saunders, Rector of

Uckfield Uckfield () is a town in the Wealden District of East Sussex in South East England. The town is on the River Uck, one of the tributaries of the River Ouse, on the southern edge of the Weald. Etymology 'Uckfield', first recorded in writing as ...

(until 1942), of

Barcombe Barcombe is an East Sussex village and civil parish in the Lewes District of East Sussex. The parish has four settlements: old Barcombe (), the oldest settlement in the parish with the parish church; Barcombe Cross (), the more populous settl ...

(1942–47) and Vicar of West Lavington (from 1947); former Bishop in Lucknow *1965–1980 (d.):

Ambrose Reeves Richard Ambrose Reeves (6 December 189923 December 1980) was an Anglican bishop and opponent of Apartheid in the 20th century. Education and ordinations Reeves was educated at Great Yarmouth High School, Great Yarmouth Grammar School, served in ...

, Rector of Lewes (until 1972) and former

Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg The Anglican Diocese of Johannesburg is part of the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. It was formed in 1922 from the southern part of the Diocese of Pretoria, and at that time included the whole of the southern Transvaal. Today it is much small ...

*1966: Nathaniel Newnham Davis, former Bishop of Antigua *19941997 (res.): David Evans, Gen. Sec. of SAMS and former

Bishop in Peru The Anglican Church of South America ( es, Iglesia Anglicana de Sudamérica) is the ecclesiastical province of the Anglican Communion that covers six dioceses in the countries of Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay. Formed in 1981 ...

References

Sources

* * Kelly, S. E. 1998. Charters of Selsey. ''Anglo-Saxon Charters'' 6. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bishop Of Chichester * Bishops of Chichester History of West Sussex Religion in Sussex Catholic titular sees in Europe

Earliest history at Selsey

List of bishops

Assistant bishops

See also

References

Sources