The area today known as Myanmar was in 1877 part of the British Indian Empire, and known as Burma.

It was decided that the area of Southern Burma required a more substantial ecclesiastical presence than the Bishop of Calcutta could provide.

Jonathan Holt Titcomb, a parish priest in Winchester diocese, was elected the first Bishop of Rangoon and so appointed on 17 December 1877.

At first the diocese encompassed only the southern half of Burma, but was later extended to cover the whole of the country.

Consequently, the Diocese of Rangoon became a major part of the new, autonomous Church of India, Burma and Ceylon.

However, in 1966 the Burmese government forced all Western missionaries to leave, including the then-bishop V.G.