THE Area Bishop of Buckingham, Dr Alan Wilson, has died unexpectedly, aged 68, the Bishop of Oxford, Dr Steven Croft, has announced.
In a letter to the diocese on Saturday night, Dr Croft wrote that his “dear friend and colleague” Dr Wilson had “suffered a suspected serious heart attack this morning at home and, very sadly, has died.” He is survived by his wife, Lucy, and their five adult children.
“The Church has lost a clever, pastoral and prophetic bishop,” Dr Croft wrote.
Dr Wilson had been Bishop of Buckingham for 20 years, and was on a sabbatical planning for his retirement next 12 months when he died. Throughout his ministry, he had been a staunch supporter and advocate of LGBT+ inclusion in church and of survivors of abuse in a church context. He gave evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse during which he criticised the “unhealthy and excessive” centralisation of power in bishops within the Church of England (News, 5 July 2019).
Dr Wilson studied at St John’s College, Cambridge, and Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, before his ordination as deacon in 1979 and priest in 1980. He served his whole ministry within the diocese of Oxford, starting with curacies in Eynsham and Caversham, where he became Vicar of St John the Baptist in 1989, the 12 months he received a D.Phil. from Balliol College, Oxford. He went on to function Rector of St Michael and All Angels, Sandhurst, until 2003, when he was consecrated bishop.
The Archbishop of Canterbury was among the many first to pay tribute. Dr Wilson, he said, “was never afraid to rise up for those on the margins, people who felt they were being ignored by the Church. He was a person of prophetic spirit, reaching out where he saw injustice and speaking up where he witnessed the abuse of power. . . He leaves behind an enormous gap and a very important legacy. We have much to learn from his life and his courage.”
The Archdeacon of Buckingham, the Ven. Guy Elsmore, who worked closely with Dr Wilson, expressed his sadness and sympathies to the family of behalf of the realm team. “We have lost a courageous, clever, and exceptional pastoral leader and teacher. Alan’s ministry was centred in people, in valuing all and sundry he met and in the search to expand the circle of the Church’s like to embrace all. He shall be deeply missed by us all.”
