The Bishop of Stepney is an episcopal title used by a suffragan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of London, in the Province of Canterbury, England.^[1] The title takes its name after Stepney, an inner-city district in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. The post is held by Joanne Grenfell^[2] whose consecration as bishop, and start of her tenure as Bishop of Stepney, was on 3 July 2019 at St Paul's Cathedral;^[3] the principal consecrator was Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.^[4]

The first bishop was appointed to take responsibility for North and East London, which had been under the care of the Bishop of Bedford; the new See was erected because the retiring bishop Robert Billing retained the See of Bedford, and Stepney was a more obvious See for the suffragan for the East End.^[5] In 1898, the new Bishop of Islington received responsibility for North London.^[6] In the experimental area scheme of 1970, the bishop was given oversight of the deaneries of Tower Hamlets, Hackney, and Islington.^[7] The Bishops suffragan of Stepney have been area bishops since the London area scheme was founded in 1979.^[8]

List of bishops

Bishops of Stepney
From	Until	Incumbent		Notes
1895	1897		George Forrest Browne	(1833–1930). Translated to Bristol
1897	1901[9]		Arthur Winnington-Ingram	(1858–1946). Translated to London
1901[9]	1909		Cosmo Gordon Lang	(1864–1945). Translated to York, and later to Canterbury
1909	1919		Luke Paget	(1853–1937). Formerly Bishop of Ipswich. Translated to Chester
1919	1928		Henry Mosley	(1868–1948). Translated to Southwell
1928	1936		Charles Curzon	(1878–1954). Translated to Exeter
1936	1952		Robert Moberly	(1884–1978)
1952	1957		Joost de Blank	(1908–1968)
1957	1968		Evered Lunt	(1900–1982)
1968	1978		Trevor Huddleston	(1913–1998). Translated to Mauritius
1978	1991		Jim Thompson	(1936–2003). First area bishop from 1979; translated to Bath and Wells
1992	1995		Richard Chartres	(b. 1947). Consecrated on 22 May 1992. Translated to London in 1995
1996	2002		John Sentamu	(b. 1949). Translated to Birmingham, and later to York
2003	2010		Stephen Oliver	(b. 1948) Retired 6 July 2010
2010	2011		Pete Broadbent Bishop of Willesden	Acted as Bishop of Stepney from 7 July 2010,[10][11] effectively suspended from 23 November 2010 to 10 January 2011,[11] resumed as Acting Bishop until 22 July 2011.
2011	2018		Adrian Newman[12][13]	(b. 1958) Resigned on 31 October 2018 on health grounds.[14]
2018	2019		Pete Broadbent Bishop of Willesden	Acting as Bishop of Stepney from 31 October 2018 until Grenfell's consecration.[14]
2019	present		Joanne Grenfell	Since 3 July 2019 consecration.[2]
Source(s):[1]