Our History

Soon after the cession of Bombay by Portuguese to the British Monarch in 1665, only a few hundred English men were housed in the Fort during 1660s. They were given a room to use as a Chapel by a directive issued by the British East India Company dated February 12, 1669. A proposal to build an Anglican Church was first mooted by the Court in London. It was warmly taken up by the President of Bombay Sir George Oxender. The Governor of Bombay, Gerald Aungier laid the foundation for the Church in 1676. His sudden and untimely demise in 1677 led to the slow progress due to lack of funds and leadership.

The Anglican members serving the British Company in the meanwhile worshipped in two upper rooms of the Bombay Fort until 1718. E. R. Hambye remarks that the Anglicans at Mumbai built their first Church without however creating any indigenous community worth the name to worship there. It means that the first Anglican Congregation was solely comprised of foreigners and not meant for natives. Neill however observes that the Church was built with a definite missionary purpose - that the natives should repair the Church.

Richard Cobbe served as the Chaplain during 1718 - 1721. The first Anglican Church at Mumbai was ready to be opened by 1718 but the Chaplain Richard Cobbe could not have the consecration of the Church as there was no Anglican Bishop in India for the next hundred years. The Church was however opened for the first Worship Service on the Christmas day, i.e., December 25, 1718. After a lapse of almost a century, the Church was dedicated in 1816 to St. Thomas, the Apostle of Jesus to India when the first Anglican Bishop to India and the East Indies Dr. Thomas Fanshaw Middleton (1769 - 1822) stationed at Calcutta made his first maiden Pastoral visitation to Mumbai.

The Revision of the Company’s Charter in 1833 by the British Parliament paved the way for the erection of two new Bishoprics in addition to Calcutta Episcopacy restricting and restructuring them within the geographical areas of the former three Presidencies, namely - Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. St. Thomas Church was destined for elevation as the Cathedral Church of the new Anglican Diocese of Bombay when it was formed under the Renewal of Charter 1833. The See of Bombay was accordingly established on July 01, 1837. St. Thomas Church became the Cathedral Church of Diocese on that day. It continues to serve as the Cathedral Church of Bombay Diocese under the dispensation of the Church of North India since 1970.

The formation of Bombay diocese and the establishment of Anglican episcopacy: The Renewal of the Charter of British East India Company in 1813 led to the unconscious erection of the Anglican Bishopric in India stationed at Calcutta having the whole India as its Episcopate with two additional Archdeaconaries - at Bombay (Mumbai) and Madras (Chennai) respectively. The first Anglican Bishop in India Thomas Fanshaw Middleton was consecrated on May 08, 1814 at London and installed at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Calcutta on November 25, 1814. Thomas Carr arrived in India in 1818 and became the Chaplain at Bombay. He established the CMS Corresponding Committee on that same year. The CMS work was inaugurated at Bombay in 1820 by Rev. Richard Kenney.

Archdeacon Barnes convened a meeting comprised of the Governor of Bombay, the Chief Justice, the Commander-in-chief, leading personalities like civil and military officers, etc. on the Whit Sunday, May 22, 1825 at St. Thomas Church, Fort. The second Anglican Bishop in India Reginald Heber was on an Episcopal visit to Bombay on that day and he attended this meeting. Bishop Heber undertook this Mumbai Mission on his project for forming District Committee of the SPG in aid of Bishop’s College. This meeting was eventually converted as the District Committee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (S. P. G.).

The initial object of CMS and SPG Committees of Mumbai was to serve the benefits of the British subjects as well as the Anglo-Indians. It had later been extended to administering the spiritual needs of the Indian Christians. The SPG Committee of Bombay separately petitioned to the Government of India and the British East India Company in 1828 to create a Bishopric at Bombay. The Renewal of the Charter of British East India Company in 1833 by British Parliament led to the conversion and creation of the three existing Archdeaconaries, namely - Calcutta, Madras and Bombay into Bishoprics.

