John Keith Oliver (born 14 April 1935) is a British retired Anglican bishop. He was the 103rd Bishop of Hereford from 1990 to 2003.
Oliver was born on 14 April 1935.[1] He was educated at Westminster and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[2] He has Master of Arts (MA Cantab) and Master of Letters (MLitt) degrees.[3]
He was made a deacon at Michaelmas 1964 (20 September) at Cromer Parish Church[4] and ordained a priest the Michaelmas following (19 September 1965) at Norwich Cathedral, both times by Launcelot Fleming, Bishop of Norwich.[5] After a curacy in Norfolk, he spent a period as chaplain and assistant master at Eton College. Following incumbencies in Devon, he became Archdeacon of Sherborne and Rector of West Stafford in Dorset before being consecrated a bishop on 6 December 1990 at Westminster Abbey. He served in the House of Lords from January 1997 until November 2003 with special responsibility for agricultural and environmental policy. [6] He was succeeded by Anthony Priddis, previously Bishop suffragan of Warwick.[7]
He published one book, The Church and Social Order, 1919 -1939 in 1968.
He married Meriel Moore in 1961; she was the first woman to teach divinity at Eton College and the first woman Reader at Hereford Cathedral. She died in 2014.[8] They had two sons and one daughter; his daughter died in 2002.[9]
Rt Rev John Oliver, Bishop of Hereford, 1990-2003, 76