Bishop of Chelmsford

The Bishop of Chelmsford is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chelmsford in the Province of Canterbury.^[1]

Bishop of Chelmsford
Bishopric
anglican
Coat of arms
Incumbent: Guli Francis-Dehqani
Location
Ecclesiastical province	Canterbury
Residence	Bishopscourt, Margaretting
Information
Established	1914
Diocese	Chelmsford
Cathedral	Chelmsford Cathedral

The current bishop is Guli Francis-Dehqani, since the confirmation of her election on 11 March 2021.^[2]

History

The diocese was founded in 1914 under George V from the Diocese of Saint Albans (of which it had been a part since 1877).

The present diocese covers the County of Essex including those parts of Essex added to Greater London on 1 April 1965 and Ballingdon-with-Brundon, transferred to Suffolk and Great/Little Chishill and Heydon, transferred to Cambridgeshire in 1894. The see is in the city of Chelmsford where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, Saint Peter and Saint Cedd which was elevated to cathedral status in 1914. The bishop's residence is Bishopscourt, Margaretting.^[3]

List of bishops

Bishops of Chelmsford
From	Until	Incumbent	Notes
1914	1923	John Watts Ditchfield	Nominated 18 February; consecrated 24 February 1914; died in office.
1923	1929	Guy Warman	Translated from Truro; nominated 10 September; invested 9 October 1923; translated to Manchester 21 January 1929.
1929	1950	Henry Wilson	Nominated 24 January; consecrated 25 January 1929; resigned 30 November 1950.
1951	1961	Falkner Allison	Nominated 19 December 1950; consecrated 2 February 1951; translated to Winchester 20 December 1961.
1962	1971	John Tiarks	Nominated 30 January; consecrated 24 February 1962; resigned 30 April 1971.
1971	1985	John Trillo	Translated from Hertford; nominated 10 May; confirmed 6 July 1971; resigned 30 September 1985.
1986	1996	John Waine	Translated from St Edmundsbury and Ipswich; nominated & confirmed 1986; resigned 30 April 1996.
1996	2003	John Perry	Translated from Southampton; nominated & confirmed 1996; resigned June 2003.
2003	2009	John Gladwin	Translated from Guildford; nominated 1 July 2003;[4] confirmed later; resigned 31 August 2009.
2010	2020	Stephen Cottrell	Translated from Reading; nominated 22 March;[5][6] confirmed 6 October 2010.[7] Translated to York[8] on 9 July 2020.[9]
12 April 2020	19 April 2021[10]	Peter Hill, Bishop of Barking	Acting diocesan bishop during vacancy in see[11]
2021	present	Guli Francis-Dehqani	[12] Translated 11 March 2021[2]
Source(s): [1][13][14]

Assistant bishops

Assistant bishops of the diocese have included:

• 1961 – 1966 (res.): Geoffrey Stuart Smith was an assistant bishop; he was also Rector of Danbury from 1960.
• 1972 – 1974: Br John-Charles SSF, former Assistant Bishop of Adelaide and Bishop of Polynesia^[15]

The appointment of Cecil de Carteret, Bishop of Jamaica, to be an assistant bishop was announced in 1931,^[16] but he died before he could take it up.^[17]

Saulo Mauricio de Barros has been Priest-in-Charge of St Martin's Church, Plaistow since 2024.^[18] Barros was born in Arcoverde, Brazil; he was made deacon in 1995 and ordained priest in 1996. Having served in the Diocese of Recife, he was sent to the then-Missionary District of the Amazon in 2002, becoming the bishop of the area as it became a full diocese.^[19] He was consecrated a bishop on 14 October 2006, the same day his diocese was inaugurated.^[20] Having resigned as bishop, Barros served for a few years in southwestern Brazil before moving to his wife's native Britain, arriving in Colchester in 2019.^[19] He became Associate Priest of the Luso-Hispanic Mission at St Martin's Plaistow and of East Ham Team Ministry in September 2022;^[21] in late 2023, he was also licensed as an honorary assistant bishop of the Diocese of Chelmsford.^[22] When he became Priest-in-Charge in 2024, he kept his licenses in East Ham and as assistant bishop.^[18]