Canon Andrew Bowden writes:
MERVYN WILSON was a one off, once met, never forgotten: his laugh, his smile, his excitement about ideas, his unquenchable optimism. Ministry in the Church of England has always allowed unusual individuals to flourish, and Mervyn was certainly one of them. And he wasn’t just a fascinating individualist: he was on to something really important — rural theology.
I first met him at a rural-mnistry event at Elkstone Retreat House in Northampton back in the early 1980s when rural ministry was just beginning to be recognised as “important”. Both of us were passionate about village ministry and were determined to show the (urban) hierarchy that village churches were good, worth while, and of God. But Mervyn wanted something more than ministry: he wanted rural theology. It wasn’t just a matter of loosening up the traditional organisation and livening it up with groups or minsters or multi-benefices: it was that the rural context had something theological to say to the wider Church which wasn’t being said in that period.
We talked it over for hours and hours, as one does when one is excited about something, without coming to any firm conclusion. But Mervyn wasn’t going to let it go. Out of his vision emerged Mervyn’s own inspiration, the Rural Theology Association, co-founded with Tony Hodgson and David Woodwards. The RTA spawned a widespread network through its groups, conferences, and journal, Rising from the Root. Many other people were fired up by his enthusiasm and came to share his hopes. One thing led to another, and it all culminated in a very special conference at Scargill House in November 1987, “Towards 2000”. Among the main speakers, who were all good, was one, Fr Thomas Cullinan OSB, whose talks on creation and land just sparkled and showed exactly what Mervyn meant by “rural theology”. The rest is history.
Mervyn lived out his vision through his ministry. I visited him at Bulwick (near Corby) and marvelled at the way in which he “preached rural theology” by sharing his wonderful rectory garden with all and sundry. Parts of the garden were visionary, plans for what might one day no doubt be, and parts were certainly rejoiced in as “wilderness”, but all was loved and cherished as God’s creation and re-creation.
Later on, I visited the Wilsons at Fivehead in Somerset, and it was the same there: three acres of orchard, but not just any old orchard. His was the precious preserve of those ancient Somersetshire varieties of apples that were almost extinct — but here were loved and cherished.
He valued rural ministry, but much more he valued the theological insights that rural life gives to so many individuals, and offers to the sometimes sclerotic urban Church. A prophet for our generation.
Mervyn Wilson died on 22 January, aged 92. He leaves his wife, Margaret, their daughters, Juliet, Emily, Sarah, Harriet, and eight grandchildren. Sadly, their eldest daughter, Catherine, died on 3 January.
Canon Bowden was Rural Officer in the diocese of Gloucester.
