Bishop of Calcutta - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...

of Calcutta exercises episcopal leadership over the Diocese of Calcutta of the Church of North India
Church of North India
The Church of North India , the dominant Protestant denomination in northern India, is a united church established on 29 November 1970 by bringing together the main Protestant churches working in northern India...

. The diocese was established in 1813 as part of the Church of England

Church of England

The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

and the first bishop was Thomas Fanshawe Middleton (1814–1822) and the second Reginald Heber

Reginald Heber

Reginald Heber was the Church of England's Bishop of Calcutta who is now remembered chiefly as a hymn-writer.-Life:Heber was born at Malpas in Cheshire...

(1823–1826). Under the sixth bishop Daniel Wilson

Daniel Wilson

Daniel or Dan Wilson may refer to:* Daniel Wilson , British-Canadian archaeologist, ethnologist and author* Daniel Wilson , Bishop of Calcutta...

(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 by Letters patent

Letters patent

Letters patent are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch or president, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, title, or status to a person or corporation...

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 the Province of Myanmar

The Church of the Province of Myanmar in Asia is a member church of the Anglican Communion. The province is bordered by China on the north, Laos on the east, Thailand on the southeast, Bangladesh on the west and India on the northwest, with the Andaman Sea to the south and the Bay of Bengal to the...

, Church of Ceylon

Church of Ceylon

The Church of Ceylon, which is the Anglican Church in Sri Lanka, was established with the appointment of its first Bishop, Rt Rev James Chapman in 1845 as the Bishop of Colombo.-The Dioceses of Colombo and Kurunegala:...

and the Church of Pakistan

Church of Pakistan

The Church of Pakistan is a united church in Pakistan, which is part of the Anglican Communion and a member church of the World Methodist Council. It was established in 1970 with a union of Anglicans, Scottish Presbyterians , Methodists, and Lutherans. It is the only United Church in the South...

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

Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India

Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India is a major Christian denomination of India. It belongs to the Baptist World Alliance. It is not affiliated with the World Council of Churches, however. The Council of Baptist Churches in Northern India belongs to the National Council of Churches in...

, the Church of the Brethren in India, and the Disciples of Christ to form the Church of North India in the same year.

The diocese currently has jurisdiction over the corporation limits of Calcutta and the Districts of Hooghly

Hooghly District

Hooghly district is one of the districts of the state of West Bengal in India. It can alternatively be spelt Hoogli or Hugli. The district is named after the Hooghly River.The headquarters of the district are at Chinsura...

& Howrah

Howrah District

Howrah district is a district of the West Bengal state in eastern India. It has thousands of years of rich heritage in the form of the great Bengali kingdom of Bhurshut. The district is named after its headquarters, the city of Howrah.-Geography:...

in the state of West Bengal

West Bengal

West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...

. The bishop's seat (cathedra

Cathedra

A cathedra or bishop's throne is the chair or throne of a bishop. It is a symbol of the bishop's teaching authority in the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, and has in some sense remained such in the Anglican Communion and in Lutheran churches...

) is located in the city of Calcutta at St. Paul's Cathedral. The current bishop is the Right Reverend Ashok Biswas.

Succession

This is an incomplete list of people who have served as the Bishop of Calcutta.

