John Waller (bishop)


John Stevens Waller was an Anglican bishop who served as the seventh Bishop of Stafford, a suffragan bishop of the Diocese of Lichfield.
Waller was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford and served during World War II with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. When peace came, he studied at Peterhouse, Cambridge and Wells Theological College before being ordained: made deacon on Trinity Sunday 1950 and ordained priest the following Trinity Sunday — both times by William Wand, Bishop of London, at St Paul's Cathedral. He began his career with curacies at Hillingdon and Tiverton before incumbencies at Strood and Harpenden. In 1979, he was appointed to the episcopate as Bishop suffragan of Stafford, a post he held for eight years. He was consecrated a bishop on 25 January 1979, by Donald Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, at Westminster Abbey. A man of strong convictions he retired in 1987, becoming an honorary assistant bishop within the Diocese of Bath and Wells.