The Bishop of Horsham is an episcopal

Episcopal polity

Episcopal polity is a form of church governance that is hierarchical in structure with the chief authority over a local Christian church resting in a bishop...

 title used by a suffragan bishop

Suffragan bishop

A suffragan bishop is a bishop subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop. He or she may be assigned to an area which does not have a cathedral of its own.-Anglican Communion:...

 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...

 Diocese of Chichester

Diocese of Chichester

The Diocese of Chichester is a Church of England diocese based in Chichester, covering Sussex. It was created in 1075 to replace the old Diocese of Selsey, which was based at Selsey Abbey from 681. The cathedral is Chichester Cathedral and the bishop is the Bishop of Chichester...

, in the Province of Canterbury

Province of Canterbury

The Province of Canterbury, also called the Southern Province, is one of two ecclesiastical provinces making up the Church of England...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. The title takes its name after the market town

Market town

Market town or market right is a legal term, originating in the medieval period, for a European settlement that has the right to host markets, distinguishing it from a village and city...

 of Horsham

Horsham

Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

 in West Sussex

West Sussex

West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...

.

Horsham was one of the thirteen new post-English Reformation

English Reformation

The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

 reformation bishoprics and dioceses proposed by King Henry VIII in an ecclesiastical revision proposal written in the king's own handwriting. The subsequent reallocation of former monastic incomes allowed for the eventual creation of only six of these thirteen dioceses. Nonetheless, an area of west Horsham became known as 'Bishopric'. When new sees (both suffragan and diocesan) were established by the Church of England in the 20th century, the proposed Tudor dioceses which had not come into being were considered as episcopal titles. Horsham was one of those chosen (as was Leicester).

The current Bishop is the Right Reverend Mark Sowerby, who was consecrated a bishop on 25 July 2009 in Chichester Cathedral

Chichester Cathedral

The Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, otherwise called Chichester Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Chichester. It is located in Chichester, in Sussex, England...

 in a ceremony led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

List of bishops

No.	Incumbent	From	Until	Notes
1	Simon Phipps	1968	1974	Translated Translation (ecclesiastical) Translation is the technical term when a Bishop is transferred from one diocese to another.This can be* From Suffragan Bishop status to Diocesan Bishop*From Coadjutor bishop to Diocesan Bishop*From one country's Episcopate to another...  to Lincoln Bishop of Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Lincoln in the Province of Canterbury.The present diocese covers the county of Lincolnshire and the unitary authority areas of North Lincolnshire and North East Lincolnshire. The Bishop's seat is located in the Cathedral...
2	Colin Docker	1975	1991
3	John Hind	1991	1993	Translated to Gibraltar in Europe Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe The Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers not only the area of Gibraltar in British jurisdiction but also all of mainland Europe, Morocco and the territory of the former Soviet Union... , and later to Chichester Bishop of Chichester The Bishop of Chichester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chichester in the Province of Canterbury. The diocese covers the Counties of East and West Sussex. The see is in the City of Chichester where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity...
4	Lindsay Urwin Lindsay Urwin Lindsay Goodall Urwin OGS is an Australian-born bishop of the Church of England . Urwin was the suffragan Bishop of Horsham in the Diocese of Chichester, in southern England, from 1993 to 2009 and was also the principal organiser of the annual Caister Conferences...	1993	2009	Resigned as bishop 28 February 2009; Administrator of the Anglican Shrine at Walsingham Walsingham Walsingham is a village in the English county of Norfolk. The village is famed for its religious shrines in honour of the Virgin Mary and as a major pilgrimage centre...  since February 2009
5	Mark Sowerby	2009	present	Nominated 19 June 2009; consecrated on 25 July 2009

External links

• Crockford's Clerical Directory - Listings