Archbishop of Southwark


The Archbishop of Southwark is the ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark. As such, he is the Metropolitan of the Province of Southwark.
The archdiocese has an area of and covers the London Boroughs south of the Thames, the county of Kent and the Medway Unitary Authority. The Metropolitan See is in Southwark where the archbishop's seat is located at the St George's Cathedral.
The eleventh and current archbishop is John Wilson, who was appointed on 10 June 2019 and was installed on 25 July 2019.

History

The Diocese of Southwark was created on 29 September 1850 and originally covered the historic counties of Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, Sussex, the Isle of Wight, and the Channel Islands. It lost territory on the creation of the Diocese of Portsmouth on 19 May 1882. The diocese lost further territory on the creation of the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton on 28 May 1965. However, on the same day the diocese of Southwark was elevated to an archdiocese when the ecclesiastical province of Southwark was established; from 1850 the diocese had been part of the Province of Westminster. The metropolitan archbishop of Southwark has jurisdiction over the bishops of Arundel & Brighton, of Plymouth, and of Portsmouth.