Canon John Wilkinson
Anglican scholar who studied the early Church in Jerusalem
CANON JOHN WILKINSON, who has died aged 88, was a distinguished scholar-priest; some of his ministry was spent in London parishes but his best-known work lay in Jerusalem, where he was dean of studies at St George’s College from 1969 to 1975 and director of the British School of Archaeology from 1979 to 1984.
His own most valued work as a scholar was a new translation in 1977 of “The Pilgrimage of Egeria to the Holy Land”, a letter written in Latin by a nun in the late 4th century. Published as Egeria’s Travels, it includes important information about the forms of Christian worship then evolving in Jerusalem and the observance of Christmas, Lent and Easter.
At St George’s College, which provides resources and accommodation for scholars, pilgrims and ecumenical gatherings, Wilkinson offered highcalibre teaching and enriched the experience of many visiting the Holy Land for the first time.
John Donald Wilkinson was born in Wimbledon on March 28 1929. His father, the Rev Donald Wilkinson, later became vice-principal of an Anglican theological college at Cheshunt. His mother Hilda (née Smyth) was the daughter of a clergyman.
After the Dragon School, Oxford, Donald went to Haileybury, then did his National Servce with the Army in Malaya. At Merton College, Oxford, he read Classics and Theology before completing training for Holy Orders at Cuddesdon theological college.
From 1956 to 1959 he was curate at St Dunstan and All Saints Church, Stepney, in the East End of London, at the end of which he completed a Licentiate of Theology degree at Louvain University in Belgium. This was followed by two years as a tutor at St George’s College.
Back in London in 1963, he spent the next six years as general editor at the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, responsible for the publishing of missionary material. He then returned to St George’s as dean of studies and at the same time began a close association with the adjacent cathedral, becoming a canon in 1971.
Committed to pastoral work, Wilkinson returned to London once more in 1975 to become priest-incharge of Holy Trinity and All Saints churches in Kensington. He was also appointed director of clergy training in the diocese and during this time studied at the Courtauld Institute, completing a PHD thesis on “Interpretations of Church Buildings before AD750”, which was later published.
Wilkinson had not intended to serve again in Jerusalem, but in 1979 a new director of the British School of Archaeology (later renamed the Kenyon Institute) was needed. Although not a professional archaeologist, Wilkinson had a strong knowledge of the field. He dealt with some administrative problems, renewed the library and facilitated several expeditions.
A fellowship at Dumbarton Oaks research institute in Washington, where he met a scholar from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, led indirectly to a new interest and involvement in the revival of that country’s academic and cultural life in the aftermath of the civil war and against a background of deep poverty.
Among Wilkinson’s many books were Jerusalem Pilgrims before the Crusades (1977), The Jerusalem Jesus Knew (1983) and From Synagogue to Church: the Traditional Design (2002). The General Theological Seminary in New York awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1963.
Towards the end of his life he served, until hindered by ill health, as honorary assistant priest at St Cyprian’s Church, Clarence Gate in Marylebone.
John Wilkinson’s first wife, Alexandra (née Mcfarlane), whom he married in 1966, predeceased him. He is survived by his second wife, Mia, a scholar whom he met in Tbilisi. There we no children of either marriage.
Canon John Wilkinson, born March 28 1929, died January 13 2018