The next Bishop of Winchester will be the Right Reverend Philip Mounstephen, currently Bishop of Truro, Downing Street has announced today.

Bishop Philip will serve as the 98th Bishop of the Winchester Diocese, which covers 255 parishes across most of Hampshire and part of Dorset. He will be welcomed at a service of installation in Winchester Cathedral later this year.

Today (6 July), Bishop Philip will be introduced to representatives from across the Diocese of Winchester, first meeting students and staff at St Mark’s Church of England School in Southampton, before visiting the port chaplain at the Mission to Seafarers at Southampton Docks and being introduced to the crew on board a container ship. Bishop Philip will then spend time with representatives from the rural Benefice of Bright Waters, before concluding the day attending a service of Evensong at Winchester Cathedral.

The appointment marks a return to the diocese for Bishop Philip who was born in Hampshire and who studied English Literature at the University of Southampton where he came to Christian faith.