See below for a link to the Service Bulletin
THE VERY REV., THE HON. DR. LOIS MIRIAM WILSON, B.A. D.D. C.C., O.Ont. (née Freeman) Died peacefully, September 13, 2024, at 97 years, with courage, grace, strength, and gratitude for life. Predeceased by her parents; her four siblings, Jean, George, twins, Marjorie and John; and her husband, the Rev. Dr. Roy Fyfe Wilson, with whom she shared in ministry and engaged in a life of extraordinary Christian witness and service. Equals in intelligence, compassion, and steadfast faith, theirs was a loving and mutually uplifting partnership.
Lovingly remembered by children, Ruth (Ian Casson), Jean, Neil (Josée Guérer), and Bruce (Tracy Houlding); grandchildren, Nora, Annie, David, Meg, and Jane Casson; Lois and Murray Adamson; Sarah, Stuart, and Iain Wilson; Evan and Megan Houlding; great-grandchildren, Charlie, Maggie, and Leah; Jasper; Simon and Naomi; Rune and Maxime; Fyfe and Kipp; numerous Freeman and Wilson relatives; and a global community of treasured friends and colleagues.
Born in Winnipeg on April 8, 1927, she was the youngest child of the Rev. E.G.D. and Ada Freeman. The family moved to Thunder Bay, where Lois spent her childhood. When she was in Grade 7, they moved back to Winnipeg, where she attended United College (University of Winnipeg) and became an active member of the Student Christian Movement. Ordained in 1965, she and Roy served in ministry in Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Hamilton, Kingston, and Toronto.
A formidable advocate of social justice and peace, she worked with prodigious energy and irrepressible spirit in pursuit of the common good. Served as Moderator of the United Church of Canada, President of the Canadian Council of Churches, President of the World Council of Churches, independent member of the Senate of Canada, Special Envoy to Sudan, Member of Canada's Nuclear Waste Environmental Assessment Panel, Chancellor of Lakehead University, and in a great many other capacities, locally and globally.
Her engagement with the arts – notably music, theater, literature – she regarded as essential to life. So too was her energizing connection with the natural world. She spent every summer of her life canoeing, on Lake of the Woods, in Quetico Park, where she led canoe trips with youth, and on Lake Superior, as a child tenting with her family and then for over 60 years at Birch Beach (Thunder Bay).
She approached life with openness, humility, and joy, grateful for the privilege of learning with and from others working to make a better world. Lois authored ten books that reflect on her experience. That she chose to celebrate her 85th and 90th birthdays by organizing two public symposia, "an ecumenical conversation" and "an intergenerational dialogue," respectively, speaks to who she was to the end.
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