 In February 1987, Hollis followed in the family footsteps when, like his grandfather and his uncle, he was appointed as auxiliary bishop (known as a "suffragan bishop" in the Church of England) to Archbishop Maurice Noël Léon Couve de Murville of the Archdiocese of Birmingham.Hollis was given special responsibility for the Oxfordshire area.This was not to last, for he was installed as Bishop of Portsmouth on 27 January 1989.