In Memoriam: The Very Rev. Lois Wilson
It is with sadness that TST has learned of the passing of The Very Rev. Lois Wilson on September 13, 2024, at the age of 97.
Rev. Wilson served on the Canadian Senate from 1998-2002, and was a leading ecumenist of our time as President of the Canadian Council of Churches (1976), Moderator of the United Church of Canada (1980-82), and President of the World Council of Churches (1983-1991).
Rev. Wilson had a long and meaningful association with the Toronto School of Theology where she served as Ecumenist in Residence from 2006-2009. Former TST Director, Prof. Alan Hayes described Lois as “indefatigable”: “tirelessly visiting college faculties, leading a TST-wide ecumenical committee, giving talks, planning conferences, and of course advocating for Christian ecumenism and indeed inter-faith ecumenism. She was unfailingly cheerful but also persistent in a vocation to which I think God must have personally commissioned her to push the church and the world to be places of greater justice.”
Rev. Wilson was Distinguished Minister in Residence at Emmanuel College at the time of her death.
TST expresses its deepest sympathies to Lois’ four children, twelve grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren, thanking God for a prophetic life of service, courage, and determination. May she rest in peace.