Province South East Asia Cathedral St. Thomas' Cathedral | Diocese Kuching | |
First incumbent Francis Thomas McDougall Formation 1855, current establishment in 1962 | ||
The Bishop of Kuching is the ordinary of the Anglican Diocese of Kuching in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. The bishop exercises episcopal authority over Anglican churches in the Malaysian state of Sarawak and in the independent nation of Brunei Darussalam.
The see is in the city of Kuching where the seat of the bishop is located at St. Thomas' Cathedral, originally built in 1848 and consecrated in 1851 as the home church and base for the Borneo Church Mission in Sarawak. The first Bishop of Kuching to be styled as such was appointed in 1962.
In 1968, the Right Reverend Datuk Basil Temenggong was appointed the bishop of the diocese, becoming the first native Malaysian and Sarawakian to be appointed to the seat. The current bishop is the Most Reverend Datuk Bolly Lapok who is also concurrently the Archbishop of South East Asia.
The bishop's residence is in The Bishop's House on a small hill in Kuching known as College Hill within the compound of the Cathedral. Initially constructed in 1849 as The Mission House and served as the first dispensary in Kuching.
History
Anglican missions to the Kingdom of Sarawak began in 1848 under the auspices of the Borneo Church Mission. Episcopal authority of the mission was placed with the Diocese of Calcutta. Initiatives were made to create a separate diocese for the mission with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel supporting the move and contributing a sum of £5,000 towards the endowment.
Unfortunately political conventions of the day did not allow for an Anglican diocese to be created outside territories administered directly by the British Crown and Sarawak was technically an independent kingdom under British protection. This difficulty was overcome when a letters patent was made in 1855 erecting the Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak based in the British Crown Colony of Labuan. This diocese covered a large geographical area including Sarawak, British North Borneo, and the Strait Settlements. In 1909, the Diocese of Singapore was separated from the diocese and the diocese reverted to the name Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak. In 1949, the diocese was again renamed as the Diocese of Borneo.
This arrangement continued until the division of the Diocese of Borneo into the Diocese of Kuching and the Diocese of Jesselton (renamed the Diocese of Sabah in 1968).