Tenure	Incumbent	Notes
1814–1823	Thomas Fanshawe Middleton
1823–1826	Reginald Heber Reginald Heber Reginald Heber was the Church of England's Bishop of Calcutta who is now remembered chiefly as a hymn-writer.-Life:Heber was born at Malpas in Cheshire...
1827–1828	John Thomas James John Thomas James John Thomas James was a Church of England bishop. He was bishop of Calcutta from 1827 to 1828. He was an avid traveler and co-authored books on Northern Europe and the Middle East....
1829–1831	John Matthias Turner John Matthias Turner The Rt Rev John Matthias Turner, DD, MA was an eminent Anglican priest in the first half of the 19th century. He was Vicar of Abingdon then Rector of Winslow before being elevated to the Episcopate as Bishop of Calcutta in 1829. He died in post in the summer of 1831 and was interred on 8...
1832–1858	Daniel Wilson Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta Daniel Wilson, Bishop of Calcutta , born in Spitalfields, London, 2 July 1778, died in Calcutta, 2 January 1858.He was educated at St Edmund Hall, Oxford ; was ordained, and became curate of Richard Cecil at Cobham and Bisley in Surrey, where he developed into a strong Evangelical preacher; was...	First Metropolitan of India and Ceylon (1835)
1858–1866	George Edward Lynch Cotton George Edward Lynch Cotton George Edward Lynch Cotton was an English educator and clergyman, known for his connections with British India and the public school system.-Life in England:...
1866–1876	Robert Milman Robert Milman The Rt Rev Robert Milman DD MA was an eminent Anglican priest in the second half of the 19th century. He was educated at Exeter College, Oxford and became Bishop of Calcutta in 1866. He died at Rawalpindi a decade later.-References:...
1876–1898	Edward Ralph Johnson Edward Ralph Johnson The Rt Rev Edward Ralph Johnson, DD, LLD, MA was an eminent Anglican priest in the second half of the 19th century. He was born in 1828, educated at Wadham College, Oxford and ordained in 1850. His first post was a curacy in Farnborough, Warwickshire after which he was a Minor Canon at Chester...
1898–1902	James Edward Cowell Welldon James Edward Cowell Welldon James Edward Cowell Welldon was an English clergyman, Bishop of Calcutta, and scholar.-Early life:Welldon was born in 1854 in Tonbridge, Kent, the son of the Rev. Edward Welldon, the second master of Tonbridge School. He was educated at Eton and was named the Newcastle scholar in 1873...
1902–1913	Reginald Stephen Copleston Reginald Stephen Copleston The Most Rev Reginald Stephen Copleston DD was an eminent Anglican priest and author in the second half of the 19th century and the very start of the 20th....	Consecrated Bishop of Colombo Bishop of Colombo The Anglican Bishop of Colombo is the bishop of the Diocese of Colombo, a diocese in the Church of Ceylon which is part of the Anglican Communion.- List:#James Chapman D.D. 1845-1861... (1876), Translated (1902)
1913–1919	George Alfred Lefroy George Alfred Lefroy The Rt Rev George Alfred Lefroy, DD was an eminent Anglican priest in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.George Alfred Lefroy was born into an eminent Irish family in County Down in August 1854: his father was the Very Rev Jeffrey Lefroy Dean of the Cathedral of Christ the Redeemer...	Consecrated Bishop of Lahore Bishop of Lahore The Bishop of Lahore was the Ordinary of the Anglican Church in Lahore from its inception in 1877 until the foundation of the Church in India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon in 1927; and since then head of one of its most prominent Dioceses.-External links:*... (1899), Translated (1913)
1919–1949	Foss Westcott Foss Westcott Foss Westcott was an English bishop.Westcott was the son of a distinguished clergyman, Brooke Foss Westcott and was educated at Cheltenham College and Peterhouse, Cambridge. Ordained in 1887, his first post was as curate of St Peter's Church, Bishopwearmouth...	Consecrated Bishop of Chota Nagpur Bishop of Chota Nagpur The Bishop of Chota Nagpur has exercised episcopal leadership over the Diocese of Chota Nagpur of the Church of North India since 1890. The current Bishop is the Most Reverend James Terom, the Province’s Primate.-See also:*Christianity in India... (1905), Translated (1919) Metropolitan of India, 1919–45
1949–1952	George Hubbard
1970–1980	Rt Rev Joseph Amritanand	consecrated 1948 Bishop of Assam
1974–1999	Dinesh Chandra Gorai	Consecrated Bishop of Barrackpore , Translated
1999 - May 2008	P S P Raju	Consecrated Bishop of Calcutta (1999), Translated (2007)
2008–present	Ashok Biswas	Consecrated Bishop of Calcutta (2008)

External links

Chapter XXVII. The Mother Diocese of Calcutta, 1815 - A History of the Church of England in India, SPCK, 1924
Diocese of Kolkata - Church of North India

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Succession

See also

External links