The British Occupation was responsible for the addition of a new element to the ecclesiastical complex, in the shape of the Church of England.

Of the internal affairs of the Anglican Church in the island there is little that need be said. A rather absurd situation presented itself in the very first days owing to a dispute between the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and the Continental Church Society on the question which of the two should nominate the chaplain for the British residents.

Then there was the question of an actual building, and the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel began by making a mistake which a little consideration of the susceptibilities of a Turkish population would have enabled it to avoid. The Society took a perpetual lease of the Bedestan and its ground, with a view to establishing an English church there. Unfortunately for this project, it was against Muhammadan law for a place of worship of any other religion to be sited within 100 piks (about 66 yards) of an existing mosque, and the Bedestan was just across the road from A. Sophia. This was doubtless the reason why the plan was given up in 1882, rather than the reasons mentioned by the Bishop of Gibraltar, that ‘political power changed hands at home; Cyprus fell into disfavour; enthusiasm cooled; no one seemed to know whether England meant to retain or surrender the island; contributions accordingly ceased’.