Peter Walker (Bishop)

Peter Knight Walker (born December 6, 1919 in Leeds , † December 28, 2010 in Cambridge ) was a British Anglican theologian and Bishop of Ely .

Peter Walker attended the Leeds Grammar School and then studied Classical Studies at Queen's College at Oxford University until the intermediate examination in 1940 . Walker then joined the Royal Navy and served in the Atlantic, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean until 1945. In 1945 he returned to Oxford University and continued to study there with a focus on ancient languages ​​(Litterae Humaniores or Greats) until he graduated. From 1947 Peter Walker worked first as a teacher at King's School in Peterborough and then from 1950 at the Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood .

In the academic year 1953/54 he received a priestly education at Westcott House in Cambridge , but he returned after his ordination to the Merchant Taylors' School, where he continued to teach until 1956. He then took over his first congregation as a priest in Hemel Hempstead . In 1958 he was, however, a priest and theology teacher at the Corpus Christi College of Cambridge University called. In 1961 he returned to Westcott House. Peter Walker ran Westcott House from 1962 until 1972 when he was called to be suffragan bishop of Dorchester . At the same time he was also a priest for Christ Church College at Oxford University during this period .

In 1977 Peter Walker was called to be Bishop of Ely . In this capacity he was a member of the House of Lords until 1989 . Walker's twelve years as Bishop of Ely were difficult times for the diocese . The number of priests decreased from 230 to 165 in line with the number of believers, and Ely Cathedral had to be extensively restored. It is primarily thanks to Walker that we managed to secure the necessary sum of four million British pounds within two years , half of which also came from the diocese.

Peter Walker was valued as a friend and advisor to, among others, WH Auden and the then Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie . Walker, whose theological views were influenced by Dietrich Bonhoeffer , was the head of the British section of the International Bonhoeffer Society until 1996 . Walker published a single book titled The Anglican Church Today: Rediscovering the Middle Way as a summary of his views.

Peter Walker had been married since 1973 and had no children.

swell

• The Right Reverend Peter Walker in: The Daily Telegraph , January 6, 2011, accessed August 30, 2013
• The Right Rev Peter Walker: Educator, scholar and former Bishop of Ely in: The Independent , February 24, 2011, accessed August 30, 2013.
• Stephen Conway , Bishop Peter Knight Walker 1919-2010 Obituary of the Bishop of Ely, accessed August 30, 2013.

literature

• Peter Walker, The Anglican Church Today: Rediscovering the Middle Way , Continuum International Publishing, London 1988, ISBN 978-0264671017

Web links

• Peter Walker at Hansard (English)