Alan Wilson (UK)

Biographical Information
"Alan was born in Edinburgh, grew up in East London and Kent, and studied at St John's College Cambridge (Open scholarship in history, BA77 MA80) and then Balliol College Oxford, where, under the supervision of Peter Hinchliff, he completed a doctorate in modern historical theology (DPhil 89). (The Theology of Church and Party of Anglo-Catholics 1880-1914, with special reference to the Church Crisis of 1898-1903). He trained for ordination at Wycliffe Hall (Cert. Theol. 1979). He was ordained Deacon (1979 at St Peter’s Didcot), Priest (1980 at Christ Church, Oxford), and Bishop (2003 at Westminster Abbey)

"Alan has served in the Diocese of Oxford since 1979, at Balliol College 1979-81 and NSM at Eynsham, then Curate of Caversham & Mapledurham (1982-89), and first incumbent of St John the Baptist Caversham from 1989-92. .. In the Oxford Diocese he has chaired the Diocesan Child Protection Group, the Board of Social Responsibility, and the Diocesan Committee for Racial Justice. He is link bishop for the European officer of the diocese, and has regularly visited the German Kirchentag. He is also a member of the Oxford Partnership for World Mission, and is actively involved in the diocesan links with the Diocese of Växjö in Sweden, and Nandyal in India. He also helped set up an educational development link in Nandyal, currently exploring the possibilities of setting up an English medium Academy there. He leads the implementation groups for Terms and Conditions of Service (Common Tenure) and Ministry Development Review for the Oxford diocese, and currently chairs the Diocesan Board of Mission Mission in the World group.

"Alan is a patron of the Buckinghamshire Foundation and Buckinghamshire Association for Young People. He is a joint President of the Milton Keynes Christian Foundation and Vice Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Historic Churches Preservation Trust. He is President of Padstones, an intermediate housing charity for young people.

"He serves on the Council of Wycombe Abbey School, and as associate governor of Cressex Community School, High Wycombe, a national challenge school which has been evolving into a Community Trust in collaboration with the Co-Operative movement. He is Chair of Governors of the new Chiltern Hills Academy. He is Chair of the Oxford Diocesan Board of Education, with 288 maintained schools in the Thames Valley, serving some 52 ,000 school students. He is a Trustee of the Eton Dorney project, a joint creative initiative with Eton College to enable interfaith dialogue among young people. He chairs Art Beyond Belief, an innovative interfaith education charity. He is Chairman of Christians Aware, a national Charity based in Leicester, that exists to foster cross cultural and interfaith understanding through visits and publications.

"He was a founder member of the Ethics Committee of the University of Buckingham, 2009-10, where has advised a PhD student in the business school, and has been involved in the new chaplaincy and a move to bring the study of theology into the University. In 2010 he was appointed as a Visiting Professor there.

"He is a member of the Council of Christians and Jews, the Howard League for Penal Reform, the Wyndham Place Charlemagne Trust, and the Ecclesiastical Law Society. Alan is married to Lucy, a violin teacher, and they have five children aged between 26 and 13 (Catherine, Stephanie, Stewart, Ncholas, Anna). Together they help lead Engaged Encounter weekends for couples preparing for marriage, and Alan is the Episcopal contact for the charity. He is also a patron of Explore, a charity that introduces school students to volunteer married couples to talk through the realities of married life."