Tributes have been made to Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham, who passed away suddenly last month. We at the Anglican Peace and Justice Network remember Bishop Alan as one of our own and would like to make our own tribute to him as a former member of our Steering Group and send our condolences to his wife Lucy and their family.
A commitment to justice with peace was an essential element of Bishop Alan’s faithful service.
A chance encounter with Canon Phil Groves drew him into the Anglican Communion Peace and Justice Network. Bishop Alan was always committed to the vulnerable and voiceless. He was particularly concerned for LGBTIA+ people in countries where they are criminalised.
APJN was able to connect him with those committed to ending the systematic victimization and dehumanisation of LGBTIA+ people and in 2017 he was a keynote speaker at first Intimate Conviction Conference in Jamaica. Alongside Archbishop John Holder of the West Indies, he advocated for the repeal of vicious colonial era laws that continue to blight the lives of so many Commonwealth nations. While there he discovered and was inspired by the community of Anglican LGBTIA+ Global South activists working to decriminalise LGBTIA+ people in Africa and Asia as well as in the Caribbean.
With that commitment, he joined the steering group of APJN and hosted our conference in his Episcopal Area in 2019. He is remembered by the Steering Group for his brave commitment to challenge church structures that perpetuate injustice, even if that did not always buy him favour within the church.
Bishop Alan believed that ‘The mark of a healthy and authentically Christian community is not large numbers, inspiring worship, or dogmatic theology, but the way in which power is exercised within it.’
He was an advocate for those who had experienced abuse within the church community and he coauthored To Heal and Not to Hurt with his long-time chaplain and great friend Rev Rosie Harper. This book raised the voices of those who had often been ignored and suggested ways in which the church could respond to those who experience abuse and prevent future abuse.
He is very much missed across the Communion and we hope his advocacy can continue within all our churches. In particular we continue to pray for the end of laws across the Communion that criminalise people because of their sexuality and we call for all to be active for this end. It is a cause the Instruments of Communion have often endorsed with fine words, but not acted on.
Many of the great and the good have remembered Bishop Alan, but perhaps the greatest tribute to him from within his Diocese has come from inmates in an Aylesbury Prison who he visited and some of whom he confirmed. He brought them forgiveness and hope. We know that Jesus is saying to him now: ‘I was in prison and you came to visit me’.
May he rest in peace and rise in glory.