Alan Stephen Williams, SM (born 15 March 1951) is an English Roman Catholic prelate and 7th Bishop of Brentwood. He is a member of the Marist Order.
Born in Lancashire in 1951, Alan Williams trained for the priesthood at Allen Hall before which he obtained a Degree in Psychology from Durham University,[1] followed by a PhD in Psychology from London University. He later earned a degree in Theology from the University of Cambridge, and a master's degree in Education from Hull University.
He made his final vows with Society of Mary (Marists) in 1981 and was ordained priest on 30 April 1983 at St Anne’s, Whitechapel. Williams served as a school teacher and as Catholic chaplain to Sheffield Hallam University.[2] He was subsequently parish priest at St Lawrence of Canterbury, Sidcup. He is a former major Superior of the Marist Fathers in England, a post he held from 2000 to 2008.[3] He has also taught Christian Spirituality at postgraduate level. Williams was Appointed Director of the Roman Catholic National Shrine at Walsingham in 2008, where he had overall responsibility for pilgrimage and retreat work. He was appointed the seventh Bishop of Brentwood 14 April 2014 and consecrated on 1 July 2014 by Cardinal Vincent Nichols.[4]
In 2003, in conjunction with the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology, Williams invited Roman Catholics who no longer regularly attended church services to get in touch so that he could listen to their perspectives. The results of his enquiry, researched by Fr Liam Hayes of the Margaret Beaufort Institute, were published in March 2024 under the title "Bishop Alan Listens".[5]
