January 4th Century A.D. Diocese of London,
UK
Bishop of London
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
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Bishop of London
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Bishopric
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Anglican
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Incumbent:
Richard Chartres |
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Province:
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Diocese:
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Cathedral:
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First Bishop:
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Thean
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Formation:
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4th century, but current establishment from 604
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The Bishop of London is the ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of London in the Province of Canterbury.
The diocese covers 458 km² (177 sq. mi.) of 17 boroughs of Greater London north of the River Thames (historically the County of Middlesex) and a small part of the County of Surrey. The see is in the City of London where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Paul which was founded as a cathedral in 604 and was rebuilt from 1675 following the Great Fire of London (1666).[citation needed]
Third in seniority in the Church of England after the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the bishop is one of five senior bishops, with the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Archbishop of York, the Bishop of Durham and the Bishop of Winchester, who sit as of right, each as one of the 26 Lords Spiritual in the House of Lords (as opposed to the remaining diocesan bishops of lesser rank, for whom elevation to one of the seats reserved is attained upon its vacancy and is determined by chronological seniority).[citation needed]
The bishop's residence is The Old Deanery, Dean's Court, London. Previously, for over 1000 years, Fulham Palace was the residence although, from the 18th century, London House next to the Bishop's Chapel in Aldersgate Street was where he had his chambers.[citation needed]
The Bishop of London originally had responsibility for the church in the British colonies in North America, although after the American Revolution of 1776, all that remained under his jurisdiction were the islands of the British West Indies. The diocese was further reduced in 1846, when the counties of Essex and Hertfordshire were ceded to the Diocese of Rochester.[citation needed]
The current and 132nd Bishop of London is the Right Reverend and Right Honourable Richard John Carew Chartres, who was installed on 26 January 1996 and who signs Richard Londin. The diocesan bishop of London has had direct episcopal oversight in the Two Cities area since the institution of the London area scheme in 1979.[1]
Contents
History
A certificate of
ordination (with seal) given at Westminster by Richard Terrick, Bishop of
London, 24 February 1770
Bede records that in AD 604 St Augustine consecrated Mellitus as the first bishop to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Saxons and their king, Sæberht of Essex. Sæberht's uncle and overlord, Æthelberht, king of Kent, built a church dedicated to St Paul in London, as the seat of the new bishop.[2]
Because the bishop's diocese includes the royal palaces and the seat of government at Westminster, he has been regarded as the "King's bishop" and has historically had considerable influence with members of the Royal Family and leading politicians of the day. Since 1748 it has been customary to appoint the Bishop of London to the post of Dean of the Chapel Royal, which has the amusing effect of putting under the bishop's jurisdiction, as dean, several chapels (at the Tower of London and St. James's Palace, among others) which are geographically in the Diocese of London but, as royal peculiars, are specifically outside the bishop's jurisdiction as bishop.
The recorded antiquity of the office dates back to the Roman province of Britannia when 16 named bishops are listed by Jocelyne of Furness in his work Bishops. Stowe noted that this was the sole available source of these names. However, the earlier of the two bishops named Restitutus in the work was alive in 314, the year in which he was named as attending the Council of Arles. The Saxon bishopric of which the present diocese is the direct successor was established in 604 by Mellitus, the same year as St Paul's Cathedral (and also the Diocese of Rochester) were founded.
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