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Bishop of Rochester
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- See also: List of bishops of Rochester
The Bishop of Rochester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Rochester in the Province of Canterbury.
The diocese covers the west of the County of Kent. The see is in the City of Rochester where the seat is located at The Cathedral Church of Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary, which was founded as a cathedral in 604. For the late 17th and the 18th century it was customary for the Bishop of Rochester to also be appointed Dean of Westminster Abbey.
The Bishop's residence is Bishopscourt, Rochester, Kent.
The office was created in 604 at the founding of the diocese in the Kingdom of Kent under King Æthelbert. The current bishop is the Right Reverend Dr Michael James Nazir-Ali, the 106th Lord Bishop of Rochester, who signs Michael Roffen.
The diocese of Rochester was historically the oldest and smallest of all the suffragan sees of Canterbury. Founded by St Augustine, who in 604 consecrated St Justus as its first bishop. (After two more Roman bishops, all subsequent bishops until 1066, beginning with Ithamar, were drawn from the Christianised inhabitants of Kent.) The diocesan territory consisted roughly of the Western part of Kent, separated from the rest of the county by the River Medway, though the diocesan boundaries did not follow the river very closely. The restricted territory of the diocese meant that it needed only one archdeacon to supervise all 97 parishes.
From the foundation of the see the Archbishop of Canterbury had enjoyed the privilege of nominating the bishop, but Archbishop Theobald transferred the right to the Benedictine monks of the cathedral, who exercised it for the first time in 1148.
