The current Bishop of Sabah is the Right Reverend Datuk Melter Jiki bin Tais, the first Bumiputera (indigenous) person to hold the office and a senior clergyman of ethnic Kadazan-Dusun descent.

The history of the Diocese of Sabah begins with the mission work which was carried out in the crown colony of Labuan and British North Borneo.

As there was no resident Anglican priest in Labuan, the Bishop of London granted the Lieutenant Governor, John Scott, the authority to perform weddings and funerals using the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

[1] Among the first Anglican missionaries sent to Borneo in 1846 was the Revd Dr Francis Thomas McDougall, a priest, medical doctor and surgeon.

[4] The first priest sent to North Borneo was the Revd William Henry Elton, a missionary of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (SPG).

Foreign clergy and other missionaries were interned, including Sisters Irene and Alison from the Community of the Companions of Jesus the Good Shepherd, who were serving as teachers in Sandakan.

[14] Throughout the first seventy years of Anglican mission work in North Borneo, the focus had been on the coastal areas which were generally urban or semi-urban.

The initial impetus behind the SAIM came from Bruce Sandilands, a district surveyor who was moved by the poverty he encountered during his trips along rivers which reached deep into the interior, such as the Kinabatangan.

Lomax was similarly moved by the difficulties faced by the rural villagers, and thus the SAIM was conceived and born to uplift the spiritual and material well-being of the peoples in the interior.