page_title: Religion in Sussex
section_title: Anglican
hierarchical_section_title: Religion in Sussex / Christianity / Anglican
caption_attribution_description: English: Chichester Cathedral, April 2012
context_page_description: Religion in Sussex has been dominated over the last 1,400 years by Christianity. Like the rest of England, the established church in Sussex is the Church of England, although other Christian traditions exist. After Christianity, the religion with the most adherents is Islam, followed by Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism and Sikhism.
  Sussex is sometimes referred to as 'Silly Sussex', for silly is a corruption of Old Saxon saelig meaning 'holy'.
  The historic county has been a single diocese after St Wilfrid converted the kingdom of Sussex in the seventh century. Historically, the west of the county has had a tendency towards Catholicism while the east of the county has had a tendency towards non-conformism. The county has been home to several pilgrimage sites, including the shrine to St Richard of Chichester which was destroyed during the Reformation, and the more recent Catholic shrine at West Grinstead. During the Marian persecutions, several Sussex men were martyred for their Protestant faith, including 17 men at Lewes. The Society of Dependants were a non-conformist sect formed in Loxwood.
context_section_description: The officially established religion in England is the Church of England.  In Sussex the church was founded in the 7th century: King Aethelwealh was Sussex's first Christian king and Wilfrid of York is credited with evangelising the people of Sussex.  The church accepted the authority of the Pope until King Henry VIII broke with Rome in the 1530s to secure an annulment from his wife.  The seat of the Sussex bishopric was originally located at Selsey Abbey being transferred by the Normans to Chichester Cathedral in 1075.  The Diocese of Chichester covers modern Sussex and is sub-divided into the archdeaconries of Chichester, Horsham, Brighton & Lewes and Hastings.  The Bishop of Chichester has overall episcopal oversight across the diocese and is one of the church's 42 bishops eligible to be one of the 26 Lords Spiritual, representing the Church of England in the House of Lords.
  There is one Free Church of England congregation in Shoreham-by-Sea.
caption: Chichester Cathedral
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