Maurice Wood

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

Life and work

Wood grew up in a family of Anglican evangelical tradition. His grandparents, who had a strong influence on him, traveled in the service of the temperance movement by Ireland. He attended Monkton Combe School, an independent Christian school near Bath, studied at Queens ' College, Cambridge 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 served as curate in London. In 1943 he enlisted in the Royal Navy, took part as a captain on D-Day and with a Kommandobattallion the Royal Marines from landing in Walcheren, and went as chaplain to the Far East. For his bravery he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

In 1947 he took over the parish line from St. Ebbe, Oxford, where he had great influence on the first generation of post-war students, most of whom, like himself, were former soldiers. After five years, he took over the parish in Islington, North London, a bastion of Evangelicals. One of his curate there was David Sheppard, who later became Bishop of Liverpool.

In 1961 he became rector of Oak Hill Theological College in London. Although the seminar was its academic reputation is not necessarily improve under his leadership; but it was his repertoire to train the students as empathetic pastor and evangelist. Without even an academic theologian, he contributed to the later reputation of the College, he called on by people such as George Leonard Carey, who later became Archbishop of Canterbury there. The theology of the 1960s caused him trouble, he had no sympathy for the sponsored by Arthur Michael Ramsey, the then Archbishop of Canterbury ecumenical movement and spoke out very clearly against John AT Robinson's God is different.

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

On his appointment as Bishop of Norwich in 1971, he was regarded as the only visible evangelicals among the bishops of the Church of England. However, he also kept good relations with the Anglo- Catholic wing in his diocese, with whom he was united in rejecting the ordination of women, and he caused a stir and criticism in evangelical circles through his participation in the pilgrimage to the Marian shrine at Walsingham, in his diocese.

From 1975 to 1985 he was a Lord Spiritual Member of the Upper House, where he often liked took a position, often more conservative than the other bishops.