A religious leader with close ties to Tayside has been appointed as prior of Clare in Suffolk, the Augustinian friars’ UK mother house.
Father Ian Wilson, 61, from Hopeman near Elgin, joined the Augustinian order at the age of 23, after three years as a trainee estate agent.
In January 1984, he joined the Augustinian parish of St Peter and St Paul in Dundee, where he was ordained as a deacon on March 16 and ordained as a priest six months later.
After service to the church around the world, he returned to the Priory in 1992, spending 10 years as Prior six of those as chaplain to Ninewells Hospital.
He also served in Arbroath and helped out with the Diocese of Dunkeld.
Father Ian is already well-known to members of the parish at Clare Priory and at other Augustinian parishes around the UK who have visited the Augustinian retreat house in San Gimignano, Tuscany.
He was a member of the international Augustinian community there for more than 10 years.
Father David Middleton, who he succeeds as Prior, said: ‘We are privileged to have Father Ian at Clare.
“I thought his roots were forever 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 main street.
“He was very much part of the community.”