Leslie Wilfrid Brown (10 June 1912 – 27 December 1999) was

Bishop of Uganda The Anglican dioceses of Buganda are the Anglican presence in the Central Region, Uganda (equivalent to the old Buganda kingdom); they are part of the Church of Uganda. The remaining dioceses of the Church are in the areas of Eastern Uganda, of ...

then Bishop of Namirembe and

Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi The Anglican ecclesiastical province of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi was formed in 1961 following the division of the diocese of Uganda the previous year. Prior to 1980, the province included Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga, in what was then the co ...

, before returning to the UK and later serving as

Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich The Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich is the Ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich in the Province of Canterbury. The current bishop is Martin Seeley. The Bishop's residence is the Bishop's House, Ipswich ...

Education and early career

Brown was educated at

Enfield Grammar School Enfield Grammar School (abbreviated to EGS; also known as Enfield Grammar) is a boys' Comprehensive school and sixth form with academy status, founded in 1558, situated in Enfield Town in the London Borough of Enfield in North London. Histo ...

before studying for ordination at the

London College of Divinity St John's College, Nottingham, founded as the London College of Divinity, was an Anglican and interdenominational theological college situated in Bramcote, Nottingham, England. The college stood in the open evangelical tradition and stated that i ...

. After a

curacy A curate () is a person who is invested with the ''care'' or ''cure'' (''cura'') ''of souls'' of a parish. In this sense, "curate" means a parish priest; but in English-speaking countries the term ''curate'' is commonly used to describe clergy w ...

at St James,

Milton, Portsmouth Milton is a residential area of the English city of Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, on the south eastern side of Portsea Island. Milton is bordered on the eastern coast of Portsea Island by Langstone Harbour, with Eastney to the south-east, Sout ...

he went out to the

Diocese of Travancore and Cochin The Madhya Kerala Diocese is one of the twenty-four dioceses of the Church of South India (commonly referred to as CSI) (successor of the Church of England) covering the central part of Kerala. When the Church of South India was formed on 27 S ...

on the Malabar coast of India in January 1938, working there for the

Church Missionary Society The Church Mission Society (CMS), formerly known as the Church Missionary Society, is a British mission society working with the Christians around the world. Founded in 1799, CMS has attracted over nine thousand men and women to serve as mission ...

, and eventually becoming Principal of the Kerala United Theological Seminary.

Episcopal ministry

In 1952 Brown accepted the post of Bishop of Uganda, despite having doubts because of his support for indigenisation. He was to serve as a bishop in total for 25 years, first as Bishop of Uganda ( diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Uganda) until 1960, bridging the period of Ugandan independence, then as Archbishop of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, until his retirement effective 21 November 1965. Upon the division of Uganda into separate dioceses in 1960, Brown remained in post, becoming diocesan bishop of a smaller diocese: the Bishop of Namirembe. On 7 November 1960, he was elected Archbishop of the new province, which was initially named the Province of Uganda and Rwanda-Urundi, but soon renamed the Province of Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi; he was installed archbishop at the province's inauguration service on 16 April 1961 at

Namirembe Cathedral Saint Paul's Cathedral Namirembe, commonly referred to as Namirembe Cathedral, is the oldest cathedral in Uganda. It serves as the provincial cathedral of the Anglican Church of Uganda and the diocesan cathedral for Namirembe Diocese, the first d ...

. The three national churches were later to become three separate provinces, but remained a single provincial unit throughout Brown's tenure. On his return to England, Brown became first an assistant bishop in the

Diocese of Oxford The Diocese of Oxford is a Church of England diocese that forms part of the Province of Canterbury. The diocese is led by the Bishop of Oxford (currently Steven Croft), and the bishop's seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. It contain ...

, and then in 1966 the

. He retired in 1978, and lived in retirement in

Halesworth Halesworth is a market town, civil parish and electoral ward in north-eastern Suffolk, England. The population stood at 4,726 in the 2011 Census. It lies south-west of Lowestoft, on a tributary of the River Blyth, upstream from Southwold. T ...

, serving as an honorary assistant priest in the local parish church.

Academic interests

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. 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"."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 The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

web-site accessed Thursday 7 May 2009 19:04

GMT Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is the mean solar time at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, London, counted from midnight. At different times in the past, it has been calculated in different ways, including being calculated from noon; as a cons ...

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Leslie Wilfrid 1912 births 1999 deaths People educated at Enfield Grammar School Alumni of the University of London Anglican bishops of Uganda 20th-century Anglican bishops in Uganda 20th-century Anglican archbishops Anglican archbishops of Uganda Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Bishops of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich Alumni of the London College of Divinity Anglican bishops of Namirembe 20th-century Anglican theologians