History of the Anglican Diocese of Freetown
The current diocese was formed in 1981 by the division of the former Diocese of Sierra Leone. The Diocese of Sierra Leone was formed in 1852.
The Bishop is Rt Revd Thomas Arnold Wilson.
The founding fathers of Christianity in Freetown were the Church Missionary Society, which founded schools such as the Sierra Leone Grammar school, the Annie Walsh Memorial School, and one of the most important Colleges on the continent for over a century – the Fourah Bay College – now known as the University of Sierra Leone.
The Church Missionary Society also established churches for the Christian education of the freed slaves.
In 1852 following a request by the Governor to the secretary of state for the colonies, Queen Victoria, by letters of Patent, asserted to the formation of a Diocese in Sierra Leone in communion with the church of England and constituted the Bishop of Sierra Leone, a body corporate with perpetual succession.
Bishops of Sierra Leone
- 1852-1854 Owen Vidal
- 1855-1857 John Weeks
- 1857-1860 John Bowen
- 1860-1869 Edward Beckles
- 1870-1882 Henry Cheetham
- 1883-1897 Graham Ingham
- 1897-1901 John Taylor Smith
- 1902-1909 Edmund Elwin
- 1910-1921 John Walmsley
- 1923-1936 George Wright
- 1936-1961 James Lawrence Cecil Horstead
- 1961-1981 Moses N. C. O. Scott
Bishops of Freetown
- 1981-1994 Prince Eustace Thompson
- 1996-2103 Julius O. Prince Lynch
- 2013- Thomas Arnold Wilson
Assistant Bishops
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