The two new Bishoprics of Bombay and Madras were subordinate to the Bishop of Calcutta as their Metropolitan. The title and the status of “Arch Bishop” were denied because the Church in India was still subject to the authority of the Arch Bishop of Canterbury. Calcutta became the Seat of the Metropolitan of India. The creation of Bombay Bishopric was notified on December 07, 1836 by the Ecclesiastical Department No. 05 of the Court of Directors of the Company. The said document also conveyed that Archdeacon of Bombay Thomas Carr had been elevated to the office of Bishop of the Diocese of Bombay.

Thomas Carr was consecrated as Bishop by William, the Archbishop of Canterbury on Sunday, November 19, 1837 at Lambeth Palace Chapel, London. He was duly installed to the Episcopal office as the first Bishop of Bombay on February 25, 1838 at St. Thomas Cathedral, Mumbai. The See or Bishopric of Bombay was thus inaugurated to administer the spiritual needs of the Churches and Congregations of both English and vernacular in origin having allegiance to Anglican tradition and Communion within the jurisdiction of Bombay Presidency under the British Raj.

Bishop Thomas Carr was an evangelical having strong support to CMS. He was known for having good relationship with Revd. Dr. John Wilson of Scotland. Wilson established the Bombay College of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1835. This College is currently known as Wilson College. Parsis were distinguished by their desire for knowledge. They in 1839 were numbered 109, and three of them were baptized in 1839. A notable convert of Robert Money School was a wealthy Parsi named Sorabji Kharshedji. He was baptized in October 1841 and for that act, separated from his young wife. He for sometime lived with Bishop Carr in Bishop’s house and accompanied the Bishop in his Episcopal visits.

The British Company and the British Government allotted lands to build Chapels and Churches to serve the exclusive interests of British subjects along with certain amount of financial assistance to build Churches. Under the auspices of the SPG Committee of Mumbai, a few Anglican Churches for the benefit of British subjects of both civil and military in nature were established. These Anglican Churches emerged at Mumbai Presidency as part and parcel of the British government in India.

With the establishment of Anglican Episcopacy at Mumbai since 1837, the Lord Bishop of Bombay, like his counterparts in Calcutta and Chennai, occupied the position or seat next to the Governor of Bombay Presidency in the social and political hierarchy of Bombay until British Raj left India in 1947. The Bombay Bishopric was legalized by the British Government in 1854 during the tenure of Bishop John Hardings (1851 - 1868).

The Bombay Diocesan Council of the Church of England was formerly established on March 04, 1915 while Edwin James Palmer (1908 - 1929) was the Bishop of Bombay and its first session was held in 1916. During his tenure, the British Parliament enacted in 1927 the Indian Church Measure Act 1927 and the Indian Church Act 1927. These Acts severed the Church of England in India from the Church of England and gave birth to the Church of India, Burma and Ceylon (CIBC) since then. By these Acts, the Anglican Church, i.e., Church of England in India, dissolved its existence and the functioning as a part of the British Government in India. The Bishops of the Anglican Church in India ceased to be subject(ed) to the Superintendence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

All Church properties of the Anglican Churches were handed over to the superintendence of the Bishops in India. The detachment of the Churches in India having allegiance to the tenets of the Church of England from the parent body of the Anglican Communion in 1927 made the Churches in India to become an autonomous Church body since then. The autonomous Church in India however continued for sometime to reaffirm its allegiance and affinity to the traditions and tenets of the Church of England and the British Crown.

The Independence of India was declared on August 15, 1947 after the partition of Pakistan from India. The garrison Churches along with their Church properties were transferred to the “Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon (CIPBC)”, having Bombay as one of its principal territorial Dioceses. The Church of North India was inaugurated on November 29, 1970 as the fruit of the amalgamation of the then existing CIPBC of the former Anglican dispensation with the other five Protestant denominational Churches, namely: 1. The Council of the Baptist Churches in Northern India 2. The Church of the Brethren in India 3. The Disciples of Christ 4. The Church of India (Formerly known as the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon; in short, CIPBC) 5. The Methodist Church (British and Australian Conference) 6. The United Church of Northern India (UCNI). It paved the way for the creation of the present CNI Diocese of Bombay with a few territorial adjustments under the new domain.