The Rt. Rev. Santosh K. Marray

The Right Rev. Santosh Marray was ordained to the Holy Order of Deacon on January 5th, 1981 in St. George’s Cathedral, Guyana, and the Holy Order of Priest on November 8th, 1981 at All Saints’ Church, New Amsterdam, Guyana.  Both ordinations were conducted by the late Right Rev. Randolph George, Bishop of Guyana. He was ordained and consecrated Bishop of Seychelles on April 5th, 2005, at St. Paul’s Cathedral, Victoria, Seychelles, by bishops of the Province of the Indian Ocean (Madagascar, Mauritius, and a retired bishop of Seychelles). He celebrated 40 years as a priest on Monday, November 8th, 2021. 

Bishop Santosh currently serves as the 11th Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Easton and the Eastern shore of Maryland, USA, where he has served since October 2016. 

He previously served as the Assistant Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama (2012-2016); Bishop Assistant of the Episcopal Diocese of East Carolina, North Carolina (2009-2012). From 2005-2008 he was the 3rd Bishop of Seychelles, Province of the Indian Ocean, and led the diocese through re-imagination, change, and clergy and laity empowerment. Bishop Marray was the first bishop to ordain women to the priesthood in the province. When the Diocese of Seychelles reached a place of sustainability he returned to his family in the USA. Bishop Marray attended Lambeth 2008 and the All-Africa Bishops Conference, Uganda, Africa. 

Bishop Santosh was the first West Indian of East Indian ancestry to be elected and consecrated bishop in the world-wide Anglican Communion including the Province of the West Indies; first Bishop of Seychelles from the West Indies, first bishop trained at Codrington College and the Church in the Province of the West Indies to serve as bishop in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres; and the first person from the Church of the Province of the West Indies to serve as Bishop Diocesan in the Episcopal Church. 

Prior to being elected Bishop of Seychelles, he served at St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, Jacksonville, Florida, several multi-church parishes, rural and urban, in both his native country Guyana (1981-1989) and then the Bahamas, leading the revitalization of struggling congregations of various sizes. He has also planted new churches and carried out numerous successful capital campaigns including building three new facilities – St. Philip’s Community Center, Inagua, and St. Simon-by-the Sea Church, Treasure Cay, Abaco and the rectory, St. Peter’s Church, Green Turtle Cay, Abaco, all completed debt free. He taught for 10 years in the Bahamas Public School System (1989-2003). He also served three years (1986-1989) as Military Chaplain in the Guyana Defense Force.

Bishop Santosh was the Province of the Indian Ocean’s representative on the Anglican Communion Covenant Design Group (2006-2009) and was later appointed by Archbishop Rowan Williams as Commissary to the Anglican Communion on his Pastoral Visitors’ Team (2009-2012).

Marray is a convert from Hinduism, the faith of his parents. His passion for Jesus and his Church is undergirded by his conviction that a loving Jesus who came looking for him in a small remote village in Guyana, South America populated by majority Hindus and Muslims deserves his love, dedication, unequivocal commitment and devotion. He describes himself as a missionary optimist, and firm believer in the phrase he promulgates daily, “a risen Savior is incompatible with a dying Church”. God continues to call people to faith and each of us is called to live and witness God’s love and saving grace.

He holds a Diploma in Pastoral Studies from Codrington Theological College, Barbados; Bachelor of Arts in Theology (magna cum laude), the University of the West Indies, Barbados; Master in Sacred Theology, General Theological Seminary, New York; Master in Law in Canon Law, the University of Wales, United Kingdom and Doctor of Ministry, Colgate Rochester/Bexley Hall Divinity School, Rochester, New York. He was honored with two Doctor of Divinity degrees (honoris causa) from Bexley Hall Seminary and General Theological Seminary. He is the author of “The Spiritual Order of a Messy Church: An Anglican Perspective on Spirituality and Ministry Formation” (2019); and several other writings.