Leslie Brown (bishop)

Leslie Wilfrid Brown CBE (10 June 1912^[1] – 27 December 1999^[2]) was Bishop then Archbishop ^[3] of Uganda ^[4] before returning to England to be Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.^[5]

Brown was educated at Enfield Grammar School^[6] before studying for ordination at the London College of Divinity. After a curacy at St James, Milton, Portsmouth^[7] he went out to the Diocese of Travancore and Cochin on the Malabar coast of India in January 1938, working there for the Church Missionary Society, and eventually becoming Principal of the Kerala United Theological Seminary.^[8] In 1952 he accepted the post of Bishop of Uganda, despite having doubts because of his support for indigenisation.^[9] He was to serve as a bishop in total for 25 years,^[10] first as Bishop of Uganda until 1960, bridging the period of Ugandan independence, then as the first Archbishop of the Province of Uganda, until 1965, when he returned to England. There he became first an assistant bishop in the Diocese of Oxford and in 1966 Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.

His lasting contribution is reckoned to be in the field of liturgy, first as a member of the liturgy committee of the Church of South India, which in 1950 produced the influential CSI Liturgy, then working on A Liturgy for Africa, produced in 1964, and also corresponding with the Church of England's Liturgical Commission.^[11] He further assisted in the development of A United Liturgy for East Africa, published in 1966. A noted author, his history The Indian Christians of St Thomas, was described at the time of his death as "a classic textbook".^[12][13]

References

1. ↑ Crockford's Clerical Directory 1975-76 London: Oxford University Press, 1976 ISBN 0-19-200008-X
2. ↑ Independent obituary
3. ↑ First Archbishop Of Uganda Dr. L. W. Brown Elected The Times Tuesday, Nov 08, 1960; pg. 10; Issue 54923; col E
4. ↑ National Church Institutions Database of Manuscripts and Archives
5. ↑ The Times, Thursday, Apr 07, 1966; pg. 14; Issue 56600; col B New Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich
6. ↑ Who's Who 1992 London, A & C Black, 1991 ISBN 0-7136-3514-2
7. ↑ Church web-site
8. ↑ “Three worlds, one word: account of a mission” Brown,L:Michigan, Collings,1981 ISBN 0-86003-614-6
9. ↑ Church Times obituary 14 January 2000
10. ↑ National Archives
11. ↑ Church Times obituary 14 January 2000
12. ↑ Church Times obituary 14 January 2000
13. ↑ “The Indian Christians of St Thomas”, 195682; Among other books he wrote “God as Christians see Him”, 1961; and “The King and the Kingdom”, 1988 > British Library web-site accessed Thursday 7 May 2009 19:04 GMT