TheArchdeacon of Horsham is a senior ecclesiastical officer in theChurch of EnglandDiocese of Chichester. The diocese almost exactly covers the counties of East and West Sussex and the City of Brighton and Hove, stretching for nearly a hundred miles (160 km) along the south coast of England.[1]
The diocese originally had two archdeaconries created in the 12th century, namely that ofChichester and that ofLewes; a third archdeaconry was created in 1912 atHastings.[2][3] The archdeaconries were then reorganised underEric Kemp (Bishop of Chichester) on 28 June 1975[4] with the Archdeaconry of Lewes being merged with that of Hastings and a new archdeaconry at Horsham being created.[1][5]
On 12 May 2014, it was announced that the diocese was to take forward proposals to create a fourth archdeaconry (initially referred to as Brighton.)[6] Since Lewes itself would be within the new archdeaconry, Lewes & Hastings archdeaconry would become simply Hastings archdeaconry.[7] On 8 August 2014, theChurch Times reported that the archdeaconry ofBrighton & Lewes had been created and Hastings archdeaconry renamed.[8]
Today theBishop of Chichester is assisted by thesuffragan bishops ofHorsham andLewes. There is one archdeacon forChichester, one for Horsham, one for Brighton & Lewes and one for theHastings archdeaconry.[1] The Bishop of Horsham oversees the archdeaconries of Chichester and Horsham, while the Bishop of Lewes oversees the archdeaconries of Brighton & Lewes and Hastings.