Bishop of Stepney

The Bishop of Stepney is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of London, in the Province of Canterbury, England.^[1] The title takes its name after Stepney, an inner-city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The post is held by Joanne Grenfell^[2] whose consecration as bishop, and start of her tenure as Bishop of Stepney, was on 3 July 2019 at St Paul's Cathedral;^[3] the principal consecrator was Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.^[4]

The first bishop was appointed to take responsibility for North and East London, which had been under the care of the Bishop of Bedford; the new See was erected because the retiring bishop Robert Billing retained the See of Bedford, and Stepney was a more obvious See for the suffragan for the East End.^[5] In 1898, the new Bishop of Islington received responsibility for North London.^[6] In the experimental area scheme of 1970, the bishop was given oversight of the deaneries of Tower Hamlets, Hackney, and Islington.^[7] The Bishops suffragan of Stepney have been area bishops since the London area scheme was founded in 1979.^[8]