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 cathedral is Chichester Cathedral and the diocesan bishop is the Bishop of Chichester. The diocese is in the Province of Canterbury.
Organisation
The Bishop of Chichester has overall episcopal oversight of the diocese, with certain responsibilities delegated to the Bishop of Horsham and the Bishop of Lewes. The suffragan See of Lewes was created in 1909 and was the suffragan bishop for the whole diocese until the See of Horsham was created in 1968.
The four archdeaconries of the diocese are Chichester, Horsham, Hastings and Brighton & Lewes. Until 2014, the Archdeaconry of Chichester covered the coastal region of West Sussex along with Brighton and Hove, the Archdeaconry of Horsham the remainder of West Sussex and the Archdeaconry of Lewes & Hastings covered East Sussex.
On 12 May 2014, it was announced that the diocese is to take forward proposals to create a fourth archdeaconry (initially referred to as Brighton.) Since Lewes itself would be within the new archdeaconry, Lewes & Hastings archdeaconry would become simply Hastings archdeaconry. On 8 August 2014, the Church Times reported that the archdeaconry of Brighton & Lewes had been created and Hastings archdeaconry renamed. On 12 October 2014, it was announced that, from 2015, Martin Lloyd Williams would become the first Archdeacon of Brighton & Lewes.
The 21 deaneries of the diocese are:
Bishops
Alongside the diocesan Bishop of Chichester (Martin Warner), the diocese has two suffragan bishops: a Bishop of Horsham (Ruth Bushyager) and Bishop of Lewes (Will Hazlewood). The Bishop of Horsham oversees the archdeaconries of Chichester and Horsham, while the Bishop of Lewes oversees the archdeaconries of Brighton & Lewes and Hastings.
There are also some other bishops living in the diocese who are licensed as honorary assistant bishops: 1992–present: Michael Marshall, former suffragan Bishop of Woolwich, lives outside the diocese, in Chelsea, London. 1995–present: David Wilcox, retired suffragan Bishop of Dorking, lives in Willingdon. 1996–present: Retired Bishop of Guildford Michael Adie lives in Froxfield, Hampshire and is also licensed there (Diocese of Portsmouth.) 2005–present: Ken Barham, retired diocesan Bishop of Cyangugu, Rwanda, lives in Battle. 2009–present: Christopher Herbert, retired diocesan Bishop of St Albans, lives outside the diocese, in Wrecclesham, Surrey. 2010–present: Henry Scriven, Mission Director for Latin America (CMS) and former Assistant Bishop in Pittsburgh and Suffragan Bishop in Europe, lives in Abingdon-on-Thames, Oxfordshire and is also licensed in Oxford and Winchester dioceses. 2011–present: Alan Chesters, retired diocesan Bishop of Blackburn, lives in Chichester, West Sussex. 2011–present: Laurie Green, former area Bishop of Bradwell, retired to Bexhill-on-Sea.
Three further bishops retired to West Sussex in 2013: Michael Langrish, former diocesan Bishop of Exeter, moved to Walberton; Christopher Morgan, former area Bishop of Colchester, lives in Worthing; and Geoffrey Rowell, retired Bishop in Europe and Bishop suffragan of Basingstoke, lived in Chichester until his death in 2017.
There is no alternative episcopal oversight (for parishes in the diocese which reject the ministry of priests who are women) in the diocese because the ordinary (Martin Warner) does not ordain women as priests.
Episcopal areas
From 1974 until 2013 (by area scheme from 1984 onwards), episcopal oversight of the diocese was divided: the Bishop of Chichester retained direct oversight of a coastal area including the See city and Brighton, and delegated Ordinary authority for the rest of West and East Sussex to the area Bishops of Horsham and of Lewes respectively.
History
Christianity was introduced to the British Isles during the Roman occupation. When the Romans departed, there were waves of non-Christian invasions from northern Europe; these were mainly Angles, Saxons and Jutes. Celtic Christianity was driven, with the Celts, into the remote western parts of the islands. The south of England was settled by Saxons. After the invasions had finished, Roman missionaries evangelized the south east of England and Celtic missionaries the rest of the British Isles.