Richard Chartres

Chartres was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in the 2009 Queen's Birthday Honours. He was raised to the rank of Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) on his retirement as Dean of the Chapel Royal on 11 July 2019. As is customary for Church of England clergy, however, he did not use the style "Sir before his elevation to the peerage.

On 12 October 2017, it was announced that Chartres would be appointed a life peer, retaking a seat in the House of Lords where he previously served as one of the Lords Spiritual during his time as Bishop of London. Chartres took the title "Baron Chartres, of Wilton in the County of Wiltshire", and joined the House of Lords on 7 November 2017, where he sits as a crossbencher.

On 19 July 2016, it was announced that Chartres was to retire as Bishop of London effective from Shrove Tuesday, 28 February 2017, but remain as Dean of the Chapel Royal until the next Bishop of London was in post. He retired as dean following his 72nd birthday in July 2019.

In January 2006, Chartres was criticised by the media for his decision to spend Easter on a cruise ship giving lectures on theology rather than attend the services at St Paul's Cathedral. At the time, Chartres was on a two-month sabbatical, his first in 33 years. He preached the sermon at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton on 29 April 2011. In 2013, Chartres led the state funeral service of Baroness Thatcher, with whom he had a close friendship.

In 1997, Chartres was one of the executors of the will of Diana, Princess of Wales, and delivered an address at her memorial service in 2007. He confirmed Prince William. On 12 September 2009 he presided at the marriage of Lord Frederick Windsor to actress Sophie Winkleman at the Chapel Royal in Hampton Court Palace.

In October 2008, the Independent on Sunday named Chartres as number 75 of the top 100 environmentalists in Britain on their "Green List".

Since its launch in 2006, Chartres has led the Church of England's "shrinking the footprint" campaign, aimed at cutting 80% of the church's carbon emissions by 2050. In the launch and subsequently, Chartres criticised pollution of the planet by people going on holidays by plane. Michael O'Leary, boss of the low-cost airline Ryanair, responded that "the Bishop of London has got empty churches – presumably if no one went on holidays perhaps they might turn up and listen to his sermons. God bless the Bishop!" Also, after criticism that his taking flights for "diocese work" as well as retaining a chauffeur-driven car were against the ideals of this campaign, he pledged not to fly for a year.

Chartres is the founder and chairman of the trustees of the St Ethelburga's Centre for Reconciliation and Peace. He is also a trustee of Coexist, sitting on the advisory council of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation. In October 2005, he joined Marianne Suhr at St Giles in the Fields, London, to launch a new maintenance project for the capital's historic churches.

In November 1995, Chartres was confirmed as the Bishop of London. He also became Prelate of the Order of the British Empire and Dean of the Chapel Royal. He is a Privy Counsellor. In 1997 he was appointed a chaplain of the Most Venerable Order of Saint John (ChStJ). He is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple, a Liveryman of the Merchant Taylors' Company and of the Worshipful Company of Vintners, an Honorary Freeman of the Weavers' and the Woolmen Companies.

On 15 May 1992, Chartres was nominated area Bishop of Stepney. He was consecrated as bishop on 22 May 1992 at St Paul's Cathedral, by George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury.

Other Gresham lectures by Chartres covered the Shroud of Turin (November 1988) and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem (December 1989) when he spoke about the Gresham Jerusalem Project as well as on prayer (1991).

From 1987 to 1992, he was a Professor of Divinity at Gresham College in London. Based on a three-part lecture series, given in May 1992, he published A Brief History of Gresham College 1597–1997. During the first lecture of the original lecture series he referred to the college as a "magical island like Atlantis" disappearing and re-emerging from the sea. This was a reference both to the Invisible College and Francis Bacon's New Atlantis.

In 1982, Chartres married Caroline (daughter of Sir Alan McLintock), then a freelance writer and now the commissioning editor of a publishing house, with whom he has four children: Alexander, Sophie, Louis and Clio. He is also a member of the Garrick Club in London, and Worshipful Company of Drapers in the City of London.

Chartres was ordained as a priest in 1974. During this time, he was chaplain to Robert Runcie, then Bishop of St Albans and later Archbishop of Canterbury. He received a Lambeth Bachelor of Divinity degree and holds honorary doctorates from Brunel University, City University London, London Metropolitan University, St. Mary's University College, and London Guildhall University.

Richard John Carew Chartres, Baron Chartres GCVO, ChStJ, PC, FSA, FBS (/ˈtʃɑːrtərz/; born 11 July 1947) is a retired bishop of the Church of England. He was area Bishop of Stepney from 1992 to 1995 and Bishop of London from 1995 to 2017. He was sworn of the Privy Council in the same year he became Bishop of London. He was also Gresham Professor of Divinity from 1987 to 1992. In October 2017, Chartres was made a life peer, and now sits in the House of Lords as a crossbencher; he had previously sat in the House as one of the Lords Spiritual.