Bishop of Calcutta

The Bishop of Calcutta exercises episcopal leadership over the Diocese of Calcutta of the Church of North India. The diocese was established in 1813 as part of the Church of England and the first bishop was Thomas Fanshawe Middleton (1814–1822) and the second Reginald Heber (1823–1826). Under the sixth bishop Daniel Wilson (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 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 Ceylon and the Church of Pakistan 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, 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 & Howrah in the state of West Bengal. The bishop's seat (cathedra) 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
1827–1828	John Thomas James
1829–1831	John Matthias Turner
1832–1858	Daniel Wilson	First Metropolitan of India and Ceylon (1835)
1858–1866	George Edward Lynch Cotton
1866–1876	Robert Milman
1876–1898	Edward Ralph Johnson
1898–1902	James Edward Cowell Welldon
1902–1913	Reginald Stephen Copleston	Consecrated Bishop of Colombo (1876), Translated (1902)
1913–1919	George Alfred Lefroy	Consecrated Bishop of Lahore (1899), Translated (1913)
1919–1949	Foss Westcott	Consecrated Bishop of Chota Nagpur (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)

See also

Christianity portal

• Christianity in India
• Church of North India

Aurobindho Mukerjee 1945-1962. Lakdasa de mel, 1962-1970. Former Bishop of Kurunagula 1950.

References

• Cross, F. L. (ed.) (1957) The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford U. P.; pp. 686–88: "India, Christianity in"

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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