The funeral of evangelical bishop Colin Buchanan, who died aged 89, took place in late January.
Born on 8 August 1934, the former Church of England bishop and academic was brought up in London, before studying Literae Humaniores (classics) at Lincoln College, Oxford (later promoted to a Masters degree).
He then trained for ministry at Tyndale Hall, Bristol, and was ordained as a Church of England minister in 1962. He served his curacy at Cheadle, before joining the staff of the London College of Divinity, where he served for 21 years.
In 1985, Buchanan was ordained as the Bishop of Aston and served there in the Diocese of Birmingham until 1989. He was the vicar of St Mark’s Church in Gillingham from 1991 to 1996, before returning to Episcopal ministry in a full-time capacity, serving as the Bishop of Woolwich until 2004.
Buchanan enjoyed returning to full-time ministry, and during this time published his study, Is the Church of England Biblical? (1998). However, around this time he began to suffer from ill health and had to go through quadruple heart-bypass surgery due to angina.
Buchanan retired from full-time ministry in 2004, but continued to serve the Lord by means of speaking, publishing and ministering, and served as an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Bradford, then the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, and then the new Diocese of Leeds.
Buchanan died suddenly on 29 November 2023, surrounded by his family, and is survived by his wife, two children and two grandchildren.
