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The Address given at Requiem of our second Bishop – The Rt. Rev. Alfred Woolcock
We think a man has done well when he celebrates the 50th anniversary of his ordination, but our Bishop Alfred celebrated his 70th. He died with his boots on, aged 93, still rector of Good Shepherd, Oshawa; still lifting weights, doing tai chi exercises, driving a car, looking after himself at home; still zone chaplain to the Royal Canadian Legion. After all, he was 75 when the diocese chose him to succeed Bishop Carmino Joseph de Catanzaro. He wasn't keen to succeed, "Besides which my wife says no." But the wily Fr Palmer talked him into accepting election, "But Mr Archdeacon, you won't have to travel much. You can do everything by phone." Fr Palmer didn't stick around long enough to see just how much travelling the Woolcocks were to do.
Our first and second bishops both suffered strokes within the octave of St John Baptist, patron of Canada. They had been colleagues in the diocese of Toronto, at a synod of which they voted against priestesses, and they were booed together as they walked in procession, — the scholar and the practical man of action, side by side; the convert to Anglicanism and the cradle Anglican; lovers of the Prayer Book and of its place in the history of Western civilization.
Alfred was the youngest son of a Cornish family. He cherished the memory of his boyhood parish, dedicated to St Phillack (a corruption of Felicity, the martyr of 2nd century Rome). Aged 16 he was confirmed by Bp Walter Frere, CR of Truro. As he didn't have a suit of his own, he borrowed a brother's. Ever afterwards he was able to say, "I was given an insight into justification." "As many of you as were baptized into Christ did put on Christ" (Galatians 3. 27).
In the years before the Second World War there were no scholarships for ordinands. If your parents could not afford Oxbridge you could not be ordained. Hence the seminaries founded by the Society of the Sacred Mission at Kelham and by the Community of the Resurrection at Mirfield. Bp Charles Gore CR said, "The C of E has perfected a new form of simony." Another such seminary to meet the need was the Brotherhood of St Paul, which on the whole sent its products to missionary work abroad. Among those who came from St Paul's to Canada are Fr Slattery of Montreal, Fr Alex Stringer now of New England, and Bp Alfred who was recruited by the Bp of Nova Scotia. He was Assistant of River John (where he met and married Eleanor, a registered nurse ) and then Rector of Port Morien. In due course they were blessed with a daughter and a son. The latter grew up to become a priest. During these NS years Fr Woolcock enrolled as an external student at the University of King's College, Halifax,and earned the diplomas STh and AKC. Many years later he was given an honorary DD by the Central School of Religion in England.
He next thought he'd try for wider experience in the C of E. He became Assistant of Tardebigge and then Rector of Catshill, both in the diocese of Worcester. When war broke out he was appointed chaplain to the Royal Hampshire Regiment, with whom he saw service in Northern Ireland, North Africa, Sicily, the Italian campaign, the Holy Land, and Poland.He remembered "in the desert with Monty" and the Battle of Monte Cassino at which he had to bury the bodies of booby trapped Germans. He finished the war a much bemedalled soldier. Still later he was awarded the CD in Canada. During these war years an acting rector looked after Catshill for him.
He returned to Canada as Rector of Engelhart in the diocese of Algoma where he became a friend of Fr Palmer and then moved to Port Dalhousie in the diocese of Niagara. He next became Archdeacon of Saskatchewan, Canon Residentionary of Prince Albert Cathedral and Bishop's Commissary for Indian parishes. He learned Cree. He traveled much across prairies which were either bowls of dust or baths of mud in summer, and which were perilously cold in winter. Had the election of the next Bishop of Saskatchewan been left to the Indians alone, Fr Woolcock would have been chosen. He was then invited to found the new parish of St Mark in Oshawa, to which he and Eleanor devoted 15 ears. Upon "retirement" he accepted the position of Associate Rector of St George's, the fashionable church of Oshawa. During all these years he acted as padre to the local militia, in Northern Ontario, Southern Ontario, and Saskatchewan, and to the Canadian Legion. One of his hobbies was judo and rumour had it that he, a black belt, taught it to the RCMP, though I never dared ask him if the rumour were true. He was certainly a man's man, whom the unchurched could relate to easily. He never acquired any domestic skills before Eleanor's death after 65 years of happy marriage, after which he surprised everbody by doing so.
He was not on the mystical wing of the church, though not long before death he had a dream or vision of our Lord coming to fetch him. He was not on the academic wing of the church, though he was rooted and grounded in the catholic faith as expressed by Anglicanism. Our Lord and His apostles had said it. It was therefore true. Saints had lived it down the ages. Real men had lived it. Well then, we had better do the truth also. No agonies of introspection, indecision, egotism or self pity. And when Anglicanism began to unravel, why, duty was clear. We had better get on with continuing it for the here and now, leaving the distant future to God. He was not unecumenical. He felt an affection for the Polish National Catholic Church. One of his decorations was Polish. His favourite hymn was The Church's one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord (blue 563; green 489).There was much to be said for Orthodoxy, for evangelical Protestantism and for Roman Catholicism, but as for him he could only be Anglican. He was not on the emotional wing of the church, though a visit to St John's, Victoria, once had him in tears. "Fr Palmer feels so close."
If I may be personal for a moment, he and Mother Woolcock (as Fr Palmer called her) were paternal and maternal towards me, welcoming me to a strange land, quietly supportive, unflappable about my shortcomings. I was not surprised that in the Traditional Anglican Communion he had the respect of international bishops. Nor was I surprised that before the Australians chose Bishop Albert Haley to get them started, they placed themselves under the episcope of Alfred Woolcock.
“Well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of thy Lord. (St. Matthew 25. 21)
+Robert Mercer CR
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Updated: - 11/07/2003