Jun 22, 2018 4 min read

For 10 years, the Rev. Canon Dr. David Wilson’s work as senior pastor at the Anglican parish of Christ the Redeemer in Canonsburg has extended far beyond delivering Sunday sermons. Even on his days off, he takes calls from parishioners in need of guidance and visits them in the hospital when they take ill.

Now, Wilson is retiring from his position at Christ the Redeemer. Scott Smith, a lay minister at the church who received a visit from Wilson in the hospital last year, said the congregation will miss the minister’s down-to-earth personality and style of preaching.

“David is a very real person,” Smith said. “When you talk to him, he does not come off as holier-than-thou. He’s just like the rest of us and is very happy to share the Gospel and how it saved him.”

Smith chalks up Wilson’s “very real person approach” to ministering to his past experience as a steelworker. Before becoming ordained as a pastor, Wilson also held jobs as a construction worker and as a carpenter.

Wilson said after he “came to Christ” in 1981, he became active as a lay minister. For at least eight years, he attended seminary school part-time at night while working with a missionary agency during the day. This was a busy schedule, but Wilson said he felt called to serve.

After being ordained in 1995, Wilson moved around a number of churches in the surrounding area. But of all the congregations he has preached to, he said the one at Christ the Redeemer “has been No. 1.”

“They are very caring and supportive, very prayerful and mission-minded,” he said. “They’re great people who really want to expand God’s kingdom.”

Wilson originally came to the area to preach at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Peters Township. But in 2012, he and the majority of the congregation left the Episcopal Church to establish Christ the Redeemer, as their beliefs more closely aligned with the teachings of the Anglican Church.

After leaving St. David’s, Smith said many parishioners needed to do some “internal healing,” but Wilson reached out to each congregant individually to guide them through the transition.

Nancy Cain McCombe, a deacon at Christ the Redeemer, said Wilson also did not waste any time in reaching out to the people of Canonsburg and extending the church’s resources to help those in need.

“He jumped in with both feet and let the community know that we’re here,” she said.

Since February 2015, Christ the Redeemer has donated more than 400,000 diapers through its diaper pantry to mothers who hold WIC cards or are on food stamps. These programs offer nutritional assistance to those in need, but do not provide mothers with diapers for their newborns. Since its start, the pantry has branched out to collecting infant and toddler clothes, children’s books, formula and baby food for local mothers.

Wilson also leads a Wednesday Bible study for adult parishioners to allow them to deepen their faith.

McCombe said he helped guide her along a three-year journey to become ordained as a deacon.

“It was through his encouragement and support that I could really discern my call to be a deacon,” she said.

Wilson’s last service will be at 9:30 a.m. July 1 and will be followed by a retirement party in the parish hall.

McCombe said though parishioners are excited to welcome Wilson’s replacement, Eric Rodes, they will feel the loss of the congenial presence of Wilson and his wife, Gale.

“They were a team in what they did for us,” she said. “We’ll miss both of them taking care of us.”