Simon Phipps (Bishop)

Simon Wilton Phipps , MC ( July 6, 1921 - January 29, 2001 ) was a British Anglican theologian and Bishop of Lincoln .

Simon Phipps attended Eton College and immediately enlisted in the Coldstream Guards as a soldier after graduating from high school . He was promoted to officer in 1941. By the end of his military career he reached the rank of major . He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for a reconnaissance mission during which he was wounded for the second time in the war on April 19, 1945 near the town of Chiesa del Banda in the Po Valley. After the end of the war, he initially stayed in the army and served in India and the Ministry of Defense in London.

In 1946 Phipps left the army with the desire to become a priest. To do this, he first studied history at Trinity College , Cambridge . He completed his history degree in 1948. In 1949, while he was also receiving priestly training at Westcott House in Cambridge, he was President of the Footlights Student Theater . He was ordained a priest in 1950.

After his ordination, he took up his first position in Huddersfield , but returned to Trinity College in Cambridge as a priest in 1953, where he worked until 1958. From 1958 to 1968 he held various positions at Coventry Cathedral , where he was primarily responsible for the relationship between the church and industrial workers. In 1968 he was called to be suffragan bishop of Horsham . He was Bishop of Lincoln from 1974 until his retirement in 1987, and in that capacity a member of the House of Lords .

When it came to questions within the church, Simon Phipps was a contentious man who advocated controversial positions such as the coexistence of homosexual priests with their partners and the ordination of women.

Originally chosen as an officer as the official companion of Princess Margaret , a friendship developed between the two and Phipps also acted as a spiritual advisor for them. He was the godfather of her son David Linley .

Simon Phipps had been married since 1973 and the couple had no children.

swell

• The Rt Rev Simon Phipps in: The Guardian , February 2, 2001, accessed August 20, 2013
• The Right Reverend Simon Phipps in: The Daily Telegraph , February 7, 2001, accessed August 20, 2013

literature

• Simon Phipps: A portrait , Continuum, London, 1987, ISBN 0-8264-7138-2 Excerpts available here online .

predecessor	Office	successor
Office arose	Bishop of Horsham 1968–1974	Colin Docker
Kenneth Riches	Bishop of Lincoln 1974–1987	Robert Hardy