Village welcomes new prior to the community

Clare Priory has welcomed a new prior to the fold. The Rev Ian Wilson OSA has taken up his new appointment as Prior of Clare.

He succeeds Father David Middleton OSA, who remains parish priest.

Father David has combined both roles at Clare since 2013 and was previously Prior at Clare in 2001-05.

The 61-year-old who comes from Hopeman, in Scotland, joined the Augustinian order at the age of 23, after working in business.

He was a member of the Clare Priory Community in 1985-6, visiting schools and communities throughout the Augustinian Province of England and Scotland as the order’s vocations director.

“This is a happy return for me to the roots of the Augustinian Order in these islands and the rest of the English-speaking world,” said Father Ian.

Father David Middleton said: “We are privileged to have Father Ian at Clare. I thought his roots were for ever bound either to Scotland or to San Gimignano, where he became very much part of the small town.

“When I accompanied Father Ian, it took three quarters of an hour to progress 500 metres up the street.

“While he was there Father Ian helped in the local parish. He was also chaplain for six years to the Misericordia paramedic first-aid team and a volunteer taking people for hospital appointments and responding to emergency calls.”

The Rev Ian Wilson OSA was born on January 9, 1954 and brought up in Hopeman, near Elgin, in the north of Scotland.

From 1965 to 1973 he was a pupil at Austin Friars School in Carlisle founded by the Augustinian Friars.

Father Ian joined the Augustinian order after spending three years as a trainee estate agent.