| Bishopric: | Sabah |
| Border: | Anglican |
| Incumbent: | Melter Tais |
| Country: | Malaysia |
| Territory: | Sabah and the Federal Territory of Labuan |
| Province: | South East Asia |
| Archdeaconries: | 3 |
| Established: | 1855, current establishment in 1966 |
| Cathedral: | All Saints' Cathedral |
| First Incumbent: | Francis Thomas McDougall |
| Website: | https://anglicansabah.org/ |
The Bishop of Sabah is an Anglican prelate who oversees the Diocese of Sabah in the Church of the Province of South East Asia. Following the death of Albert Vun Cheong Fui on 14 July 2014, Melter Tais was installed as the sixth bishop on 14 May 2015. His seat is All Saints' Cathedral, Kota Kinabalu.[1]
See main article: Diocese of Sabah.
Anglican worship in the territory administered by the diocese today began as early as 1846 when the Lieutenant Governor of Labuan, John Scott, was given authority by the Bishop of London to perform burials and weddings using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.
The Revd Dr Francis McDougall was one of the first group of Anglican missionaries to arrive on the island of Borneo in 1847. He laboured in the ministry from his base in Kuching. In 1855, McDougall was consecrated in Calcutta as the Bishop of Labuan and its Dependencies. Bishop McDougall continued to operate, however, from Kuching, the title of his bishopric being due to the then Church of England’s practice of only setting up a diocese in a Crown possession, which Labuan was, while the Kingdom of Sarawak under Rajah James Brooke was not.
The first church in the present-day diocese, the Church of Our Holy Saviour, Labuan was built and consecrated by the bishop on 18 December 1866.[2]
The diocese then included Anglican churches in the Labuan, North Borneo, and Sarawak. With the transfer of jurisdiction of the Anglican churches in the Straits Settlements from the Diocese of Calcutta to the diocese, it was renamed the Diocese of Labuan, Sarawak and Singapore in 1869. In 1909, the Straits Settlements was separated from to form its own diocese and the diocese was renamed the Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak.[3] In 1949, the diocese was again renamed the Diocese of Borneo.[4]
In 1962, the diocese was divided into the Diocese of Jesselton and the Diocese of Kuching. The Diocese of Jesselton was renamed the Diocese of Sabah in 1968 after the renaming of the Jesselton to Kota Kinabalu and to reflect the new political situation after the formation of Malaysia.[5]
In 2015, the first native Sabahan of Kadazan-Dusun descent, Melter Tais, was consecrated the Bishop of Sabah.[6]
| Bishop of Labuan and its Dependencies | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| From | Until | Incumbent | Notes | ||
| 1856 | 1869 | Francis McDougall | |||
| Bishops of Labuan, Sarawak and Singapore | |||||
| From | Until | Incumbent | Notes | ||
| 1869 | 1881 | Walter Chambers | Churches in the Straits Settlements separated from the Diocese of Calcutta and placed under the Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak. Diocese renamed Diocese of Labuan, Sarawak and Singapore. | ||
| 1882 | 1908 | George Hose | |||
| Bishops of Labuan and Sarawak | |||||
| From | Until | Incumbent | Notes | ||
| 1909 | 1916 | Rupert Mounsey | Churches in Singapore were separated from the Diocese to form its own Diocese of Singapore. The Diocese reverted to the name of Diocese of Labuan and Sarawak. | ||
| 1917 | 1931 | Logie Danson | |||
| 1932 | 1937 | Noel Hudson | |||
| 1938 | 1948 | Francis Hollis | |||
| Bishop of Borneo | |||||
| From | Until | Incumbent | Notes | ||
| 1948 | 1962 | Nigel Cornwall | The diocese was renamed the Diocese of Borneo and included Anglican missions in Kalimantan. | ||
| Bishops of Jesselton | |||||
| From | Until | Incumbent | Notes | ||
| 1962 | 1964 | James Wong Chang Ling | The diocese was separated into the Diocese of Jesselton and the Diocese of Kuching. | ||
| 1965 | 1968 | Roland Koh Peck Chiang | |||
| Bishops of Sabah | |||||
| From | Until | Incumbent | Notes | ||
| 1968 | 1970 | Roland Koh Peck Chiang | The diocese was renamed the Diocese of Sabah; Koh was translated to West Malaysia | ||
| 1971 | 1990 | Luke Chhoa Heng Sze | |||
| 1990 | 2006 | Yong Phing Chung | Archbishop of South East Asia, 2000–2006 | ||
| 2006 | 2014 | Albert Vun Cheong Fui | |||
| 2015 | present | Melter Tais | First native Sabahan to be appointed Bishop; Archbishop of South East Asia since 2020 | ||
| Sources: [7] [8] [9] [10] | |||||
Yong Chen Fah (1943–2021) (younger brother to Yong Phing Chung)[11] was made Assistant Bishop in 1998[12] and seconded to the Anglican Diocese of Sydney in 2006 and retired upon turning 65 in 2008.[13]