Maurice Arthur Ponsonby Wood

Maurice Arthur Ponsonby Wood (born August 26, 1916 , † June 24, 2007 in Wroxham , Norfolk , England ) was the Anglican Bishop of Norwich from 1971 to 1985 and one of the leading evangelicals in England for over thirty years .

Live and act

Wood grew up in an Anglican evangelical family. His grandparents, the strong influence on him, had traveled in the service of the temperance movement by Ireland . He attended the Monkton Combe School, an independent Christian school near Bath , studied at Queens' College of Cambridge University History, where he stood out as a good hockey player, and then theology at Ridley Hall, a traditional evangelical theological seminary of the Church of England in Cambridge.

From 1940 to 1943 he was a curate in London. In 1943 he enlisted in the Royal Navy , took part as a captain on D-Day and with a command battalion of the Royal Marines on the landing in Walcheren , and went to the Far East as a chaplain. He received the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery .

In 1947 he took over the church leadership of St. Ebbe in Oxford , where he had great influence on the first generation of post-war students, most of whom, like himself, were ex-soldiers. After five years he took over the parish in Islington , north London, a bastion of evangelicals. One of his vicarious chaplains there was David Sheppard , who later became Bishop of Liverpool.

In 1961 he became rector of Oak Hill Theological College in London. It is true that under his leadership the seminar could not necessarily improve its academic reputation; but it was particularly important to him to train the students as empathetic pastors and evangelists. Without being an academic theologian himself, he contributed to the later reputation of the college by calling people like George Leonard Carey , the future Archbishop of Canterbury, there. The theology of the 1960s troubled him, he had no sympathy for the ecumenical movement sponsored by Arthur Michael Ramsey , then Archbishop of Canterbury, and spoke out very clearly against John AT Robinson 's God is Different .

He played an essential role in the Crusades of Billy Graham in England, and a large part of his students had been converted by Graham. He later worked closely with Billy Graham.

When he was appointed Bishop of Norwich in 1971, he was considered the only visible evangelical among the bishops of the Church of England. However, he also maintained good connections with the Anglo-Catholic wing in his diocese, with whom he was united in rejecting women's ordination , and he attracted attention and criticism in evangelical circles through his participation in the pilgrimage to the Marian Shrine in Walsingham, which is in his diocese .

From 1975 to 1985 he was Lord Spiritual member of the House of Lords , where he often and gladly took a stand, often more conservative than the other bishops.

Web links

• Obituary in the Daily Telegraph

predecessor	Office	successor
William Lancelot Scott Fleming	Bishop of Norwich 1971 - 1985	Peter John Nott