The Right Rev Maurice Wood was for 14 years an outspoken and forceful Bishop of Norwich. His outlook was conservative and he believed strongly that personal conversion was at the heart of the Christian faith. He was an English ally of the American evangelist Billy Graham and not only introduced him to Cambridge at his 1955 mission but spoke on his platforms in Japan and the United States.

During the war Wood was a Royal Navy chaplain attached to RM Commandos and was awarded the DSC for his courage and energetic care of men on the beaches on D-Day.

His personality, enthusiasm and fluency both on church occasions and in the House of Lords made him a leading figure, especially among traditionalists, both Anglican and Roman Catholic.

Maurice Arthur Wood was born in 1916, and came from an evangelical family. His grandfather and grandmother had toured Ireland in the teetotal interest and were great influences on his life. Wood was educated at Monkton Combe, Queens’ College, Cambridge, and Ridley Hall.

After a London curacy, his notable wartime chaplaincy, time at St Ebbe’s, Oxford, and lslington parish church, he was principal of Oak Hill Theological College in North London, 1961-71. Both at Oak Hill and later in Norfolk his wife Margaret took exemplary care of the families of those who served the Church.

At Norwich from 1971 to 1985, Wood’s confidence and good humour made an impact. He enjoyed being a bishop. He saw simple faith in a scriptural form of Christianity at the core of his work. He brought Graham to Norwich and established “nurture groups” to follow up his converts.

Outside his diocese Wood moved among evangelicals in the councils of the Church. He sat for 31 years in the Assembly and Synod and spoke frequently. He reacted against scholarly evangelical Anglicans such as Bishop John V. Taylor, Archbishop Donald Coggan and Professor Sir Norman Anderson. He felt that the national Church must put before the English people the divine ordinances which God had laid down in the Bible for all mankind. He distrusted the Free Churches as too radical, and thought the moves of Vatican II too liberal and the ordination of women false to biblical teaching on male headship.

Like his mentor, Graham, he progressively gave greater weight to changes in society, theology and culture than at the beginning of his ministry. But his closest colleagues were frustrated by the difficulty of a meeting of the mind with Archbishops Michael Ramsey, Donald Coggan and Robert Runcie.

For Wood the biblical injunctions “Wives be subject to your husbands” and “Let women be silent in church” were not culturally conditioned.

As the years passed he moved on and dropped his joke about the distaste he would feel if his suffragan Bishop of King’s Lynn were ever to sign letters “Vera Lynn”.

Early in his Norwich years Wood accepted an invitation to preach to 8,000 pilgrims at an open-air Mass at Walsingham, breaking the standoff between the diocese and the strongly Anglo-Catholic shrine and becoming the first bishop of Norwich to do so. He ignored hate mail referring to “the whore of Babylon” and a counter-demonstration at the shrine from protesters.

Wood’s sermon referred to the need for face-to-face contact and regretted that in the past the diocese and the shrine had looked at each other from a distance through binoculars. The Bishop had arranged a guard of honour of naval cadets from HMS Ganges and a Cliff Richard event at Norwich Cathedral. He did not wear a mitre or cope but carried a Bible and did his best not to alienate Protestants.

Wood felt that the Established Church should maximise its opportunities both to proclaim the Christian gospel and to raise standards in public life.

He enjoyed the House of Lords, where he spoke alongside traditionalist peers, Anglican and Roman Catholic, opposing more liberal attitudes on sexual issues. He strongly attacked the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and was also seen as a fortress confronting revisionist theology.

To avoid “a sort of guilt by association” he called for the resignation of Dr David Jenkins as Bishop of Durham and also a member of the Lords. In reply Jenkins claimed with some justice that he, too, was “a simple believer”.

In Norfolk he increased the number of lay readers from 120 to 210 and instituted a diocesan course for ordination. Some felt him unwise to sacrifice the country and town groups at a time when loneliness and financial difficulties beset isolated parishes.

He was a very public bishop and enjoyed moving among crowds on the beaches, on the Broads and in his own garden, keeping in touch with very large numbers of individuals through letters and quiet conversation. He was decisive in his policy over appointments. In retirement he wittily promised to talk less. He was widely valued as an engaging and brave Christian bishop, whose diocese responded well to his leadership.

His first wife, Marjorie, predeceased him. He is survived by his second wife, Margaret, four sons and two daughters.

The Right Rev Maurice Wood, DSC, Bishop of Norwich, was born on August 26, 1916. He died on 24 June, 2007 aged 90