Alan Wilson (bishop)

Alan Wilson (bishop)

Alan Thomas Lawrence Wilson (born 27 March 1955) has been the current Bishop of Buckingham in the Diocese of Oxford since 2003.

Wilson was born in Redford Barracks in Edinburgh, Scotland, and went to Sevenoaks School in Kent, southeast England, for his secondary education. He studied history at St John's College, Cambridge (BA 1977, MA 1981). From 1977 to 1979, he studied at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford. He was ordained deacon in 1979 and priest in 1980. From 1979 to 1981 he was an honorary assistant curate of Eynsham (where he met his future wife, Lucy) and also held an academic position funded by the University of Oxford. From 1981 to 1982, he was an assistant curate in the same parish, his academic position having ended. His DPhil, for which he studied as a student of Balliol College, Oxford, was awarded in 1989. He had completed his thesis in 1988. The official title of his thesis is The theology of church and party of some London ritualistic clergy and parishes, 1880–1914, with special reference to the Church Crisis of 1898-1906, although it bears the unofficial title The authority of church and party among London Anglo-Catholics, 1880–1914, with special reference to the Church Crisis, 1898–1904.

Wilson spent the following years of his ministry in a variety of positions, including as a prison chaplain. He was Vicar of St Michaels, Sandhurst, Rural Dean of Sonning and finally (before his ordination to the episcopate) a canon at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.